Guest Feature: 9 Ways to Integrate Podcasts into Your Content Marketing Strategy

‍The Juice is excited to share another piece in our guest feature series with, "9 Ways to Integrate Podcasts into Your Content Marketing Strategy" from Quill.  We will continue to share some of our favorite pieces of content from modern day brands. Stay tuned! 🧃

As marketing professionals, the constant evolution of the digital landscape drives the need for adaptability and innovation. And at the end of the day, being able to turn one piece of content into multiple pieces of content is key.

One medium that has continued to garner attention in brand marketing is podcasts. Although still in its infancy when compared to other mediums, branded podcasts are a powerful tool for building relationships, expanding reach, acquiring new customers, and overall, driving business growth.

Companies of all sizes and industries are investing heavily in podcasts. Brands like HubSpot, PwC, McKinsey & Company, Meta, Expedia, and Drift are just a few that come to mind. But one crucial element of podcasts that often gets overlooked is that a podcast doesn’t need to be a solo channel. The nature of podcasting makes the medium adaptable and honestly, quite simple to build into other tactics and strategies your team is working on.  

Throughout this article, we’re going to dive into 9 effective ways to integrate podcasts into your content marketing strategy, serving as a comprehensive guide for brands of all sizes.

Let’s dive in.

1. Complement blog content with podcast episodes

In the realm of content marketing, diversity is key. Different audiences consume content in varied ways - while some prefer reading, others may lean towards listening or watching. That's where the integration of podcasts into your blog content comes into play.

Podcasts are an easy medium to transition to written text whether it’s through:

• Full transcriptions of the episode
• Deep dives into sections discussed in the episode
• Recap articles that review what was discussed in the episode
• Expanding on different topics covered

Here are some ways your podcast can level up your blog content:

• Diversity in content consumption: Understanding that your audience has varied preferences for content consumption - reading, listening, or watching - allows you to cater to these different preferences effectively. It also ensures that it’s accessible to all learning styles or disabilities.
• Boosted engagement: Integrating podcasts with your blog content can significantly enhance content engagement. The flexibility of podcasting allows listeners to absorb your content during a commute, a workout, or while performing other tasks, fitting conveniently into their lifestyle.
• Increased reach and retention: Offering your audience different ways to engage with your content can lead to wider reach and improved audience retention. It makes your content marketing strategy more comprehensive, ultimately driving more traffic and creating loyal followers.

2. Turn your podcast into social media assets

We’ve heard countless times that social media is an effective channel for growing your podcast, and for good reason.

It’s safe to assume that your brand likely has its own social channels established. Our recommendation? Leverage these for podcast promotion, don’t create podcast-specific accounts.

With all that being said, your podcast is a great piece of content to share across your social media. Common ways to connect your podcast with social media are by sharing:

• Quotes from the episode (written, video, or audio-only)
• BTS footage
• Sneak peeks into the content
• Introductions to the episode from hosts or guests
• Additional Q&As with the host or guest
• Summaries of the podcast

Your podcast gives your social team easy content to turn one asset into many for social media, filling up your calendar quickly.

3. Build collaborations with other creators

Content collaborations are a staple for many brands within their marketing strategies. When it comes to the audio world, strategic collaborations with other podcasters can facilitate access to new audience segments while diversifying content for your listeners.

This win-win approach can significantly enhance not only your podcast's visibility and reach but also your brand as a whole. By getting audiences in front of your podcast, you’re getting them in front of your brand, thus enhancing your content marketing strategy.

We always encourage clients and creators to source collaborations. Some common forms in the branded podcasts look like:

• Guest swapping on episodes
• Promotions across newsletters or social media
• Shoutouts on podcasts
• RSS feed swaps
• Podcast advertisements

Having a podcast makes collaborations with other brands or audiences even simpler since you now have something of value to offer back to them.

4. Utilize podcasts for brand storytelling

Storytelling has long been one of the most powerful forms of communication. It has the ability to captivate audiences, evoke emotions, and inspire actions.

In the context of branding, storytelling allows businesses to transcend beyond the realm of selling products or services to create meaningful connections with audiences. Podcasts, with their intimate and immersive nature, serve as an outstanding platform for this purpose.

Branded podcasts build a base for storytelling and lift your content strategy by:

• Sharing brand narratives
• Featuring customer testimonials
• Highlighting employee experiences
• Revealing BTS insights
• Showcasing brand values and mission

5. Turn audio into video

A natural fit for podcasts is, of course, video.

We’re now suggesting that you have to start video recording entire podcast episodes unless you’re already doing this, it can be a big undertaking.

Instead, there are a variety of ways you can start leveraging your podcast to make video content whether this is for social media, newsletters, YouTube, your website, the list goes on.

When you think in a video context, your show becomes not only a podcast but also:

• Short clips showcasing expertise
• BTS footage
• Q&A interviews

And of course, there’s always the opportunity to turn your podcast into a full video podcast as well. If you go this route, we recommend looking into podcast agencies to support you with the heavy lifting.

6. Add a podcast spotlight to your newsletter

Adding a podcast spotlight to your newsletter is a strategic way to enhance your content marketing efforts.

By featuring your latest or most popular podcast episodes directly in your company’s newsletter, you can keep your subscribers updated about new content, encourage them to tune in, foster a stronger connection, and give your content team additional content to use.

Not only does this put your brand at the forefront of the audience's minds, but it also provides an additional touchpoint to engage with your content. Furthermore, this cross-promotion tactic can significantly increase visibility between both mediums.

7. Incorporate user-generated content

User-generated content is known to be more impactful in converting users and gaining trust. A study by Stackla found that consumers are 2.4x more likely to say that UGC is most authentic than branded content.  

Podcasts are an additional avenue for you to be showcasing UGC and encouraging inbound for this type of content. Whether you have UGC solely live on your podcast or transcend it to other marketing channels, here are some ways to incorporate UGC in your podcast:

• Listener Q&A sessions: Have your listeners submit questions or answers to the podcast and respond to them on the episode. You can even take it one step further by inviting listeners to engage in a live Q&A.
• Guest listener episodes: Invite listeners that can share unique insights or topics related to the podcast. Even better if they’re a customer of your brand and can act as a trust signal for your product or service.
• Content contests: Run programs or contests where listeners can create a piece of content to be featured on the podcast. Maybe it’s a story, an insight, or a creative way they’re using your product or service.
• Listener testimonials: These testimonials don’t have to be about your business if that doesn’t match your show, instead, they can be reviews for the podcast itself.  

Leveraging UGC not only engages your existing audience but also increases trust and authenticity among new listeners and customers.

8. Host a webinar for podcast deep dives

Marketers are taking advantage of webinars as a way to showcase expertise, present new products or services, share valuable insights, and more.

Especially as the workforce has gone more remote since 2020, we’ve seen webinars become a tool to get face time with your audience and interact with them in a live setting.

As your team is building out your webinar calendar for the year, your podcast is an easy channel to pull inspiration and topics from. Look at your analytics and pull the top-performing episodes and the most engaged episodes. Use this as your baseline for webinar topics.

Maybe you decide to dive deeper into a subject covered in the episode, build an extension off of the episode and cover areas you didn’t get the chance to, and invite additional guests to build a panel on the topic. There are plenty of ways that you can build off of your podcast and create a value-packed webinar for audiences.

9. Develop downloadable resources for users

Developing downloadable resources is a valuable way to add depth to your content strategy.

Resources such as eBooks, checklists, whitepapers, or reports, can expand on podcast topics and provide listeners with tangible takeaways. This not only drives engagement but also encourages website visits and email sign-ups, and if the content is gated, places listeners into an email drip sequence.  

If you’re not already producing these types of resources, an additional bonus is that such high-value content positions your brand as a knowledge leader in your industry, enhancing credibility and trust with your audience.

Ultimately, downloadable resources can help transform your podcast from a passive listening experience to an interactive learning journey.

Ways to integrate podcasts into your content marketing strategy

As a marketer, getting savvy when it comes to omnichannel marketing is a key strength. When producing any piece of content, thinking about how it can integrate with your existing channels is going to save you time, budget, and headaches.

The 9 strategies we offer in this article make it seamless to integrate podcasts into your content marketing plan. But this is just one take on it, there are so many creative ways to carry your podcast content over to other channels, don’t wait on exploring those!

If you’re interested in exploring branded podcasts as a marketing tool for your company, get in touch with our team of audio experts!