YoY Growth of Podcasting & What It Means for B2B Marketers

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.140 --> 00:00:00.350 Mhm 2 00:00:04.840 --> 00:00:10.010 Welcome back to BBB Growth. I'm dan Sanchez, Friends call me dan says. And 3 00:00:10.020 --> 00:00:13.830 as the director of Audience Growth, that Sweet fish Media and a co host of 4 00:00:13.830 --> 00:00:18.210 this podcast, I wanted to give you guys an update of what's going on in the 5 00:00:18.210 --> 00:00:24.580 world of podcasting and then talk about how and why it matters to B two B 6 00:00:24.580 --> 00:00:28.120 marketers. Now, you gotta remember, I'm the director of audience growth for a 7 00:00:28.120 --> 00:00:32.920 podcast agency, Sweet Fish Media, the company behind me to be growth. And so 8 00:00:32.920 --> 00:00:35.710 I'm constantly paying attention to what's going on in the world of 9 00:00:35.710 --> 00:00:39.660 podcasting make sense, right? It's kind of my world. I I read all the news and 10 00:00:39.670 --> 00:00:44.360 try to digest it and make sense of it for for what I do here at Sweet Fish 11 00:00:44.360 --> 00:00:48.490 Media, if not just for ourselves in the show, but for all of our customers. But 12 00:00:48.490 --> 00:00:52.020 I know a number of listeners out there have a podcast who are thinking about 13 00:00:52.020 --> 00:00:57.450 starting a podcast. So if that's you, this is a great episode is to stay 14 00:00:57.450 --> 00:01:01.600 tuned into. So here's some of the headlines have caught me even just this 15 00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:09.110 morning, but in recent days, um, one Spotify podcasting, listening is up 30% 16 00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:14.850 year over year as and it's been increasing substantially and steadily 17 00:01:14.850 --> 00:01:18.090 year over year. One thing that I'm always paying attention to as a 18 00:01:18.090 --> 00:01:22.250 marketer is what comes in fast and what comes in slow, if you guys remember, 19 00:01:22.250 --> 00:01:26.240 not long ago, clubhouse came in super fast. At first, it was like one week we 20 00:01:26.240 --> 00:01:30.680 were like, what the heck is clubhouse to? How do I get an invite to? I'm on 21 00:01:30.680 --> 00:01:34.330 clubhouse all the time. And then what? And then it died right? So like 22 00:01:34.330 --> 00:01:40.150 sometimes fast in means fast out. What's more interesting is to see slow 23 00:01:40.150 --> 00:01:45.280 and steady growth, even large, steady growth that we're having to see in 24 00:01:45.280 --> 00:01:50.510 podcasting. Um, but it's not coming in the matter of weeks, it's not coming in 25 00:01:50.510 --> 00:01:55.280 a matter of months, it's coming in the matter of years. Um And that matters 26 00:01:55.290 --> 00:01:59.640 because I mean I obviously want to see and have a vested interest in seeing 27 00:01:59.640 --> 00:02:04.290 this industry grow, but I don't want to see it grow too fast because Easy in 28 00:02:04.390 --> 00:02:11.080 easy out In other news, Spotify. Um with that Spotify ad revenue jumped 29 00:02:11.090 --> 00:02:17.820 627% in the last quarter, which is just ridiculous, like one from one quarter 30 00:02:17.820 --> 00:02:21.770 to another, it's jumped that much. I mean if you have been listening to some 31 00:02:21.770 --> 00:02:23.990 of these shows and I've been following me on linkedin, you know, I've been 32 00:02:23.990 --> 00:02:27.110 talking about how Spotify has been buying up everything when it comes to 33 00:02:27.110 --> 00:02:30.520 podcasting. They've been buying up tech, they've been buying up ad platforms 34 00:02:30.520 --> 00:02:36.180 have been buying up uh show networks as well as individual shows like joe 35 00:02:36.180 --> 00:02:40.850 Rogan's and Call Me Daddy just recently this week. Um, they are buying up all 36 00:02:40.850 --> 00:02:44.340 kinds of inventory, right? They're buying up all the small players, the 37 00:02:44.340 --> 00:02:47.690 medium sized players and the massive players when it comes to podcasting and 38 00:02:47.690 --> 00:02:52.030 all the tech to go with it, to try to build their own ecosystem naturally. 