Did you know that by 2016, more than 76% of Americans are going to listen to audio through their digital devices? Or that Pandora tops its competitors in digital advertising revenue and registered users?
Insights like these are comforting for digital marketers who want to know how, when, and where users are interacting with media. Audio is the future, and we are listening. The following are the top three takeaways from The Daily Egg’s infographic, “Is Audio is the Next Big Thing for Digital Marketing?”:
1. Audio is portable, engaging, and hands-free.
The average American’s commute to work is 26.4 minutes, all of which can be filled with audio content. While your video marketing strategy might not be the right approach for a commuter, audio content is ideal. You can create an audiobook from one of your popular eBooks or White Papers, record a podcast or “radio show” (use licensed music if you do!), or record some of your more popular blog posts as “audio blogs”. Just make sure you use an audio player or delivery method that is mobile friendly. We like JPlayer because it doesn’t use flash and works on mobile devices.
2. One in three Americans have listened to a Podcast.
That’s a lot of people who are listening to audio content. Slate Magazine, a leader in digital media, has over 1 million podcast downloads per month. Podcasting is an area of content creation that was in vogue for a while, fell out of favor, and is now making a comeback. There are many ideas for your next podcast, but we encourage you to get started as soon as possible and go from there. If you’re not sure about the equipment you’re using or how to edit out mistakes in your recording, you can send your files to an audio production company for editing.
3. From 2011 – 2012, registered users on Pandora have increased by over 122 million. Newcomer Spotify has 32.8 million registered users.
This is accompanied with a $120 million increase in advertising revenue – most users of these “Freemium” services are not signing up for paid accounts, which means they periodically hear advertisements. Like any advertising effort, it’s best to approach streaming radio with careful copywriting and targeted messaging.
What do you think? Are you using audio as part of your content marketing efforts? Is podcasting in your future? Let us know in the comments, and check out the full infographic:
Infographic brought to you by Crazy Egg Analytics