No! Don't go in there! Daddy's working.
Jonathan: Yes, yes, y'all, you're listening to another edition of his Daddy's Working podcast. Welcome back, and I'm glad that you are here. I've got something special for you today, something a little bit different.
Here, at the Podcast Factory, we work with a bunch of brilliant experts and in all that brilliance comes great questions. And that's what I have for you today. It’s one guy in particular. His name is Harold. He's over in Hawaii. He's the host of the Stop Doing What You Hate podcast. He's also our fiduciary. He asked, “What is the future of podcasting?” and I wanted to share this.
I recorded a video for all our clients because I thought it was a great question and I wanted to share it with you, our listeners, because this is a timely subject and it's more important than ever to build your platform. This is the only place that you have. You have this. You have email. You've got to build your platform if you want to stay in contact with your people. [01:24.9]
So, we're going to jump into this. It's me talking about the future of podcasting. Let's dive in.
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I'm going to do a quick recording here. I'm going to try to keep this tight and super useful for you guys. Got an awesome question from Harold over in Hawaii and he wants to know what is on the horizon for podcasting. What is the future of podcasting?
He's working on his podcast and he wants to know if he should be thinking about other things coming up or if podcasting has any legs. And the fact is, yes, and it's not just because I'm from the Podcast Factory and Harold is a client, but podcasting is just getting popular. [02:09.6]
I've been podcasting since 2008 and the biggest growth I've seen is in the last couple of years, and I'm going to share some stats with you, maybe share some screenshots from Edison Research's Infinite Dial, and I'm going to explain to you why these things are important and what you should be doing to prepare to take advantage of all of this.
As you guys know, lots of reasons to be podcasting, and especially what's going on right now as I'm recording this where events are being canceled, trips are being canceled, and you're wondering, Okay, so how do I reach more people? How do I get in front of more people without getting infected with coronavirus? That's what we're going to talk about a little bit and obviously that's going to date this audio, or it's a video, too. I'm going to just dive in here and let me share my screen with you guys, so we can get some of these stats from Edison Research. [03:05.7]
Right here, this is the biggest thing that we're seeing right now—84 percent of Americans own smartphones, and this is where podcasting is being received, is being taken in. It’s in a smartphone device because it automatically downloads. They have podcast apps, just like on my iPhone right here. I've got a podcast app. On Google's or Android phones, Google, they have their own podcast app.
And what you're going to see here is, okay, 84 percent of Americans have the ability to get these. That's great. That also leaves 15 or 16 percent more that could get it, so there's still more growth.
Okay, let's move on to another stat that I found interesting. Not the tablet. Oh, smart speakers are huge now. Let's see. So, online audio. This is the important one that I really like here … 60 percent of people. It's actually the slide before this. Let's see. Nearly 70 percent of people know that podcasting exists. Okay, 70 percent of people know that podcasts exist. Sixty percent of people are listening to podcasts weekly. [04:20.0]
And you can download this. In fact, I'll make this available to you. Sixty percent of people are listening to audio weekly and what's important about this is look at the time that they're listening. Sixteen hours a week. Sixteen hours. I mean, guys, I don't know if that rivals TV watching, but the people that listen to podcasts are motivated people, people who want to learn, people who are going to work, people who want to grow. And this audience has locked in for 16 hours a week. That's more than YouTube videos. That's more than social media time. That's one-on-one time and you can tap into that. And so, it's super, super, super important that you guys really make shows that are entertaining for people that lock people in and that show up every week so people can count on you. [05:07.8]
So, what do I see as the future of podcasting? Growth. Okay, there's so much room to grow, and even though 60 percent of the population is listening weekly, that means 40 percent of the population is not. And when you think about these apps, radio in the car, they're able to download maybe from their phone or if their car is Wi-Fi equipped, able to download episodes, and they're planning their travel, they're planning their week, they're planning their activities around their favorite shows.
And this is proven over and over again. We hear it from fans of shows. We hear from clients, Oh, so-and-so’s show drops on Monday and I listen to that on my way to work. So-and-so’s show drops on Thursday and I listen to that in the afternoon when I'm at the gym. They plan their week around you showing up right on their device or right into their car, or even more popular, what we're seeing here, and you can look on the Infinite Dial report, is that the smart speakers are going crazy and there's still a lot of growth going there. [06:08.2]
And that's one of the things that we do for you guys. We make sure that we're getting you anywhere that your audience can be. So, with Alexa being the biggest smart speaker right now by far, yeah, you guys are on Alexa if you're our clients, Pandora and Spotify.
I don't know if you guys have watched the news, but Pandora and Spotify are buying up podcast networks. Why are they doing this? Ask yourself. Do you know why they're doing this? It costs money. When they play Taylor Swift, they have to pay her for playing that song. When they own the media, when it's theirs, when they built it like these podcast networks, it is an infinitely bigger return on investment for them. So, they are pushing podcast awareness more than ever.
Celebrities. Celebrities are getting on podcast platforms. Media people are getting on podcasts platforms. Heck, I’ve even heard Hillary Clinton is starting a podcast. Everybody that's starting a podcast, all these celebrities, all these media people, all these politicians, they're pushing that podcast awareness. [07:10.4]
So, what's going on is massive growth. What once was a niche, just little tech nerds like us downloading podcasts, is now becoming mainstream media. And so, when you asked me, What is the future of podcasting? the future is right now, the last time I read, over 800,000 different podcasts on iTunes and growing, Spotify and Pandora are spending money. They bought Gimlet Media. They're spending money on creating their own thing.
Watch Netflix. Watch Amazon. What are they doing? They have media companies. They're creating content because they get a big ROI on the content that you watch. That's the same exact reason why Spotify and Pandora are investing in podcasting.
So, what is the future? Growth, growth, growth and opportunity for you guys. And the way you tap into that is to select your niche. Know who you are talking to. Know the exact right listener that you want to target. [08:04.8]
You guys know this. Client cloner. Know what to say to them and what you want them to do.
Content vault. Knock out all their objections. Take them on a journey. Get them to where you want them to go, whether that's on your email list or on the phone with you, or wherever you want them to go.
And the client matrix. What is that journey from listener to raving fan to your best client? Map all that out ahead of time. Put all those pieces in place and then you're ready to capitalize on the podcasting boom.
You guys think it's big now. It's only going to get bigger. You're in the early stages here and I see more growth happening than ever before with all these big companies jumping in. So, if you think podcasting is hot, it's only going to get hotter and you are ahead of that trend right now.
Me, what do I recommend? Doubling down. Of course, I’m the podcast guy, but I'm on three podcasts a week right now and I would do more. I would do more. Cupcake and I are talking about doing an education podcast, hit another niche. So, I'm doubling down on podcasting. I've been here for years and I've never seen the growth like I see it now, and the opportunity has never been bigger. You guys are in the right space right now. [09:16.9]
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There you have it. Podcasting is huge and it's only going to get bigger. This is still the Wild West days of podcasting and you could still take advantage of it.
Listen, if you found this episode useful, if you found it helpful, if you enjoyed it, give us a rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts and share this out. Share it to somebody. Tag me on social media. Tag me on Instagram. Tell me what you learned @riverathan, R-I-V-E-R-A-T-HA-N. When you're listening to the episode, tag me. Tell me what you think. Let me see what's up out there, so I know that you guys are listening.
That's all I have for you today. Thank you for tuning in, and I will be back all up in your earbuds next time. Take that. Take that. Take that. Take that. Take that. [10:05.6]
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