Podcast publishers need to make sure to cast a wide net to get as many listeners as possible. One way to do this is with an embeddable podcast player. Embeddable podcast players have plenty of benefits that can help you bring in more listeners and reach new audiences, but do they have any distinct advantages over listening podcast apps? Let’s take a deep dive into the primary differences between the two.
What Is an Embeddable Podcast Player?
Embedded audio players are basically tools that allow you to place your podcast anywhere outside of the biggest podcast apps. For instance, if you have a website, you can put an embeddable podcast player on the front page, so people can listen to an episode while browsing your site. With an embedded player, you are also able to embed your podcast on social media, web pages, blogs and much more. This allows you to be more versatile with how your podcast is found.
Why Not Use a Link?
Does an embeddable podcast player just sound like a more complicated version of a hyperlink? Well, that would be oversimplifying things. Sure, you could post a link to your podcast, but that’s going to add extra steps for the potential listener. They’ll have to click on the link, follow through to the podcast page, choose the episode and possibly download a podcast app if they don’t already have one. One of the biggest advantages of embeddable podcast players is that a user can simply come across the player, click on it and immediately start hearing your podcast episode. If you’re able to grab their attention this way, you might have just earned a new longtime listener. Of course, this is just one benefit; embeddable podcast players have more than a few perks.
Benefits of an Embeddable Podcast Player
Here are some of the biggest benefits of an embeddable podcast player.
Highly Customizable
Podcast players allow you to customize them and match them to your branding. Change the color scheme, add logos and much more to make your podcast player look like it belongs to your podcast. This customization allows you to stand out among other podcasts and immediately make an impression on your new potential listeners.
Added Accessibility Options
Many podcast players give you accessibility options, like synced transcripts of the podcast audio. Not only does this open up your podcast to a wider variety of listeners, but it also is great for your search engine optimization (SEO) overall. Plus, if someone doesn’t feel like listening right away or is in an environment where they can’t listen, they can read the transcript instead and you might draw them in that way.
Sharing on Social Media
Podcast players are easy for people to share on social media. The Backtracks embeddable audio player even allows you to post snippets, meaning your fans can share choice pieces of content with their followers, getting you more potential listeners without any effort on your part.
Versatility
As we mentioned before, the versatility that embedded audio players give you can’t be beat. You aren’t chained to a major podcast app when you use an embeddable player. You can get your podcast seen in all kinds of places. Most podcast players will work on any device, in any browser on any hosting provider, and they can even be embedded in apps.
Ease of Use
These players are extremely easy for both the listener and the publisher to use. They make it simple for you to customize your player and embed it where you want, which makes it easy for a listener to immediately start listening to your podcast and subscribe if they want it. Anything someone can do on a major podcast app they can do on your podcast player. Subscribing, downloading, sharing and listening have never been easier.
If you’re leaning toward using a podcast player in your podcast strategy, make sure that your player includes all of the above functions so you can make the most of it.
What Are Podcast Listening Apps?
If you’re a podcast publisher, you’re probably already familiar with the major podcast listening apps. Spotify and Apple are some of the biggest out there, and platforms like Backtracks also have podcast listening functions for you to use. So the next question you might have is:
If embeddable podcast players are so versatile and useful, why not just cut out podcast listening apps altogether?
Should I Stop Using Podcast Listening Apps?
Obviously podcast players have a ton of great benefits, but what about podcast listening apps? Does this mean we can just drop them forever? Definitely not. Podcast listening apps are still the most common way that people listen to and find podcasts. A podcast player isn’t meant to replace listening apps. Instead, it’s meant to supplement them and give you more ways to reach your audience. Podcast listening apps are great for getting your podcast out there and making sure people can find you on your favorite platform.
The best way to optimize the number of listeners you get is by ensuring your podcast is on a multitude of major listening platforms and making sure you create a great podcast player to use as needed. Using these tools in tandem will ensure that as many people as possible are able to come across your podcast and become fans.
Using Backtracks for All Your Podcast Needs
In summation, as a content publisher, you should be using every tool at your disposal to try to reach your target demographic. One tool that can make a big difference is Backtracks. Backtracks gives you a suite of tools to increase listeners. In addition, Backtracks has some of the most robust analytics tools that show you what makes your audience tick and how to optimize your content for your audience. See all of the features Backtracks has to offer and start mastering your podcast today.
