Hear Me Out: How the Pandemic Made Podcasts Popular
The COVID-19 pandemic has successfully seeped its way into every facet of our lives. Granted, when a disease takes over the world, what else is there to talk about?
During the first few months of the pandemic, many businesses and organizations were thrown off track and were forced to pivot their strategies in order to survive. With everything going digital, some industries were already at an advantage.
Content creators and people working in the digital sphere saw an increase in engagement. More specifically, podcasts and other forms of audio and visual content or experiences skyrocketed. With so many businesses going under, what worked for podcasts that they stayed afloat?
Here’s how the pandemic worked in favor of podcasts:
With everything going digital, podcast hosts were already at an advantage. In fact, during the pandemic, attraction to podcasts has increased immensely.
The follow article will be split into two sections where I talk about podcasts from both a consumer’s and marketer’s perspective. You’re going to want to tune in (pun intended) because these insights are nothing less than impressive.
Podcasts and the Pandemic: A Consumer’s Perspective
As an avid listener of podcasts myself, I can touch upon the experience I had during the pandemic as a consumer.
The pandemic proved a great challenge, but podcasts stayed resilient. In the first few months of the pandemic, I noticed a lot of episodes being uploaded to my Spotify feed about how to navigate these challenging times. Whether it be a fitness, business or lifestyle podcast, they all had something to share.
With lockdown during late spring and summer, many people were furloughed or just finishing up school. That left a lot of time to be filled and many people took to listening to podcasts. This increased amount of time allowed for people to start new hobbies that they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to with their pre-pandemic schedules.
Some took to knitting and others to reading, but I noticed that a decent amount took to podcasting – especially micro-influencers. They and many others saw this time as an opportunity to jump start their own podcasts, and as a consumer, I wasn’t complaining about the increase in content that I could use to fill my time.
Podcasts and the Pandemic: A Marketer’s Perspective
With the increase in audio content on podcasting platforms, one problem that podcasts hosts face is oversaturation. A challenge for new podcasters during the pandemic was creating a niche topic the podcast would revolve around. As marketers, we know that it’s better to discuss a niche topic since bigger and broader topics are highly saturated. Want to talk about true crime? Instead of discussing already popularized stories, get more specific by talking about true crime in Pennsylvania during the ‘80s. Although you might not start out with a ton of listeners or streams, the people who do listen will most likely keep coming back because of its niche. When starting a podcast, especially during these times, it’s important to remember that quality is better than quantity. This is true for both the amount of listeners and amount of podcasts produced.
Over the course of the pandemic, attraction of podcasts has broadened, with notable growth of light podcast listeners (those who don’t listen every day). In fact, according to Nielsen Scarborough, more than half (53.8%) of U.S. consumers 18 and older who listen to podcasts listen at least once a week.
As time goes on and when the pandemic subsides, podcasts will only continue to grow. So, will you be adding this trendy medium to your repertoire?