Should You Start a Podcast in 2021?

start a podcast

Podcasting is an industry that is growing exponentially in 2021. With mobile podcasts taking the media world by storm, you may be wondering if you should start your own podcast. Is there even enough room for you?

Today we wanted to speak to this and help you answer those two questions. If you’ll stick with us until the end, you’ll find enlightening statistics, real practical advice, and tips to help you along the way.

Should you start your own podcast?

Podcasting can be such a powerful tool for marketing and even bringing in steady income for yourself/your company. With the amount of money and listeners associated with the industry, it has a lot of people interested in jumping in headfirst. At this point in time, 2021 is the perfect time to start a podcast. Research shows that podcasting is on the verge of growing even more exponentially than ever before.

As of 2021 50% of all US homes are podcast fans (Nielsen, Aug 2017). That statistic is huge. Just think about it, 50% of homes in the United States are actively listening to podcasts to the point they consider themselves avid fans. Digging in a little deeper, 27% of US podcast listeners have a 4-year college degree – vs 19% for US pop. Higher education usually means more disposable income. 45% of monthly podcast listeners have a household income over $75K – vs 35% for the total population. Think of all the spending power that is being held by podcast listeners.

Between the sheer reach of podcasts in 2021 and the power held both financially and influence-wise by listeners there are strong incentives to start a podcast. Add in the powerful prediction that podcasting is just at the start of its growth pattern, it’s hard to deny starting a podcast.

Is there a space for you in the world of podcasting?

The short answer is yes. As we mentioned, podcasting is predicted to grow in the next 5 years more than ever before. Just last year 104 million people listened to a podcast in the last month. That’s 37% of the population up from 32% in 2019 (Infinite Dial 20).

With so many different people listening to podcasts, and often more than one of them, there is a space for you. From true crime podcasts to cooking podcasts and so much more there’s no shortage of genres and topics. Simply find a problem that your customers/listeners have and solve it or find a source of content that will entertain or teach them something. You can even get more niche if it best fits your audience, and still make money off ads if you need to. Companies today care more about the quality of your listener audience than the quantity.

So, you may be ready to jump right into podcasting! It sounds too good to be true, right? 

Well, yes, but there is a catch. Podcasting takes a lot of consistency and time. You can’t just throw a podcast out there whenever you have time or whenever you feel like it. A majority of successful podcasts have a regular weekly time they share a new podcast. Listeners expect and crave consistency. If you don’t have the ability in your schedule, podcasting may not be the right fit for you.

Another caveat is learning the tools of the trade. We don’t bring this up to scare you, just to inform you. Consider if you have a space to record your podcast and if you can afford things like a real microphone and an intro to your podcast. Even if you start with basic, cheap equipment it’s best to just get started. We recommend looking up simple “how-to” videos on YouTube to learn common starter pieces to help you out.

One helpful tool you need to think about is the content you’ve already produced. You may be able to take YouTube video content and pull the audio to start your podcast. This can be a huge asset when it comes to starting your podcast. Repurposed content like blog topics can be another great source of conversation topics.

Now that you know the basic statistics and topics to think about when it comes to considering starting a podcast in 2021 it’s up to you. If you do decide to get started, know that it’s more important to just get started than to make sure everything is perfect. Some of the best, most influential podcasts started with a person sitting in their car with a set of cheap apple headphones. You can do this.

Was this article helpful? If you have any other questions about digital marketing, please feel free to contact us directly at https://fusiononemarketing.com/contact-us.