39 00:02:52.030 --> 00:02:57.660 This is a big deal for them because audio ad revenue makes up most of their 40 00:02:58.040 --> 00:03:02.490 a huge chunk, at least of their revenue, Right? And the other one comes from 41 00:03:02.490 --> 00:03:06.510 paid subscriptions. So being able to boost up the ad revenue on all these 42 00:03:06.510 --> 00:03:11.180 podcasts, all the podcast listening is massive for them, which is why they're 43 00:03:11.180 --> 00:03:15.510 starting to take over the podcasting space away from Apple where podcasting 44 00:03:15.510 --> 00:03:19.620 just makes up a tiny fraction of their overall ecosystem. Spotify is going 45 00:03:19.620 --> 00:03:23.100 after a hard and they're reaping the rewards now. They're starting to 46 00:03:23.100 --> 00:03:26.540 harvest all that effort, all the investment they put into it. They're 47 00:03:26.540 --> 00:03:30.010 starting to earn back. I'm sure they will take them a long time to earn back 48 00:03:30.010 --> 00:03:33.600 all the acquisitions they've made. But They're betting big on that. Turning 49 00:03:33.600 --> 00:03:38.900 back over the next 10-20 years. Uh NBA just to start it, decided to partner 50 00:03:38.900 --> 00:03:44.460 with I Heart Radio in order to launch a series of podcasts around basketball. 51 00:03:44.460 --> 00:03:48.410 So they're going to bring their archives of audio clips and I Heart 52 00:03:48.410 --> 00:03:50.700 Radio and then we're gonna work on a bunch of podcast together. Which is 53 00:03:50.700 --> 00:03:54.550 just exciting that major brands are getting into this game. Um but when it 54 00:03:54.550 --> 00:03:58.100 comes to the N. B. A. Instead of launching their own, they probably 55 00:03:58.100 --> 00:04:00.990 using I Heart Radio is like a distribution channel in order to get it 56 00:04:00.990 --> 00:04:04.310 out in front of people. Since I, Heart Radio is the largest podcast network at 57 00:04:04.310 --> 00:04:05.260 least in the U. S. 58 00:04:06.340 --> 00:04:11.460 So what does this mean for B. Two B. Marketers? All this energy around 59 00:04:11.470 --> 00:04:17.510 podcasting. Well as you know marketers we have to pay attention to where the 60 00:04:17.510 --> 00:04:22.300 attention is right which is why B. Two B. Marketers generally got behind the 61 00:04:22.300 --> 00:04:25.620 times when they weren't paying attention to social right? That started 62 00:04:25.630 --> 00:04:29.790 slowly happening. Remember even in my career 10 years ago I remember the 63 00:04:29.790 --> 00:04:33.460 first time I had the role title of social media manager and people were 64 00:04:33.460 --> 00:04:37.360 like wait what you get paid to play on twitter all day, this is like 11 years 65 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:42.100 ago and I was like uh well I'm not playing but yes I am on twitter all day 66 00:04:42.100 --> 00:04:48.340 and facebook right? There comes a time when like attention starts to change 67 00:04:48.350 --> 00:04:52.600 and our audiences attention is changing and so we have to pay attention to what 68 00:04:52.600 --> 00:04:55.550 they're paying attention to because that's where we want to show up as 69 00:04:55.550 --> 00:05:00.920 brands is showing up in front of them. Hopefully in a way that's uh not just 70 00:05:00.930 --> 00:05:04.110 interrupting them with our message, but in a way that's interesting and 71 00:05:04.110 --> 00:05:07.680 compelling that captivates and polls their attention into something that's 72 00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:11.530 worthwhile for them and we need to pay attention to that because that's 73 00:05:11.540 --> 00:05:17.360 podcasting is increasingly where more and more of our audiences attention is 74 00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:21.330 going and I don't just say that to push for sweet fish media and our podcasting 75 00:05:21.330 --> 00:05:24.210 services, I'm telling you this. So you can, I mean you don't have to go as 76 00:05:24.210 --> 00:05:28.180 sweet as you can start your own podcast. Like it doesn't cost very much money to 77 00:05:28.180 --> 00:05:33.430 throw up a podcast on anchor or sounder, which is my preferred podcasting host. 78 00:05:33.440 --> 00:05:38.210 Um they're, they're freemium plans. Like you can get started and record a 79 00:05:38.210 --> 00:05:41.480 podcast, just grab an $80 microphone. That's really all it takes to make it 80 00:05:41.480 --> 00:05:47.290 sound decent and start recording on. I don't know, I use a $5 Mac app that I'm 81 00:05:47.290 --> 00:05:50.990 recording with this with right now and I just go in quickly