INFLUENCERS AND PODCASTS: FIVE STEPS TO SUCCESS

As an influencer, your platforms are predicated on your expertise, whether that is as a stylist, an artist, a comedian, or an activist. Your curation is what has built an audience in the first place, the same reason that an audience buys trusts into what you recommend. This expertise is essential to transmit when you want to start a podcast – and as with all other channels, once that trusts is built the next logical step is to begin to monetise it, with well paired partnerships and recommendations.

As it stands, podcast adverts are generally viewed as a branding exercise, another way to disseminate messaging awareness because (for the moment at least) podcasts aren’t usually set up to drive sales conversions. It’s largely impossible to put a fix return to an audio concept, meaning it’s often more challenging for brands who are firmly ROI driven to rationalise it as a worthy investment. Until very recently, it’s really been a race to the bottom, with companies like Squarespace or The Economist adopting a “spray-and-pray” attitude to audio advertising – sponsoring the advertising breaks of many of the larger podcast series.

But the potential rewards go can be so much deeper than an exercise in brand promotion… and the stats are really compelling.

Over 7 million people in the UK are weekly podcast listeners listen to podcasts every week, and this is growing year-on-year.
The greatest segment of podcast consumers falls between the ages of 25-34, an attractive age demographic to many brands looking to prompt sales through influencer marketing.
It’s one of very few new-media concepts where the male audience % overtakes the female. More men than women are currently active podcast listeners – a reversal of the dynamic we tend to see on social media platforms.

All of these factors make an exciting case to encourage influencers to expand into podcasts. It’s not a brand-new idea, and we already have some interesting case studies to explore of how brands are using audio in their influencer marketing strategies.

Case Study: Laura Jackson x Liz Earle

Laura recently worked with skincare brand Liz Earle on a campaign to promote their Skin Repair range. In addition to an Instagram post (here), she also featured an advert on her podcast, HOSTEing Laura Jackson. Many of her listeners will have come across the campaign on Instagram, so gives a well-rounded view of Laura as a fan of Liz Earle’s products, and their ethical values. These repeat mentions (or in marketing terms “purchase funnel”) inevitably consolidate Laura’s authentic relationship with Liz Earle.

(Find the episode here if you want to hear Laura in action.)

We are all being way more thoughtful about our cultural choices at the moment. Whether that be going vegan for a month, avoiding fur, or opting for plastic-free veggies at the supermarket (shout out to my husband being a vegetarian his whole life!) but Liz Earle has always been way ahead of the curve (even more so than my husband) … All of Liz Earle’s products are approved under the cruelty-free international ‘Leaping Bunny’ programme, so if you want to extend your cruelty-free mindset then head over to LizEarle.com and put in LAURA15 at the checkout to receive an exclusive 15% discount. Yes please!

It reads like a typical Instagram caption… but the inflection and attitude that hearing Laura execute the advert in her own voice is undeniably a key selling point. Unlike Instagram users, podcast listeners are an extremely captive audience. There is no scrolling to the next with a podcast – audiences are invested in the influencer, and the influencer alone, for the length of the episode. By tuning in, they are already showing a commitment to the content, and to sticking around to listen.

But this example is unique, in the same way that any brand/influencer relationship must be unique, so if you’re starting from scratch, you’re in the right place. Read on for our advice to influencers wanting to start out in podcasting, and for brands keen to follow them there.

How to Make Podcasts Work as an Influencer

1. Apply Your Usual Social Media Principles

Just because the podcasting landscape isn’t as saturated as other platforms, doesn’t mean that the same principles don’t apply – you still need to tell your story, identify your audience and define your content. Whether you want to focus on purpose-driven messaging around a certain subject (your experience as a mother, model or marketeer) or a more general discussion of life as you experience it week-by-week, you need a niche to differentiate your podcast.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but make it a priority to explore what you want to bring to the podcasting landscape, and make sure your offering is as unique as you are.

2. Discover New Audiences, But Don’t Forget Your Existing Followers

There’s no need to consider your podcast as starting totally from scratch – you already have a following that are invested in what you have to say, so it’s worth working hard to migrate followers over. Podcast listeners as a whole are more active on social media than your average person, so consider your content streams as co-existing.

That said, don’t be afraid to introduce yourself to your newly discovered podcast audience. While you may have shared the things that make you individual on your Instagram, take advantage of the long-form nature of podcasts to share more in-depth, nuanced takes.

Also, don’t forget that a large part of the reason you will have that initial following is because listeners want to get to know you. Consider what you are willing to share on this platform, and make sure you are giving something that separates your podcast from your other content.

