West Shore Chamber of Commerce

Podcasting: Helping Your Business Grow

From pop culture to painting, cooking to consignments, podcasts are a popular and effective way to help your message reach a wider audience. Whether you’re new to this tool or are looking to perfect your strategy, read on to learn more about how podcasting can help your business grow.

What is a Podcast?
A podcast is an episodic web series that people can download and listen to anytime. Because they are typically short, no more than an hour or two, they are easy for people to consume on their daily commute, while doing the dishes, or other hands-free activities. With a podcast, your only limit is your imagination. There are podcasts for every topic under the sun.

Advantages of Podcasting in Business
Using podcasts in business has multiple advantages. It can help you build a relationship with your audience, be a source of revenue, or build brand awareness. It can also increase traffic to your site. We’ll explore each topic more in-depth below.

Building a Relationship/Credibility
Podcast production is an important element of cementing your credibility and building a relationship with your target audience. There are several ways to do this:

  • Appearing on another business podcast as an expert in your field can be a hook to get people to tune into your own podcast for more information.
  • Consider the tone or style of podcast you want to develop: do you want a call-in show where the audience can ask you questions? Interviews with staff members can be a good idea for showcasing the personal side of your brand, especially if you are a small business.
  • The quality of your podcast production will also matter to listeners. Crisp, clear audio recording and transitions between segments all make a difference. With the right audio services, you can enhance your podcast’s sound and build credibility for your brand. Many podcasts are known for their musical breaks or distinctive audio introductions; think NPR. A catchy intro can be a powerful tool for audio branding and create positive associations in listeners’ minds.

Communicating, exceeding expectations, and showing appreciation are all ways to build a relationship with customers in your day-to-day business dealings – and they can apply to your podcast, too. It can be a great space to increase transparency about the day-to-day operations of your business and keep customers aware of what to expect from your brand in the future.

Income Generator
Your podcast can be more than just a relationship builder; it can also be a source of revenue. Here are some possible ways to profit from your podcast:

  • Network, network, network: You might consider partnering with a similar business to expand your reach and target new clients. For example, a hair salon might partner with the spa down the street for an exclusive podcast episode.
  • Increase sales: your podcast can be a powerful promotional tool for the goods and services you offer. Whether it’s for twenty minutes or an hour, you have a captive audience. Consider offering a special discount code at the end of the episode, which will reward loyal listeners, or encourage listeners to visit your business for more information about your services.

A podcast isn’t just a listening platform, it’s also an effective marketing strategy.

Builds Brand Awareness
Brand recognition is so important these days. A podcast can help your business grow by building brand awareness with your listeners. Audio production services can assist with this step, whether you’re looking for a certain type of sound design to go with a specific podcast episode or music editing for the podcast segment interludes.
With podcasts, you can often get the word out about a product launch or business change much faster than with a blog post. You can also increase trust with your customers – people just like hearing other people’s voices, and you can position yourself as an expert in the field with your audio production.

Audio services are an important but often overlooked aspect of the podcast production process. At the movies, we’re familiar with the musical cues that announce the hero, or the clink of metal that accompanies a robot onscreen. Many of these audio recordings are layered in either before or after the movie is edited. You have the same type of flexibility with sound design when it comes to your podcast.

You might choose a sound effect to accompany an announcement for discounts, or another type of music cue. You might also consider using an audio recording that is similar to the voice-overs you use in your TV spots. The sky is truly the limit.

Increase Traffic
A podcast can help your business grow by completing the circle between your online presence and your brick-and-mortar location, if you have one. It’s also a creative way to stand out from the competition: while many businesses have a Twitter or Instagram page, not many can say that they also have a podcast.

Podcast numbers, fact sheet, analysis
Podcasts continue to grow in popularity. Today, about 60% of Americans are aware of the term podcast, while 44% of Americans say they’ve listened to a podcast before. The people that do listen to podcasts are also loyal: 80% of listeners will listen to all or most of a podcast. When creating an audio production like this, you know that you are reaching listeners who are already very likely to engage. Audio production services can take your podcast to the next level.


Q'd Up Audio Services, Inc.Q’d Up is an integrated creative sound studio headquartered in Hershey, PA. We specialize in all things sound and offer a wide range of audio production services.  Whether you’re in need of podcast editing, location recording, sound design, audio post production or any of our multitude of audio services, contact us today to start the conversation.  We guarantee you’ll be happy you did! For more information, call 717-925-0098 or visit www.qd-up.com