edit it myself. I 82 00:05:50.990 --> 00:05:54.150 do throw it to my team but it would be good enough to publish by itself even 83 00:05:54.150 --> 00:05:57.610 without an intro and outro just to kind of give updates like the one I'm giving 84 00:05:57.610 --> 00:06:03.170 right now. It really isn't that hard. You can do it now. Of course, some 85 00:06:03.170 --> 00:06:06.560 people like more help and that's where sweet fish comes in, but there's so 86 00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:10.410 many different ways to win when it comes to podcasting and since more and 87 00:06:10.410 --> 00:06:14.430 more attention is going there, it's worth looking into. Is your audience 88 00:06:14.430 --> 00:06:18.690 there? Are they listening? Um, have you asked them recently what kind of media 89 00:06:18.690 --> 00:06:22.490 they're consuming, Worth it worth asking? The other big take away I have 90 00:06:22.490 --> 00:06:26.320 from this is a big one, and I'm going to be talking about this a lot in the 91 00:06:26.320 --> 00:06:32.150 future. Like this might be a big, a big part of big segment of BdB growth. Is 92 00:06:32.150 --> 00:06:38.870 that the future of media is owned? This is my own personal prediction. Um, but 93 00:06:38.870 --> 00:06:43.150 as you're seeing where the investment of all these massive tech companies are 94 00:06:43.150 --> 00:06:47.990 going, you can see more and more of them investing in owning their own 95 00:06:47.990 --> 00:06:52.080 media. You remember where they were before, right? Like amazon was the 96 00:06:52.080 --> 00:06:56.030 biggest buyer of Adwords was one of the biggest buyers of facebook ads, right? 97 00:06:56.040 --> 00:07:00.310 Because paid media was a massive game. But I'm slowly starting to see even the 98 00:07:00.310 --> 00:07:05.560 big guys shift a lot of their attention and their ad doll or their their 99 00:07:05.560 --> 00:07:10.100 budgets over to owning their own media. Right? I mean, it's obvious was Spotify 100 00:07:10.100 --> 00:07:14.030 they're buying out shows right and left. But look at amazon, they're buying out 101 00:07:14.040 --> 00:07:19.450 whole movies networks. I mean they're looking at purchasing MGM right, buying 102 00:07:19.450 --> 00:07:23.610 the rights, The Lord of the Rings, buying out shows and buying whole 103 00:07:23.610 --> 00:07:27.140 newspapers like The Wall Street Journal. Right? So amazon's making massive 104 00:07:27.140 --> 00:07:30.420 investments. Apple is trying to build out its own shows to compete with 105 00:07:30.420 --> 00:07:36.270 netflix. A lot of these big companies are investing in owned media. Youtube 106 00:07:36.280 --> 00:07:39.120 makes just as much money now as netflix 107 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:45.320 and that's kind of a user generated content play. But they have an ad or an 108 00:07:45.320 --> 00:07:50.760 ad and like a uh pay system to incentivize creators to get over there 109 00:07:50.760 --> 00:07:55.160 to make content right. Facebook Snapchat are now getting that game to 110 00:07:55.160 --> 00:07:57.950 where they're trying to incentivize creators to come make content on their 111 00:07:57.950 --> 00:08:04.390 platforms. Because having the content and the attention with it is what's 112 00:08:04.500 --> 00:08:09.940 starting to control the game. It's no longer just being able to buy your way 113 00:08:09.940 --> 00:08:15.690 into it. It's about luring people in with great content so that you can have 114 00:08:15.700 --> 00:08:19.830 their attention or own their attention at least for the time that you're there, 115 00:08:19.830 --> 00:08:24.420 subscribed or watching. Or you can incentivize them to come back all those 116 00:08:24.420 --> 00:08:24.820 things 117 00:08:26.540 --> 00:08:30.480 introducing go to market excellence, the podcast that bisects the innovative 118 00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:34.090 tools and data driven strategies that give forward thinking leaders and edge 119 00:08:34.090 --> 00:08:38.190 in today's market. On this show, you'll hear interviews with revenue leader 120 00:08:38.200 --> 00:08:41.919 from dan pork head of marketing? S scale matters whether you're looking 121 00:08:41.919 --> 00:08:45.520 for best practices for building data models, choosing your go to market tech 122 00:08:45.520 --> 00:08:49.510 stack or simply want