Exploring the Impact of Podcasts on Brand Lift and Audience Engagement
Not all marketing tactics are aimed at an immediate sale. Brand lift is an overall positive shift in your target audience’s interactions and engagement with your brand. Brand lift refers to the positive impact or boost in a brand’s perception and performance as a result of an advertising campaign or specific marketing efforts. It’s a measure of how much more aware, favorable, or intent-driven a target audience is towards the brand after being exposed to the promotional efforts, compared to before. While podcast advertising might be an excellent way to hit those conversion KPIs, branded podcasts are stepping in as a proven, new-wave marketing tool that can bolster your brand in the eye of your target audience — in other words, it’s an effective vehicle for increasing brand lift and prove your ROI.
Here are several ways a branded podcast can increase brand lift:
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Brand Awareness
A podcast allows you to reach a new audience and raise awareness about your brand. By consistently delivering valuable and engaging content related to your brand’s industry or niche, you can capture the attention of potential customers and increase brand recognition. Several studies demonstrate the power of audio marketing. Podcasting is just another branch of those jingles that get stuck in your head.
By the way, studies have also shown that women, in particular, are excellent at brand recognition via auditory delivery. They are an exceptionally strong and somewhat untapped branded podcast market.
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Thought Leadership
Branded podcasts provide an opportunity to establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry. By sharing expert insights, conducting interviews with industry leaders, and discussing relevant topics, you can position your brand as a trusted source of information and expertise. It’s part of something that has been dubbed The Me-Conomy. In today’s world, your audience cares about reputation, values, and leadership. Branded podcasts are a great way to deliver that to them.
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Brand Personality
Podcasts allow you to showcase your brand’s personality, values, and culture more intimately and authentically. Through conversations, storytelling, and engaging discussions, you can create a deeper connection with your audience, fostering brand loyalty and affinity. Branded podcasting is a new way to bring that “show don’t tell” attitude to life, allowing the more subtle aspects of your brand to resonate with your target audience in a meaningful way.
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Engagement and Relationship Building
Podcasts offer a unique platform for engaging with your audience. We’ll even go so far as to say that branded podcast is reinventing brand engagement to resonate with your audience on an emotional level. By encouraging listener feedback, questions, and interactions, you can build a community around your brand and strengthen relationships with your customers. This direct engagement can lead to increased brand loyalty and advocacy. Plus, you get the marketing advantage of learning what works (and what doesn’t) for your target audience. The stats and KPIs of a branded podcast can be exceptionally informative for other marketing campaigns. It also helps you discover where you best target the right audience for your brand.
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Content Marketing
A branded podcast serves as a powerful content marketing tool. Each episode can be repurposed into blog posts, social media snippets, or video content, extending your brand’s reach across multiple channels. This multi-channel approach helps reinforce your brand message and increase its visibility. These days everyone is on the go. We multi-task. We have tiny, powerful computers in the palm of our hands. Thanks to all of the above, podcasting is the perfect medium of content marketing to be on the go with your audience.
While these are a few of the ways a branded podcast can boost brand lift, some essential components go alongside the podcast itself. Those are consistency, creating quality content, and promoting your podcast across various platforms. With those essential pieces, you’ll maximize your branded podcast’s impact and increase brand lift.
How do you measure brand lift?
Jeff Vidler, a leader from Signal Hill Insights, has broken down the science of gauging the brand lift from your podcast.
Let’s dive in:
- Measuring Brand Lift:
- Compare brand metrics between podcast listeners and non-listeners to gauge the brand uplift due to the podcast.
- Keep tabs on media coverage earned by your brand.
- Controlled Exposure Brand Lift Study:
- Conduct a panel survey of pre-screened podcast listeners.
- Divide them into two groups: one listens to the podcast and answers brand-related questions, while the other only answers the questions.
- Engagement Brand Lift Study:
- Survey your listeners through CTAs in the podcast episodes, focusing on brand-specific questions.
- Then, survey a control group of non-listeners, ensuring they demographically mirror your listener group, and ask them the same brand-related questions.
- Engagement Performance Metrics:
- Track the percentage of the episode typically listened to by the audience.
- Monitor Time Spent Listening (TSL) over several episodes.
- Keep an eye on podcast reviews, both on your platform and others.
- Factor in your podcast when conducting the brand’s reputational listening studies.
- Brand Positioning Metrics:
- Integrate questions from your standard Brand Tracking or Brand Affection studies into Brand Lift surveys. This should offer insightful comparisons on brand attributes and even give you a competitive analysis.
- Thought Leadership Engagement Metrics:
- Watch for industry accolades your podcast might receive.
- Monitor the buzz around your podcast episodes on platforms like LinkedIn.
- Keep track of invitations for speaking gigs, interviews, or guest spots stemming from your podcast.
- Document mentions of your brand or podcast in other media outlets.
- Customer Acquisition Metrics:
- Use digital tools to monitor actions listeners take after an episode.
- Guide listeners to specific vanity URLs through CTAs for more insights.
- On inbound queries or purchases, always have “Podcast” as an option when asking “How did you hear about us?”
When it comes to content marketing and a new way to build meaningful relationships with your audience, elevate brand awareness, and demonstrate thought leadership and your brand’s personality, there’s really nothing else that gets it done quite like a powerful, branded podcast.
5 Key Takeaways on Brand Lift Through Podcasting
- Enhanced Brand Awareness: Podcasts can significantly increase brand awareness by reaching new audiences with engaging and valuable content that resonates within your industry or niche.
- Establishment of Thought Leadership: By discussing relevant topics and interviewing industry leaders, your podcast can position your brand as a trusted source of information and an industry leader.
- Deeper Brand Personality Connection: Podcasts allow for a more intimate and authentic representation of your brand’s personality, values, and culture, helping to foster deeper connections with your audience.
- Improved Engagement and Relationship Building: Podcasts create unique opportunities for interaction with your audience, enhancing engagement and fostering a sense of community around your brand.
- Effective Content Marketing Tool: Each podcast episode can be repurposed across multiple platforms as blogs, social media content, and videos, extending your brand’s reach and reinforcing your marketing message.
By: Roger Nairn and Laurissa Cebryk
As the Director of Audience Growth, Liz leads a team of audience growth specialists at JAR, focusing on finding and growing the right audiences for clients. With over a decade of experience in journalism and podcast production, Liz uses data and creativity to create winning strategies. Since joining JAR in 2022, she has integrated audience growth into the production process. Previously, she worked at CBC, Pacific Content, and advised on award-winning podcasts.