3. Play the Long Game

Digital audio content can become a long-term, evergreen resource that attracts waves of listeners as long as you continue to drive listeners there. Unlike Instagram, where the lifespan of a post can be as little as a couple of hours, podcasts can continue to rack up listens so long as audiences can discover them and the subject matter remains relevant. It’s important to be mindful of this when planning on your episodes and features.

If you are adding a podcast to an already brimming content roster, then use your resources wisely and consider creating a podcast series that listeners will want to revisit and won’t date quickly. Interviews work well for this reason – pop culture and podcasts are deeply intertwined so introduce your audience to the people and things that matter to you. It’s likely they’ll resonate with your listeners as well.

Additionally, make sure it’s something you can continue to deliver. Once the expectation is set for your audience, you don’t want to leave them hanging. Listener numbers you share with brands also need to be dependable to prove the worth of working with you. As with every content channel, the key to podcasts is consistency.

4. Uncover a New Outlet for Your Content

Podcasts tend to be engaged with at times when listeners can’t access social media platforms – while travelling, driving or at work – so you can potentially capture their attention at moments when your other content wouldn’t reach them.

With that in mind, it’s crucial to define what content you share where, and what sits naturally within your podcast. Long-form storytelling, whether personal anecdotes or interviews, are naturally suited to audio. Save the bite-sized content for social media and diversify your features to suite the medium and show how much you have to offer to audiences. Also, it seems obvious but remember, listeners can’t see you! So as you grow a following independent of your social media channels’ followings remember that they may not know what you look like so recommendations around clothing or beauty may need a deeper explanation rather than, “this fits me really well” or “this works well on my skin.”

5. Monetising Your Podcast

Ultimately, your goal is likely to be monetising the work that you’re doing on your podcast. In the world of audio, influencers are actually starting at an advantage here – if you’re looking to add a podcast to your paid content arsenal then you’re probably working with brands on your other channels, which already have engaged audiences that are hungry for your content.

As a jumping off point, we would suggest integrating podcast ads as part of your wider brand collaborations – ultimately it’s a way to introduce your brand partners to the podcast when it’s relatively young, and establish yourself as bringing your listeners news of products and resources that will serve them, as well as your work as a brand ambassador (as Laura Jackson has done). Remember that brand partnerships and podcasts can still take different forms: individual episodes, spot campaigns, series sponsorships, even inviting a brand spokesperson or founder on your podcast. Work out what makes sense for your series and go from there.

If you’re starting from scratch, then equipping yourself with as much information about your audience as possible is crucial. In an influencer economy when brands are becoming more savvy about metrics to measure success, if you can show that you have a dedicated audience that consistently engage with your digital audio content, it’s a very persuasive case to share with prospective partners. A performance-centric mindset is essential when monetising is the goal.

Ultimately, unless a podcast is directly affiliated with a brand (which brings its own particular set of benefits and challenges) listeners aren’t tuning in to be sold to, so branded adverts are going to come in second place to the content itself. Making adverts feel as native as possible will help mitigate this.

How Brands Can Integrate Podcasts into Influencer Strategy

Influencer-led podcasts are an opportunity to bring your brand to potential fans and consumers, whether as a stand-alone activation or an extra prong of a campaign.
As with all influencer integrations, relationships should be carefully chosen and cultivated. At the planning stage, request as much data as an influencer or agent can provide about their ‘model listener’, how their audiences cross-pollinate between platforms, and how previous brand deals have performed. We are still in testing stages when it comes to podcasts so be prepared to ask questions.

Calculating EMV of podcast ads is more challenging than other platforms, but if you consider the ‘listens’ as your reach and establish other metrics to record traffic then it’s a simple adjustment. Make sure to include other trackable sale elements so you can quantify back-end data as deeply as possible. Tethering to a specific campaign would also allow you to track the effect of featuring on a podcast more accurately.

The nature of audio content means no dependency on the visual elements of an ad to impress an audience. Without those cues for engagement, listeners concentrate on other elements, a challenge at which an influencer can thrive. While it can feel like a struggle to strip back the messaging, letting an influencer interpret the most compelling narrative of your campaign is really valuable. Make sure you give them everything you can to best articulate the strengths of your brand.

The adverts produced by the likes of Squarespace show that audio is a valuable niche to be mined, and if you can work cleverly within the confines of a podcast, then it’s a worthwhile opportunity to expand your influencer strategy.

Ultimately when executed well, podcasts are an asset for influencers, so long as the content feels compelling. But with Netflix, Spotify and YouTube expanding into native podcasts, they’re not going away anytime soon. We’re told that we’re currently in the ‘golden age of podcasts’, and we’re excited to see influencers continue topping the charts.