to learn how other leaders find success. You've come to 123 00:08:49.510 --> 00:08:54.130 the right place. Don't believe me, hear it for yourself. You can kind of look 124 00:08:54.130 --> 00:09:00.560 at it as functional in terms of what does this, what is the C. R. O. 125 00:09:00.560 --> 00:09:06.100 Ultimately supposed to be responsible for? Obviously revenue? The word is in 126 00:09:06.100 --> 00:09:12.700 there, but it can take different shapes and informs for more subscribe to the 127 00:09:12.700 --> 00:09:16.530 show wherever you listen to podcasts, let's get back into the show. Another 128 00:09:16.530 --> 00:09:21.240 big trend that I'm seeing that is pushing more and more people to pursue 129 00:09:21.240 --> 00:09:26.050 a more aggressive owned media strategy is just the decrease in the 130 00:09:26.050 --> 00:09:30.420 effectiveness of paid media, right? I feel like I've made my career on the 131 00:09:30.420 --> 00:09:34.500 back of paid media first with google ads. I killed it on google ads and then 132 00:09:34.500 --> 00:09:37.530 with facebook ads, once they started dropping ads in the news feed, man, I 133 00:09:37.530 --> 00:09:41.580 was like one of the first ones in there listening to Ryan Deiss talk about how 134 00:09:41.580 --> 00:09:46.020 to configure things and optimizing and trying out different audiences and all 135 00:09:46.020 --> 00:09:50.780 the different ways. You can do video ads and retargeting and lead forms and 136 00:09:50.780 --> 00:09:55.510 all this kind of stuff, I made my career off of it. But In doing so over 137 00:09:55.510 --> 00:09:58.190 the last 10 years I've certainly noticed it becoming less effective. I 138 00:09:58.190 --> 00:10:03.590 know others have noticed it too. So with like with advertising especially 139 00:10:03.600 --> 00:10:09.360 strong paid social and search ads becoming more and more expensive, 140 00:10:10.140 --> 00:10:13.520 people are looking at how to diversify a little bit more for an increasing 141 00:10:13.520 --> 00:10:17.110 because it's becoming more and more expensive and where I'm looking at it 142 00:10:17.110 --> 00:10:20.160 knowing it's going to become more expensive five years from now. So to 143 00:10:20.160 --> 00:10:24.140 offset the risk of that, like sweet fish of course is big on owned media, 144 00:10:24.140 --> 00:10:28.390 but even in past companies and other companies that I kind of consult and 145 00:10:28.390 --> 00:10:32.970 work with customers, we're looking at owned media to offset that owned media 146 00:10:32.980 --> 00:10:36.210 is the way you can keep in touch with your customers, build something they 147 00:10:36.210 --> 00:10:41.920 want to consume. And I have a lot of ideas on how to make do owned media 148 00:10:41.930 --> 00:10:45.340 differently and better than before. There's a lot of ideas out there 149 00:10:45.350 --> 00:10:50.540 because it's a big topic. I just wanted to tease it today because of podcasting, 150 00:10:50.550 --> 00:10:54.290 podcasting is probably one of my favorite ways of building an owned 151 00:10:54.300 --> 00:11:01.770 media channel. Now, it's not quite as pure as maybe a email or an sms or 152 00:11:01.770 --> 00:11:05.080 maybe even a direct mail, right? Where you have their contact information and 153 00:11:05.080 --> 00:11:10.630 its platform agnostic, right? You can, you can, you can change your tech, you 154 00:11:10.630 --> 00:11:14.760 can change your crm, but the information generally stays the same. 155 00:11:14.770 --> 00:11:17.600 You can keep sending that same email, whether you're on mail, chimp or 156 00:11:17.600 --> 00:11:22.380 marcato, right? Um versus with podcasting, if they unsubscribe from 157 00:11:22.380 --> 00:11:24.870 Apple, it's kind of like, well you you lose track of them, you don't actually 158 00:11:24.870 --> 00:11:29.500 get to own the relationship, but it's still a one, you still have them bought 159 00:11:29.500 --> 00:11:33.750 into subscribing to your content and it's not controlled by the algorithm, 160 00:11:33.750 --> 00:11:36.760 like it is, if I post on linkedin, there might be a connection of mine, 161 00:11:36.760 --> 00:11:39.960 but the algorithm might say these connections don't get to see your post 162 00:11:39.970 --> 00:11:43.630 in podcasting, they still get access to every single one. So there's 163 00:11:43.630 --> 00:11:48.040 differences between