Serial Podcasting For Brands

Forbes published an article that posed an interesting idea for how companies can shake up their digital marketing: by podcasting.

Although Forbes articles rarely catch my attention (sorry but it's true), the author called out podcasts as "a chance to build a solid virtual relationship with your listeners."  They also rank very well in Google, and have a history of increasing traffic and conversion rates.  The author says to be successful in this space, brands should not build content about its product or services, but about topics customers who use that product or service are interested in.   I have been a huge podcast downloader for years -- it's my favorite way to spend my subway commute.  And given Serial's recent enormous success for NPR (1.26 million downloads per episode), it seems there really is a growing audience for them.  I know that when I've already gone through all my weekly shows by Wednesday, I am looking for more content to pass the time on the 6 train.  Brands have a real opportunity to fill that gap -- they just need to keep it interesting.