2022 Podcast Trends 🎙That You NEED To Know

All right, so today we're going to talk about the 2021 podcast trends that you need to know to absolutely crush it. So we now know that in the world of podcasting, things are getting a lot more competitive because you have companies like Spotify buying Megaphone for about, I think it was a couple hundred million dollars. Amazon, you know, is in talks right now to buy Wondery, which is a big podcast studio here in LA. And we just, we know a lot of attention is going towards podcasting and actually downloads have gone up even through a pandemic. And if you look at it, that'll be the first thing to say. One of the trends is that because these big companies, these are both publicly traded companies, they're gobbling up a lot of these smaller podcasting companies. So for example, I think Spotify has spent $300 or $400 million on acquisitions. Amazon's reported price offer would be maybe $300 or $400 million for Wondery. And there's a reason that they're doing that, right? So we know a lot more attention is going there and that's a good thing too, because this leads me to the second point. So A, competition's getting stiffer. B, these acquisitions mean better podcasting analytics. It means better ad platforms as well. So Spotify buying Megaphone, that is designed to help make advertising easier to buy ads and to do programmatic advertising. So that's big. And we just know that right now there's a lot to be desired in those 2 sectors. And now number 3 would be Community. Now, as an example, with Marketing School, we do a daily podcast for that one. That one is— so we get about 1.5 million downloads a month. But we didn't try to do anything with it for the first 2, 2.5 years or so. And then we started to think about, okay, how do we build a community and how do we take it a step further? Because people listening, that's a good thing, but we ended up doing an event called Marketing School Live and that was good attendance. We promised that we would do an event after reaching a million downloads, so we did it. And then we also started a more of a peer group for 7 to 9 figure entrepreneurs to share marketing, but also marketing tactics and business tactics, but also more importantly, to connect with each other face to face. Because that type of being able to foster that goes a long way. And so there's that. And then that actually leads me to another point, which is we didn't decide to monetize about to about, about 2 and a half, 3 years in. And so from there, we decided that we would start advertising. So DreamHost is a sponsor for both the Marketing School Podcast and the Leveling Up Podcast. And they— I don't think advertising is going anywhere, at least in the near future. So it's, by the way, advertising, if you have advertising and if you have another revenue source, they're not mutually exclusive. You can make both work. And I would say too, the— in terms of alternative ways of monetizing, you can also— so we monetize through our community, we monetize through ads, but also we are— we've added a premium offering bring like a subscription as an example. So we call it Marketing School Pro, and that one you can pay $1 for and then you get a 14-day free trial. And then after the 14 days, you pay $300 for the year, or we have another option for $600 for the year. And that's— you get a whole host of other things that people have been asking for: monthly ask me anythings, community, and we're even trying to get discounts for software that we like. And it's just about fostering that community. But in this case, this is another option. It's like our education version. And going back to looking at podcasting tools right now, I'm just gonna give you additional points of value. We use a tool called Chartable, is great in that it shows how you rank on different podcasting charts. It also allows you to manage all your reviews, also shows how you're trending for the last 30 days and then how you're trending for certain recent episodes. We also use the iTunes, iTunes Podcast Connect, the analytics are good because it shows you the, basically the average listening duration. So you know how long people are staying and it shows you retention points as well. So you can optimize the listener experience. And then, excuse me, we use Spotify's analytics as well to also see retention and see what type of music other people listen to and also demographics too. So they each have their own uses, their use cases, but that's where podcasting is going. I think it's on the upward swing. And also you're going to see, you're seeing a lot more podcasting studios. And I will say another trend right now, actually, 2, I got 2 podcasting opportunities where someone asked me to help create more content. And to me, I initially thought it was a waste of time, but I'm probably going to do it because that's going to be more reach for me. And as a marketer, I'm going for reach and overall reach, right? To train people on marketing in general. And that's what it is. You're going to see more podcasts. And you actually see now people that got into the game early that were hosting podcasts, they're actually now being asked to, to go on these other ones. And I, I just think it's gonna continue to be on the upward trend. I've met a lot of great people through podcasting. I've been invited to speak at things because of, because of podcasting. I podcast at conferences. It's just a really good way to— it's a good way to network. It's a good way to just build goodwill for the long term. So that is it for today. Don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell button. And before you go to levelingup.com, get a free chapter of my upcoming book that I've worked on for years. Leveling Up: How to Master the Game of Life, and— or you can go to your favorite online retailer, go buy the book Leveling Up, Eric Siu, and I really appreciate your support. And yeah, let me know what you think. Catch you later.