Why Isn’t This Blog a Podcast?
Good question. I should turn this blog into a podcast some day, but since this is for readers (and people like short copy now) it is only enough words for a blog and not nearly enough for a great podcast.
But what about podcasts? I personally love them and have listed my favorites at the end of this blog (you can tell I’m a big fan of Steven Dubner).
The podcast market is a rapidly growing market (Source: Podcast Insight.com):
- 44% of US population has listened to a podcast
- 49% of listening is done at home/22% of listening is done in the car
- 26% of US population listens monthly
- 45% of monthly podcast listeners have household income over $75k
- 27% of podcast listeners have a 4-year college degree
The main advantage of podcasting is the hyper-targeting and high quality message delivery. You may not get huge audiences, but the engagement is deep and meaningful with the listener. Podcasts also provide SEO benefits and help you develop flexible content that can be used for social media and blogs.
If you are going to start a podcast, here are few considerations:
- You need a catchy name and high quality cover art. People will judge your podcast first by how your podcast cover looks, so make it professional.
- You need to sound polished and that requires a good open and a professional voice-over.
- Don’t wing it. Script out the show to keep it tight, as short as possible and avoid dead air.
- Feature other guests on your show. One person talking can get boring fast.
- Transcribe shows so you can use the content for other outlets.
The real key is you must market your podcast, just like every other media outlet. Promoting on social media and through email campaigns can help you reach your key target markets. There are thousands of podcast sitting in cyberspace just waiting for an audience.
Here are my favorite podcasts. They are so well produced you may not want to start a podcast, but just like blogs, you’ll never know until you try.
- Revisionist History, Malcolm Gladwell
- Question of the Day, James Altucher and Steven Dubner
- Freakonomics Radio, Steven Dubner
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle. After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant. He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.” Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.” One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board. Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.
