Since the onset of the pandemic in the U.S., data from Acast has shown that podcasts aren’t just for your commute to work. In this episode, Tess Neudeck, Marketing Marketing, Americas for Acast, and Emily Binder talk all things podcasting:

How to turn networking into guests for your show
The future of podcasting
How to monetize your podcast

According to My Podcast Reviews, there are 1,200,000 podcasts and over 31 million podcast episodes as of June 2020. If you want to be successful in the podcasting, then this is one episode you won’t want to miss.

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Tess Neudeck:

Tess Neudeck currently serves as Manager of Marketing, Americas for Acast. She's responsible for shaping Acast’s marketing strategy across its 10,000+ podcasts, its advertiser business, and all of the products and services the company creates for podcasters, advertisers, and listeners.

Tess began her career on the agency side, spending more than eight years at Mediavest (now Spark Foundry) performing print and digital media planning/buying for a wide array of clients across almost every industry. Before Acast, she oversaw marketing at Urban Daddy and managed sales marketing for legendary brands like Sports Illustrated and Fortune.

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01:20: Meet Tess Neudeck.

02:30: The state of podcasting during the pandemic.

“Acast is the world's largest global podcast marketplace that provides premium hosting, distribution and monetization. Acast’s app and web service provides on-demand audio content enhanced by additional interactive media and links.” - Acast LinkedIn

“We’ve seen more than a 10% increase in listens since the pandemic started, and we are just noticing that commuting is clearly not the only place that people are listening and they’re replacing that with listening in other places and forms.” - Tess Neudeck

03:45: People are constantly listening to podcasts and utilizing smart speakers to do so. It’s a common misconception that people only listen to podcasts during their commute to work.

04:50: Smart speakers and podcasting. How can you optimize your podcast for smart speakers?

“Podcasting is such a natural — I would say the number one most natural form of content for smart speakers with it being hands-free, germ-free, convenient audio that’s voice first.” - Emily Binder

06:30: The future of monetizing podcasts (sponsorship, donations, ads, and more).

“It’s not necessarily how we operate at Acast to make anything fully exclusive; we were founded upon the ideas of truly the democratization of audio and making amazing, premium content available to everybody regardless of where you listen. So, we’re platform agnostic. Our shows are available wherever you get your podcasts.” - Tess Neudeck

Acast Open is simple, smart podcast hosting and monetization for all creators. Get a $25 Amazon Gift Card when you sign up for a year of hosting on Acast Open.

08:20: Paying for quality: Acast’s new supporter feature allows for donations/listener compensation to the creator. Acast wholeheartedly believes that creators should be compensated for their work and creativity in the audio media space.

10:30: Shake up your platform! What works for one podcaster in one genre of podcasting might not work for you. Don’t be afraid to step outside of the box and experiment.

11:10: The democratization of the media and podcasting: anyone can do it with the right tools and resources, but there has to be a plan in place. You have to put time, thought, and energy into preparing for your podcast for success.

Live podcast streaming has become increasingly popular throughout the pandemic. Photo by Kate Oseen on Unsplash

“What is your point of view? What do you have to say that’s unique?... Batch up those episodes so that you can churn them out on a weekly or bi-weekly basis so that your audience can come to expect that content from you because once they’re there, once they’re ready to listen, you need to be able to give them that content.” - Tess Neudeck

16:20: Know your niche. Podcasting is evolving into so much more than traditional genres. Here are some podcasts that Tess recommends:

21:20: What’s missing from podcasting right now, and could live streaming be a part of the next generation of podcasting?

Check out last week’s episode where we spoke with John Andrews and WallStreetBooyah about his live streaming financial news show on Twitch.