Is audio content part of your content marketing strategy?
No? Don’t worry, you’re not alone!
Because many marketers are overlooking the ever-growing power of audio content. But in a world where sound reigns supreme, audio content is no longer a luxury. Why?
Because it’s your target audience’s audio consumption habits that matter, not yours or your management team’s.
Plus, 80% of the US population over 18 owns a smartphone, putting a device they can talk and listen to in their pocket.
Translation: Your potential customers are searching for and listening to audio content. So offer quality options across the devices, platforms (including apps), and formats they use.
Plus, you need to deliver audio when, where, and how your users want it. If you don’t, your company will remain invisible to them!
Instead, discoverable competitors and new entrants will fill the need. This guide will help you get your audio information in front of potential listeners searching for your content. Being visible and competitive across all audio platforms helps you stay competitive.
Audio Content Defined
Most importantly, audio offers listeners a hands-free and/or screen-free content experience. This allows listeners to focus on another unrelated or boring activity without the content. This can include driving, commuting, household chores, exercising, etc. Thus, the audio format offers a unique media window.
The duration of these media is lengthening and changing with the development of voice-controlled devices. Audio can be pre-recorded or presented in real time, depending on the editorial calendar, personnel availability, and distribution plans.
Audiences can engage with the audio by listening in real time or storing it for later use. Additionally, audio information can be transmitted one-to-one or one-to-many. This varies by device, platform, and audience context.
Finally, you can use natural language processing (NLP), a type of artificial intelligence, to convert text to speech and speech to text. That’s how you grow your audience.
Why Add Voice to Your Content Marketing
Adding voice to your content marketing mix brings three key benefits to your marketing strategy:
It adds a human touch to your marketing. We’ve been craving the human voice since babies cried. Plus, the human voice adds emotion to your marketing and engages your audience.
And it helps define your brand. Tom Webster of Edison Research explains, “When you hear a baby crying or someone screaming, that immediately penetrates your brain, and you find that this is something that engages you on many levels.
It attracts people who prefer audio content. It reaches people who can’t consume other forms of content.” And they find your content on other platforms.
Add information to your content. Without even realizing it, people automatically assign characteristics to voices they hear. Therefore, the voice you use for your audio content will influence your target audience. These factors include age, gender, region of origin, and education level. Wharton Professor Jonah Berger has said, “Audio has powers that we don’t really think about.”
Audio Content Research: Data Your Business Needs
Audio content, unlike text, images, videos, and presentations, is consumed as background in a media-less age. This allows audio listeners to increase their content consumption.
Note: Although audio is often a secondary activity, consumption tends to be less fragmented and distracting than text and visual formats.
For example, in addition to audio consumption during the daily commute, audio consumption is also increasing in the home with smart devices in multiple rooms.
How Consumers are Listening to Audio: Consumption Stats, Data, and Graphs
While video continues to be the go-to content choice for consumers and marketers, audio ranks second in daily usage in the U.S. This is likely because audio is a secondary activity.
What’s more, listeners don’t need to hold a device or look at a screen.
Due to their growing popularity, marketers are using in-ear headphones to signal the availability of audio content.
Unlike other forms of content, consumers use a variety of devices to listen to music:
- 31% use their mobile phone
- 19% still use an AM/FM receiver (yes, that’s right!)
- 17% receive audio via their computer
- 17% receive audio via a smart speaker (the same percentage as listening to content on a computer!)
- 6% use TVaudio channels
- 5% receive audio via an internet-connected device
The Audio Content Landscape: How to understand Audio Media and your Competitors
From a marketing perspective, audio remains critical to staying competitive in a content-saturated market. Whether they’re business- or content-focused, they’re competing with media and technology giants for fragmented attention.
To maintain their market share and position, media companies continue to expand and invest in existing and developing audio options and programming. Moreover, they have the resources to support this expansion.
For example, as an audio-first brand, NPR has recategorized its audio library to make it easier to search and organize. Additionally, NPR attends, exhibits, and presents at relevant conferences.
To understand this dynamic audio market, consider different perspectives on your competition.
Translate your content and marketing strategies:
- Use different audio formats and advertising strategies to get heard.
- Improve content distribution to increase audience and awareness for audio.
- Add better metadata to improve search options and discoverability across devices.
- Consumers have a hard time finding music and audio content. Provide audio options for text, images, video, and presentation content. This not only increases the discoverability of your audio content, but also expands your audience to include audio-oriented and visually impaired viewers.
- Make downloading easy. Provide instructions for downloading your audio.
Why is audio important to marketers today? [AKA: Business Model]
Use the following five reasons to justify a business model for including audio content in your marketing mix. These are the result of developments in AI and technology, and therefore may be lagging behind in consumer awareness and acceptance:
- Devices and technology continue to evolve. Owning and using voice-controlled devices has filled the technology adoption gap. These include smartphones, voice-controlled assistants, and the Internet of Things (also known as IoT).
- Shipments of new smartphones fell from 0% in 2017 to -4% in 2018 (Mary Meeker 2019). Shipments of smartphones, the most widely used voice-controlled device, reflect a maturing market.
- The secondary market for still-usable smartphones also reduces demand for new smartphones.
Score: With more technology options, improved audio quality, and lower prices, owners want more content to make their devices more useful and fun.
The key question for marketers is:
How do you create unique audio content tailored to your audience that sets your business apart?
Give them content they can’t get anywhere else! And make sure the switching costs are high for your audience. For example, if they want Amazon Prime’s exclusive TV content, they have to buy a subscription.
