Harness the power of podcasting for your brand.

Marketing has a funny way of picking up things that are declared dead — dusting them off and suddenly making the old new again. Beyond the inexplicable resurgence of bucket hats and Marky Mark Wahlberg solidifying himself as a Hollywood leading man, nothing has been entrenched in popular culture during the last decade quite like radio’s evolution into a podcasting and digital-media monolith.

The numbers behind the meteoric rise of podcasts are staggering. There are currently 2 million podcasts floating around on the internet (more than double from just three years ago), with 50 million different episodes to choose from. More important: Nearly 60% of Americans reported listening to at least one podcast in the last year.

If we’re being honest, though, the market is huge but also crowded. Podcasts may offer another medium for you to tell your brand story, but how do you reach and retain that audience so you can actually have your story heard?

10 Words and a Reason to Care.

The easiest way to sink a podcast before it even launches is to weigh it down with a broad formless concept. Often, the core concept for a podcast gets cast aside in favor of smaller details: Who should host? What’s the tone? When do we record? How should we script segments? While all of these vary in degrees of importance, they’re all functionally useless without an unimpeachable North Star to guide your vision. Author and podcast producer Eric Nuzum has a great solution for finding that core concept: Using 10 words or less, describe your podcast in a way that describes nothing else in the world. Throw away the fluff and empty modifiers. Get to the essence of what your podcast is going to be and what will make it special. Keep refining your concept until you get down to something that feels fresh and evocative so you can attract new listeners and have enough substance to keep them around.

Be a Storyteller. Not a Billboard.

One of the things that makes podcasts so unique is that they are passive media. We listen to podcasts while driving to work, filling out spreadsheets and Googling a better chili recipe (a little cocoa powder will really cut the acidity, by the way). People are never just listening to a podcast. This means the cardinal rule of podcasting is simple: You can’t be boring. With 2 million different options, average listeners won’t give you a second chance to win them over. Your show should always offer a potential listener something, whether it’s a good laugh or a fresh perspective, presented in an authentic way. That element of authenticity is crucial. The more your podcast begins to sound like an infomercial instead of a frank and honest conversation, the more likely you are to hemorrhage listeners. Instead of focusing your show on sales conversions, center the podcast on what you can offer by tapping into what makes your brand special and endearing.