Trends and Stats Show Your Business Needs Audio Content
Audio content has exploded over the last several years, and with such a trend on fire, your business needs to look at ways to capitalize on these shifts in consumer behavior.
Consumers are engaging with podcasts and spoken-word audio content more today than they ever have. With nearly one million different active podcasts in existence, and Americans engaging in them daily, this is an excellent opportunity for you to jump in and add spoken-word audio content to your website marketing strategy.
The advantage you have is that you can use the audio content in many ways, which we will touch on and highlight throughout the rest of this article. While a podcast tends to be narrow in how you can utilize the audio file, creating audio content from your written articles and website content has a broader range of uses.
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Don’t Miss Out on Audio Content as a Marketing Strategy
Think about in your own life how often you listen to music, podcasts, YouTube videos, the list goes on and on — even if you play them in the background while you’re doing something else (multi-tasking).
Many Americans consider themselves autodidacts in that they are self-taught. They listen to programs such as spoken-word audio content and learn about new topics to learn new skills or to further improve upon existing ones. This is where your business can separate itself from the competition.
How many brands do you see utilizing spoken-word audio on their website or through their own podcast? Can you even count the number on your hand? Why wouldn’t you want to be one of the first brands to leverage this marketing strategy?
Don’t believe the hype? Check out these statistics…
- According to Edison Research and NPR, audio content attracts 127 million Americans daily (up 40% from seven years ago)
- Music consumption has decreased 5% over the last five years while spoken-word audio content is up 20%
- The average US adult spends around 90 minutes per day consuming audio content
- 86% of those between 12-34 years old consume this content monthly
- 72% of those between 35-54 years old consume this content monthly
- 46% of those 55+ years old consume this content monthly
The Vice President of Edison Research, Megan Lazovick, said, “Spoken-word audio is different. Spoken-word can be vastly more intensive listening experience than other types of audio. People lean in — they truly listen.”
https://www.edisonresearch.com/the-spoken-word-audio-report-from-npr-and-edison-research/
Rather than “background noise,” people are paying attention to spoken-word audio and are truly engaging with it.
Consumers in your space use their smartphones, tablets, smart speakers, and computers to listen to podcasts and spoken-word audio content throughout the day.
Why aren’t you in their ear?
More People Are Searching for Audio Articles
Whether it’s on their drive to or from work, on their lunch break, an evening on the couch relaxing, running on a treadmill to get in their cardio, or simply being information they want to consume when they have free time throughout the day, people are utilizing and looking for audio articles.
What is an audio article? An audio article is a piece of content that you would typically find in written text online, only it’s presented in an audio format. Essentially, rather than the person needing to read an article, they can listen to it.
Consumption of informative spoken-word audio content has increased by 30% over the last six years and 8% in 2020.
75% of the 18+ population listens to spoken-word audio content each month.
Those who engage with spoken-word audio content daily consume on average two hours each day.
These kinds of statistics should be eye-opening to you and your business. Think about how many new eyeballs you could get on your brand if you leveraged this type of content.
Things like audio and written content help separate you from your competitors and provide your customers with more value and an added way to engage with your content and information found on your website.
In the US, there are a few main platforms where listeners go to get their information:
- YouTube — 26%
- Apple Podcasts — 22%
- Spotify — 17%
- Google Podcasts — 14%
- Pandora — 10%
- NPR — 9%
Why Would Someone Choose Spoken-word Audio Content?
You may be asking why someone would want to listen to audio content versus other forms. Well, on top of the reasons already mentioned above, how they engage with content and their preferences are changing.
Below is research gathered and posted by BeyondWords.io on the reasons why people engage with spoken-word audio content:
- The ability to multitask (71% — the most popular reason)
- It allows them to process information more efficiently (60%)
- They like listening more than reading (56%)
- They need to stay informed (52%)
- 58% say spoken-word audio is a productive use of their time
- 54% say spoken-word audio engages their mind in a more positive way than other media
- 45% say spoken-word audio is becoming a more important part of their life
Don’t Worry… Written Content Isn’t Going Anywhere
With the increase in podcast and YouTube consumption, many have “written” off text consumption, such as articles online. The fact of the matter is that written content isn’t going anywhere. Google still loves written content and crawls websites all day, every day, to help index content and rank those pieces for SEO (search engine optimization) and SERP (search engine results page).
Related Article: Forbes Names the Biggest Trends in the Fitness Industry
Millions of people search online daily for information and come across articles that they read. It’s for that reason that so many brands hire Weik Fitness and Writing Rebels for all of their content and copywriting needs.
What This Means for Your Brand
Having a competitive advantage is always a good thing, right?
Having a leg up on your competition by employing new marketing techniques that add value to your consumer can not only help you retain your customer base but also engage with those who may never have known about your brand or considered purchasing from you.
More value helps you build trust and authority in your industry and niche. The more someone trusts you and views you as an authority, the more willing they may be to buy from you.
How can you leverage audio content for your brand?
Here’s a simple process…
- Write content for your website (or have us do it for you)
- Take the written content and have us create the audio version
- Publish both the written and audio versions of the content together on a single page
Be Omni-Present with Your Content
Don’t stop there once you post the written and audio versions of the content on your site. Utilize the methods below to market your content for FREE!
- Add the page you created with your written and audio content into an email and send it out to your list
- Post a link to the content page on social media and direct traffic over to your website
- Create your own branded podcast and upload the audio file directly to your podcast channel on all platforms (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, etc.)
- Create a YouTube channel and upload the audio file to the platform, which you can also monetize (all you’ll need to do is create a thumbnail that will be shown on the screen as the audio plays as well as a channel image)
Let’s Start Working Together!
Weik Fitness and Writing Rebels work with 50+ brands to produce content that helps build traffic and convert sales. We are proud to announce that we are the first in the industry to create spoken-word audio content to go along with the written content we create.
Do you have a content topic you would like created? Email us, and let’s start working together!
Maybe you already have written content you’d like turned into audio content? No worries! We can take the current content on your website and create an audio file to leverage all the techniques mentioned in this article.
Don’t allow your competitors to take advantage of the shift in consumer behavior and beat you to the punch by utilizing audio content before you.
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