Podcasting for Brands in 2024: Navigating Thought Leadership and Storytelling - Brand Podcast Summit

In the rapidly evolving landscape of marketing, podcasts have proven to be a powerful tool for brands to connect with their audiences, and position themselves as thought leaders. At the January Brand Podcast Virtual Summit, we invited marketing leaders Lynn Teo of Northwestern Mutual, Roy Sexton of Clark Hill Law, and Nick Howard of Boston Consulting Group, to discuss "Podcasting for Brands in 2024," shedding light on the trends, challenges, and best practices within their podcasting experiences. 

In this post, we’re sharing the common insights and trends that the panelists discussed. If you’d like to watch the whole discussion, you’ll find it at the end of this post.

The Power of Expertise and Storytelling

Embracing a Multifaceted Approach

As Lynn Teo thoughtfully states we can think of the impact of podcasting through her 4 E’s. Podcasting has proven to be an excellent medium for delivering Expertise, Engaging in dialogue, Educating, and Entertaining audiences. 

Each panelist emphasized that the key to a successful podcast lies in striking a balance between offering thought leadership and engaging storytelling. While thought leadership and educational content allow expert guests and hosts to go deeper into complex topics through rich discussions and interviews, storytelling enables the show to share the content in a more captivating and relatable manner.

Storytelling often gets misunderstood, as Nick Howard put it. It doesn’t always have to be a scripted narrative with clear characters, but he notes that experts can be especially compelling when they can incorporate anecdotes and examples into how they share their expertise.

Achieving Balance and Harmonizing Objectives

Lynn Teo also emphasized another important factor in brand podcasting which is the need to find a balance between expanding the podcast's audience and fostering engagement. We can do this in podcasting by personalizing the content and incorporating storytelling elements to create emotional connections with the audience.

Overcoming Common Pitfalls 

Our panelists shared valuable insights into the common mistakes and pitfalls brands may encounter when venturing into podcasting. 

They emphasized the significance of defining ownership and avoiding over-reliance on individual hosts. 

Roy Sexton highlighted an error he had seen of letting the  "tail wag the dog", letting a podcast idea run free, and focusing on something that wasn’t necessarily sustainable, then later trying to rein it back in for clarity and purpose. They had focused brand podcasts around one member of the team, but when the team changed, they had to start new. This can be a challenge for companies who build up content around an individual, rather than a larger message.

On the other hand, discussion ensued about the ways audiences often relate to a host. Podcasting, even for big brands, feels very intimate and listeners often develop a strong connection and familiarity with the host. So, this is something for organizations to think about in their strategy and how they structure and manage company podcasts.

Aligning Podcasting with Organizational Goals

The panel discussion emphasized aligning podcast strategies with organizational objectives and integrating podcasts within the overall marketing plan. They underscored the significance of integrating podcasts as a tool for audience growth and engagement, as well as educational and thought leadership positioning, serving as a part of the broader marketing strategy.

Looking forward to 2024

When asked what each brand was looking forward to in podcasting in 2024, they shared with us their concerns and thoughts for this year’s projects.

Roy has his sights set on keeping Clark Hill Law on target, they’ve now been podcasting for some time, and have found that in the world of law, there are so many areas to explore. They built up great content around strong personalities on their team, and now they want to continue to focus on great quality podcasting that reflects the Clark Hill brand.

Nick mentioned he knows there will be a lot of push for video podcasting and implementing AI into the workflow, but he agrees with Roy to stay on target and focus on what they do best: providing content that their audience finds value in. While video podcasting is on the rise, panelists were cautious about how to best approach this potential opportunity without losing focus on good audio storytelling.

Conclusion

As the podcasting landscape continues to evolve, brands are navigating podcasting as a way of mastering storytelling and the potential opportunities of thought leadership. By leveraging storytelling to humanize expertise and infusing educational content with emotional connections, brands can create compelling and engaging podcast content. Striking a balance between audience expansion and engagement, integrating podcasts into the broader marketing strategy, and leveraging creative storytelling are the keys to success in podcasting for brands in 2024.

You can watch the full discussion lead by Shannon Martin here: https://branded-podcast-summit-january.heysummit.com/replays/

Contact Shannon and our team at Lower Street if you are looking forward to podcasting for your brand this year.