Why companies should invest in Audio Marketing

Nowadays audio content is a valuable asset in the content marketing field. Audio investment and consumption are rising to record levels, surpassing all previous levels. 

Many companies have adapted to this new exciting world of audio by incorporating audio into their marketing strategies. Consequently audio ad spending is estimated to grow 25% this year and another 5.8% in 2022. 

Here are the reasons why audio content is worth diving into from a marketing perspective. 

Covered in this article:

1. - Flexibility and Convenience
2. - Engagement and Connection 
3. - Accessibility
4. - Generating More Leads
5. - The Power of Voice 
6. - Summary 

Flexibility and Convenience

In our productivity-driven world, multitasking has become a necessity. Audio content is more passive than visual and written content, allowing us to effectively consume digital content anywhere on numerous devices, while fulfilling other tasks. Another feature that makes audio content different from other formats is its accessibility during off-screen time. 

With the rise of smart speakers and voice-automated searches, it has never been easier to engage with audio content and integrate it into our daily routines. 

Audio content’s flexibility and convenience make it ideal to increase awareness of your brand, and consequently increase your user engagement. 

Engagement and Connection

Listening to audio content, such as music, audiobooks or podcasts has been proven to be the most personal and intimate form of media consumption. Hearing a voice creates an emotional connection with the listener. This is naturally strengthened through the quality of audio and the listening comfort, ideally creating more engagement and a stronger response to the content.

Particularly podcasts are very engaging and foster loyal audiences, as they are interactive and allow brands to connect with consumers. In fact, a study from BBC revealed that brand mentions within a podcast achieve a 16% higher customer engagement rate compared to other forms of content.

Therefore brands should consider creating and promoting a branded podcast as a new content initiative that’s different from traditional content marketing strategies.

Accessibility

The accessibility of audio content is not only vital for people with disabilities, but it improves the user experience for everyone. 

For instance, on-site text-to-voice audio players allow people with limited dexterity and visual impairments to consume written content. 

If you provide content in text and audio format you will get more engagement and results than if you would only provide the text version of your content.

By producing audio related content, brands include people with illiteracy, blindness or other physical impairments, allowing them to engage with their content by simply just listening. 

Generating More Leads

By using an innovative way to capture your customers’ attention, you will automatically generate more leads. Audio marketing is a good way to step away from average marketing strategies. 

Nowadays there are a multitude of digital audio formats and therefore a variety of targeting opportunities. As already mentioned there is an explosion in the podcast consumption. A branded podcast can serve as an entry point for potential customers to start engaging with your brand. In order to generate leads from a podcast it is important to deliver value in every show, that way listeners can be turned into leads and leads into paying customers. 

The Power of Voice

Not only podcasts have proven to be an excellent format for advertising purposes. Smart speakers serving as intelligent virtual assistants with multiple abilities have also gained prominence in the digital market. 

There are three areas where the development of voice marketing is most prevalent: voice search optimization, sonic branding and recorded audio content such as podcasts, which have become one of the most competitive spaces for digital media in the past years. 

As mentioned above, there is an intimate connection created when people hear each other speak - this makes voice an incredibly unique tool for content.

Summary

Innovating is an important part of every marketing professional. Producing audio content is a unique way of marketing that allows brands to improve SEO, generate more leads and turn listeners into customers by being convenient, easily accessible and very engaging. 

More and more companies are offering audio versions of their content and so should your brand.