It’s my favorite time of year.
I don’t mean Halloween, although I dearly love giving candy to small children dressed as cartoon characters — it’s time to share the results of the latest, and dare I say greatest Podcasting for Business Report.
This report, which we’ve been releasing since 2020 is a deep dive analysis into the top 100 business podcasts, where we evaluate each of the top 100 shows on over 60 different criteria to look at industry trends and establish baseline best practices for podcasting as a business owner.
Today is all about that sweet, sweet data. It’s been an interesting year for business podcasting! We’ve seen big changes this year, in social media usage, sponsorships, and network participation — there are some great takeaways for you to apply to your own show.
And the numbers are just nifty.
I’ve pulled some of the most interesting takeaways to share with you here today.
I strongly recommend that, if you haven’t already done so, you download a copy of the report here to get the whole story!
Listen to the episode below or continue reading the blog post:
The Podcasting for Business Conference is happening this November — learn more about it here!
Highlights from The State of Business Podcasting Report
Changes in release cadence
This year there were fewer daily and weekly releases, but more twice and thrice weekly releases, although weekly remains the most popular. Monday, Wednesday, and Tuesday are the most popular days for weekly shows to drop new episodes.
New data!
This year we looked at whether the top 100 shows were B2B or B2C focused. We looked specifically at niche, show presentation, and types of engagement requests to make the evaluation, and we discovered some interesting differences between the two types, like that 29% of B2B shows were video first, but 50% of B2C ones were.
Cover Art Style
Images of the hosts in cover art have dramatically increased compared to last year, with far fewer shows using graphics or typography only. This year 73% of the shows we looked at had a host image in the cover art, compared to 50% last year.
Unique Episode Art
Having a unique piece of art for each episode has been gradually growing in popularity, and this year it took the lead in Business podcasts, with 40% having unique art in podcast players, 12% having unique art on their websites (but not in players) and 4% using different art to denote different types of episodes.
Hooks are Back
After a 2 year decline, hooks or sizzle clips have surged back into popularity among the top 100 business shows. Separately recorded segments or content pulled from the body of episodes are used in about 60% of the top 100, compared to less than half last year.
Indie Podcasts on the Rise
There was a significant dip in the number of the top 100 Business podcasts in networks this year: 40% compared to 66% last year, and 51% in 2022.
Less Sponsorship Overall
Fewer podcasts had external sponsors this year, 60% down from 78%, and more were focused on promoting their own products, services, and communities.
More Accessibility
More top 100 business podcasts are sharing full transcripts of episodes this year. This is probably due to AI transcripts being higher quality and less expensive, and it’s a win for making your content available to more people.
Changing the Relationship
Opt-ins on podcast episode pages have increased hugely this year, from less than 10% to 34% of shows offering a resource, community, or other bonus for opting in, indicating a move towards converting podcast listeners to email subscribers.
Overall Trend in Social Media
All of the platforms had more top show accounts this year, but usage patterns have really changed, with moderate usage being replaced by very little or heavy usage. The takeaway here is to have a presence on all of the social media platforms- but go deep where your audience is.
Video Podcasts
48 percent of the podcasts we looked at are “video first,” and 46% of the top 100 link directly to YouTube from their homepage. Most of the top 100 business podcasts seem to still consider the audio version the most important, with 95% and 92% linking to Spotify and Apple Podcasts respectively.
Episodes on YouTube
More shows had YouTube accounts, but a smaller percentage of the top 100 shows with YouTube Channels put full episodes on them. This might mean that non-podcast video strategies are considered more important on the channel.
Final Thoughts
I hope I’ve sufficiently whetted your appetite for more data! We look at how shows start and end, how they’re edited, how often podcast content is shared on social media, how common guests vs solo episodes are… I’m really just getting started.
There are dozens of interesting data points for you to look at and consider as you make strategic decisions for your podcast — and we’ve got a companion video that shares the year-over-year comparison and our recommendations based on the trends. You can get the whole report and watch the companion video that gives a more detailed analysis and a year-over-year comparison here.
If you have a community that would be interested in this type of data, reach out to me at Megan@OneStoneCreative.net to talk about getting a guest post or interview for your folks I’m always happy to talk about the data!
The Podcasting for Business Conference 2024
You’ll also want to make sure you’re registered for this year’s Podcasting for Business Conference. It’s happening in about two weeks and We’ve got networking events, we’ve got expert presentations, we’ve got live Q and A with industry leaders — I’ll go so far as to say we’ve got everything you need to take your podcast to the next level in terms of profitability. Grab your ticket here.
Podcasting for Business – The Book
In case you haven’t gotten it yet, my book Podcasting for Business: How to Create a Show That Makes a Bottom Line Difference for Your Company, is available now!
If you think your podcast should be a little bit more profitable (or a lot more profitable), I highly recommend that you check it out.
There’s going to be some great information there for you.
Be A Guest on The Company Show
Do you have a podcast that’s making a major difference in your business or know one that is? Fill out this contact form and let us know about it.
We’d love to have you here for an episode like this one!
Need A Podcast?
As always, this is Megan Dougherty, and The Company Show was made possible by the team at One Stone Creative.
If you know a business owner that you think should have a podcast, do us a favor and send them to podcastingforbusiness.com!
Resources
One Stone Creative | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
- Order the book, Podcasting for Business
Learn about what other business podcasters are doing: