I’ll admit it: I’m a podcast newb. I just got into them at the end of last year because of Wondery’s Business Wars, which sucked me in on my daily commute.

While I’ve been late to the game, my colleague Sarah Dawson — a podcast lover and aficionado — listens regularly and knew much more than I at the beginning of our research. Like Sarah, many marketers are ahead of the game with regard to podcasts, too.

Earlier this year, I shared Forrester’s perspective on 11 emerging marketing channels. From live-stream gaming platforms to SMS, marketers have a breadth of new methods to effectively engage their consumers and build salient branded experiences. However, one of these channels has clearly captured our clients’ attention above and beyond the others: online audio.

Online audio, and podcasting specifically, has been on marketers’ minds for good reason. US podcast listening is growing (even despite the pandemic). Many B2B and B2C organizations are building their own branded podcasts. Companies like Spotify and SiriusXM have made significant podcast-related investments this year. And podcast advertising spend in the US has ballooned to nearly $1 billion.

The volume of inquiries we’ve received over the past year alone has told us that marketers are eager to dive into online audio — and we want to help. Our new stream of podcasting research goes live today. We have two new reports that will help you decide how to best use podcasting to bolster your brand:

  • Build A Podcast To Engage Your Customers” focuses on trends in both B2B- and B2C-branded podcasts. We review the key questions your organization needs to ask before deciding if a branded podcast is a good move for your company. And we detail the first five steps your brand should take.
  • The State Of Podcast Advertising: Engaging, But Still Emerging” reviews the trends in this growing media market. Advertising capabilities have advanced over the past few years in this medium. But advertisers must know the challenges this medium offers before diving in with ad dollars.

Check out these new reports, and stay tuned for more research on online audio. And feel free to schedule an inquiry to chat about how your firm can use online audio.

Special thanks to Cole Walsh and Sarah Dawson for their significant contributions to this blog and research.