34% of marketers plan to stop using podcasts in the year 2022.

The major obstacles that marketers still face are likely to be the reason for it. The biggest challenges and strategies are discussed by two experts.

Organic Discoverability

You can either search for top-ranking podcasts in different genres or get recommendations based on what you already listen to.

Lesser-known shows are hard to discover organically.

Alanah Joseph, head of creator partnerships on the HubSpotPodcast team, says it's hard for podcastsers who are great creators to figure out ways to get in front of their audience.

Joseph says our network addresses this by leaning into our cross-promotion strategy and placing ads across shows in our network.

She says that instead of going out and trying to find new audiences, they are sharing the audiences that they already have. Because we have a community, and we can use that ad inventory.

Some brands can't go this route. If you have access to a large ad budget, you will be able to use paid advertising to reach your audience.

In order to tackle discoverability, short-term strategies will most often be paid media, such as promoting on a podcasts player or running Facebook ads. These plays usually give good results, but won't be sticky.

Cross-posting on multiple channels is one of the tactics used. Many podcasters post the video version of their content to broaden their reach and get an increase in search engine rankings.

It is easy to discover on social media. Direct traffic to your series is possible there, as well as building a community there.

Over time, if done well, these types of organic growth strategies will give you a lot more control over your distribution.

Helping with discoverability can be done by growing a community. It is possible to build a network of people who can share their audiences with you if you attend podcasting events.

Being a guest on another show with your audience in line with yours can be very valuable for brands.

She says that the audience gets to meet you, learn about you, and understand why you have a show. Retention and loyalty are important for all of those things.

In order to serve as a growth lever, you need to have a compelling message and an inviting call to action.

Promoting, marketing, audience building, and community development are all growth mechanisms that need different approaches. They need a different set of expectations and return on investment.

Data Insights

Data is our main source of income as a marketer. It gives us a lot of information about our audience. Data insights are limited with the use of podcasts.

When it comes to tracking and reporting, the biggest issue is that you can't accept cookies.

This means that marketers are limited in how much information they can gather on their audience.

Typically, what you get is the following.

  • Geolocation
  • Listens (unique listens, average listening time, etc)
  • Subscriber count and trends
  • Downloads (total downloads, average downloads, etc)

Joseph says that you have to collect data from a lot of different sources.

The missing piece of data is the demographic of the audience. Building out a strong social media presence is more important than ever.

It is possible to discover a person's title, identify where they are in their career, and why they are tuning into your show from Linkedin.

Joseph thinks that tech is catching up with the world of podcasting.

She says there is a lot of innovation right now and a lot of people are developing cool technology to support this large group of creators. Some of these things will be solved.

Diversity in Voices

The industry as a whole is affected by this challenge.

There is still a lot of work to be done in regards to the diversity of voices.

How do I create a network that's reflective of the American workforce was the biggest challenge she faced.

In the business genre, top-ranking shows are not led byBIPOC creators. You want to have strong shows but you also want to make sure they are balanced in representation.

She wants more women and people of color to rise to the top of the charts. We are trying to work through that and have been for a while.

As platforms and search engines catch up to this flourishing industry, there are still a lot of challenges. There are many ways for brands to reach their target audience.

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The story was originally published on September 19th, but was updated on September 19th.