different types of owned media, but podcasting is pretty 164 00:11:48.040 --> 00:11:51.650 close to what I call the pure owned media, which is your typical email, 165 00:11:51.650 --> 00:11:54.480 text, message, and phone number, address, all that kind of stuff. And 166 00:11:54.480 --> 00:11:59.660 because the attention is going there increasingly, it is just a fun placed 167 00:12:00.340 --> 00:12:04.900 to be. Even now some of you are listening to this, it makes a lot of 168 00:12:04.900 --> 00:12:10.280 sense right? Because podcasts are easy and fun to consume. You can listen to 169 00:12:10.280 --> 00:12:13.820 it at different speeds. I no, I listen to all mine at two X. You can consume 170 00:12:13.820 --> 00:12:18.980 it passively while you're commuting, jogging, doing laundry, whatever and 171 00:12:18.990 --> 00:12:22.490 you can binge lots of things all at once and you put it in a queue, it's 172 00:12:22.490 --> 00:12:26.160 kind of like how are subscribing to rss used to be before google killed it, 173 00:12:26.440 --> 00:12:29.550 right? You can have everything collected that you want to see without 174 00:12:29.550 --> 00:12:32.680 you having to go and actively checked the website again to see if they've 175 00:12:32.680 --> 00:12:36.420 updated it. It just kind of shows up in your preferred player or a place where 176 00:12:36.420 --> 00:12:40.880 you subscribe to podcast with the most recent episodes. It's a great, great 177 00:12:40.880 --> 00:12:44.650 medium and that's why, or a few of the reasons why people are consuming more 178 00:12:44.650 --> 00:12:49.970 and more of it. So if you are looking at it now is a great time to look at 179 00:12:49.970 --> 00:12:53.190 podcasting. I'm predicting that it's going to continue to grow over the next 180 00:12:53.200 --> 00:12:56.740 10 years, even just based on the massive acquisitions, these major 181 00:12:56.740 --> 00:12:59.560 companies, they don't make massive acquisitions, so they think they can 182 00:12:59.560 --> 00:13:02.680 earn all their money back in one year. They're looking at a ten-year payback 183 00:13:02.680 --> 00:13:07.150 period. They're looking at seeing where these things can put them in the long 184 00:13:07.150 --> 00:13:12.430 term. So we're hoping to ride that wave with them. The question is, will you 185 00:13:12.430 --> 00:13:15.950 get to ride the wave with them? Will you be early enough on podcasting? Do? 186 00:13:16.340 --> 00:13:21.390 Uh so is seed. So when it becomes increasingly competitive, you're 187 00:13:21.390 --> 00:13:27.500 already 50 100 200 episodes in and have found your voice have tested and tried 188 00:13:27.500 --> 00:13:31.250 different things to know exactly what your audience wants to listen to. Are 189 00:13:31.250 --> 00:13:35.600 you going to start plant that seed now? Are you going to wait until it's fairly 190 00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:39.040 competitive to get started? Like it is on Youtube and I actually think now 191 00:13:39.040 --> 00:13:43.930 still a good time to get started in Youtube. Um at least for me to see, 192 00:13:43.930 --> 00:13:47.550 still still would be really early for me to be, but that's a different topic 193 00:13:47.550 --> 00:13:51.890 for another episode. Thanks for listening to be to be growth. If you 194 00:13:51.890 --> 00:13:55.980 liked this episode and you like hearing updates on BBB podcasting, let me know. 195 00:13:55.990 --> 00:14:01.500 Find me at linkedin dot com slash i N slash digital marketing dan. And I love 196 00:14:01.500 --> 00:14:05.950 to connect and hear from all listeners. So connect with me on linkedin 197 00:14:09.440 --> 00:14:13.610 is the decision maker for your product or service at BBB marketer. Are you 198 00:14:13.610 --> 00:14:17.820 looking to reach those buyers through the medium of podcasting? Considered 199 00:14:17.820 --> 00:14:23.040 becoming a co host of GDP growth? This show is consistently ranked as a top 200 00:14:23.040 --> 00:14:27.190 100 podcast in the marketing category of apple podcasts, and the show gets 201 00:14:27.190 --> 00:14:32.760 more than 130,000 downloads each month. We've already done the work of building 202 00:14:32.760 --> 00:14:36.800 the audience so you can focus on delivering incredible content to our 203 00:14:36.800 --> 00:14:41.250 listeners if you're interested, email Logan at Sweet Fish Media dot com.