If you’re in marketing, you’ve probably heard that the podcast industry continues to grow year over year, whether that’s through listeners, ad dollars, or the number of podcasts being launched. 

People are turning to podcasts for education, information, and entertainment. For brands, podcasts offer an avenue to: 

• Boost awareness 
• Educate audiences 
• Drive engagement 
• Increase loyalty
• Shape brand perception 

In today’s world, every business knows they need a website,a social media presence, and maybe a blog. What we’ve started to notice is that podcasts are slowly becoming an essential communication tool in today’s marketing arsenal as well. 

More and more companies are realizing the enormous value a branded podcast brings – both externally and internally. It is one of the most cost-effective ways to showcase information, ideas, and your company’s mission and values. 

When thinking of how to integrate podcasts into your marketing department, it’s common for brands to only see the external benefits, i.e. how it impacts target audiences, clients, and other vendors. But podcasts can largely impact your corporate culture, internally. 

Keep reading to get insight into the 4 ways branded podcasts can directly boost your corporate culture. 

‍

1. Create Connection Between Employees and the Brand 

We all know storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to get your message across and bring an idea, product, or service to life. And stories told via an audio medium – like a podcast – have even greater meaning and ability to stay with customers and employees alike through their intimate-by-nature format. 

Branded podcasts help employees not only connect more with your company’s work but also better understand what problems you’re trying to tackle and give insight into the vision. 

When employees can connect with you and are all collectively clear on the mission and goals, it leads to a better corporate culture as everyone has a similar North Star. 

‍

2. Attract Quality Talent 

Branded podcasts can also serve to attract talent. They give future employees a sense of company culture, missions, values, and personality. They can explore why they might want to work for your company and also get a peek into some of your company’s leaders! 

Podcasts give them that insight, but also make the company look accessible, progressive and open. Attracting quality talent via podcasts not only helps bring in the right people but in turn, continues to build a solid internal corporate culture with like-minded individuals all working together. 

A goal of your branded podcast can even be recruitment. Although challenging to measure, you can create valuable content that’s targeting job titles that you’re looking to hire. 

‍

3. Encourage Engagement Through a Private, Internal Podcast

Branded podcasts can be positioned in a way that your company directly showcases its expertise – typically in an interview or discussion format – with internal leaders, experts and team members. 

This can be done through an external podcast but if your primary goal is corporate culture, an internal podcast that’s only available to employees is key. 

Examples of internal podcast formats: 

1. Focus on employee/company updates. Create a show where your company provides meaningful employee updates, accomplishments, and insights. To increase engagement even further, you can ask employees to send in questions before the episode for leadership to answer. Depending on the size of the company, this can be done as one podcast for the entire brand or be department-specific.  

2. Focus on education. Education doesn’t only need to be a goal for external audiences, it can also be emphasized internally. Whether you’re educating employees on the industry that your company works in or specific to their department (i.e. marketing, sales, HR, operations, etc.), share tips, tricks, and advice on how employees can expand on their knowledge and expertise. If you want to engage employees, even more, bring specialists from each department onto the podcast to share their insights. 

3. Focus on life outside of work. Some of your employees might be running the weekend marathon, volunteering at a local not-for-profit, or raising money for a cause close to their heart. Your branded podcast could have a section focused on work done by employees outside of their typical work scope. Employees will appreciate the opportunity and be excited to tune in when the episode goes live. This way they would also spread the word and encourage their colleagues to listen to it too. Remember, we are social animals and when individual talents are showcased, it helps in building a positive work environment from the inside out. 

‍

4. Build Thought Leadership & Pride

Your branded podcast might be sharing trends, insights, and tips in your area of expertise with internal employees and the rest of the world. When you focus on adding value to everyone turning in, you create meaningful content and position yourself/brand as a thought leader. 

When your company (and podcast) are seen as cutting edge, this helps put you on the map, and in turn, makes people proud to work there. All of this feeds into building a corporate culture that is rich, positive, plugged-in and energized.  

You’ve hit the jackpot if your branded podcast is something that your employees are excited and proud to share within their networks. As an added bonus, this also acts as a promotion tactic for your podcast and builds virality around your content. 

‍

The Importance of Creating Content for Corporate Culture

Since the pandemic, many companies and employees worldwide are struggling with the new normal. With work-from-home now leading to a hybrid working model, companies need to continue to come up with new and creative ways to engage with their workforce, stay connected, and also showcase empathy for their employees. 

Podcasts can do this in a way that almost no other traditional medium can. Branded podcasts – whether it is external or internal facing – can help your corporate culture grow and thrive in an authentic way.

If you’re interested in learning more or starting your own branded podcast, get in touch with the team at Quill.