Podcasts are hot, and marketers everywhere are jumping on board. It’s no secret that our team loves podcasts. Every conversation in the office starts with, “So I was listening to this podcast….” (it’s true).
Because we’re addicted to content in our earbuds, we often get asked – “What are your favorite podcasts?” or “What podcasts should I listen to?”
It’s time to answer that and share 10 of the best podcasts that we think every marketing director should listen to.
Quick caveat: There are more to add to this list, but we had to keep it manageable, especially if you’re already binging on a few favorites of your own! If you think we missed one on this list, or if you have a podcast that we should consider adding, please comment on this post!
Ok, here we go, in no particular order…
1. The Buffer Podcast
Put out by the social media gurus over at Buffer.com, this podcast covers a wide range of topics from social media to psychology. It’s not just reserved for people who use buffer, as the insights cover social media as whole. They do a great job of tackling the full breadth of topics that marketers need to know when it comes to social – though most of the advice centers around platforms that their tool can publish to. There are fantastic show notes to accompany each episode as well.
Listen online / Listen on iTunes
2. Perpetual Traffic
If you’re curious about how to drive more traffic to your website, and want some advice from people who have actually done it…then this is the show for you. The Perpetual Traffic Podcast has released more than 160 weekly episodes about generating traffic to your website, primarily through paid ads. The hosts are great at offering actionable advice for generating more leads and sales for your business through channels like Facebook advertising. For a show like this, since there are hundreds of episodes, we suggest you start on an episode like #100, where they talk about the 10 biggest takeaways from the first 100 episodes. This may clue you in to a few episodes that are packed with information and a great place to start.
Listen online / Listen on iTunes
3. How I Built This
Produced by NPR, this podcast is a favorite among marketers, entrepreneurs, and business leaders from all industries. Featuring some of the most famous stories of our time – from TOMS shoes and Spanx to Kate Spade and Slack, the podcast host interviews the founders of these very famous companies, and finds the nuggets of their story. Get excited as they start their journey, feel the heartache as they experience failure and loss, and cheer for the underdog when a larger company tries to come in and shut them down. It’s the making of Hollywood content, but it’s a story we all want to live. We agree the story is great, but there are a lot of nuggets of marketing wisdom in each episode. Definitely give it a listen.
Listen online / Listen on iTunes
Here's my personal favorite episode...enjoy :)
4. Skill Up (HubSpot’s Podcast)
We had to have one from HubSpot on this list, right? HubSpot’s podcast helps you skill up on SEO and content marketing. It’s full of practical, applicable advice for driving more traffic, more leads, and more customers to your website. Just like their blog, leave it to HubSpot to create audio content that helps educate and inform their audience about inbound marketing! Season 1 is online now and focuses primarily on SEO. Whether you’re new to the SEO world or have been doing it for a while, you probably know that you need good and consistent content to rank well. Writing Content That Ranks is covered in Episode 3 of this podcast. SEO is not just about keyword optimization and it is constantly updating. This podcast will keep you updated on SEO trends and help you improve your inbound strategy.
Listen online / Listen on iTunes
5. Everyone Hates Marketers
This is a fairly new favorite, but it’s definitely in the top “must-listens” each week. It’s a no B.S. show that breaks down different marketing topics with experts ranging from highly specialized UI/UX consultants to big brand authors and gurus like Seth Godin. The host, Louie, works at HotJar but started this podcast as a hobby to help rid the world of sleazy, shady marketing. And people love it. He’s French, so the accent is thick, but it plays well into calling out the B.S. that exists in the space. Warning – there is a bit of profanity on this one, but it’s par for the course.
Listen online / Listen on iTunes
6. Marketing School
Neil Patel and Eric Su are thought leaders in the digital marketing space. They’ve been heralded by publications and conferenes alike, offering insight into their own experiments, hacks, and growth ideas for at least a decade. In this podcast, they break down specific tactical things you can do to achieve results in marketing. The episodes are very short (typically less than 10 minutes) and typically features a lot of tools and tactical advice. You may want to grab a pen for this one, as you’ll want to put their advice into practice for yourself.
Listen online / Listen on iTunes
7. Social Media Marketing Talk Show
How in the world does social media change so quickly? Before we began listening to this show, we realized the digital world changed quickly, but not lightning fast. Well, this show breaks down all of the changes that have happened in the social media space in the last week. Yes, 60 MINUTES OF CONTENT about what’s new in social each week! That’s mind boggling to think about. Produced by social media examiner, the show features interviews with experts and those who are deep into specific networks and tools. One of our favorite features is the “in the wild” where they talk about a specific feature that a social network may be piloting as someone reported it in the feed, but it’s not publicly announced yet. In addition to iTunes, this show is livestreamed on Facebook and also featured on YouTube.
Listen online / Listen on iTunes
8. TED Radio Hour
Technology, entertainment, and design – what the three letters in “TED” stand for – are pillars for creativitiy and innovation. We value these attributes in marketing and find incredible inspiration from the TED stage. However, if you go to TED.com, you’ll be overwhelmed by the sheer number of TED talks that you can watch – even if you narrow down your topic area! So, let this show do the heavy lifting and sorting for you. Produced by NPR, the TED Radio Hour takes TED talks that have similar topics, such as “creativity” and then features snippets from the talks, along with behind the scenes interviews with the speakers, to create a powerful 40-50 minutes of content about a specific thing. It’s philosophical in nature and less tactical than many of the other shows on this list, which is a breath of fresh air in our opinion!
Listen online / Listen on iTunes
9. Trailblazers
We’re living in a time of disruption. It seems like every day there is a new technology or something that we used to know is no longer the standard. This podcast, brought to you by Dell Technologies, is hosted by Walter Isaacson (the same guy who wrote Steve Jobs’ biography). It explores digital disruption and innovators using tech to enable human progress. The neat thing about this podcast, is they take you back to where many of the disruptions began – giving you a more complete picture of where we began (such as in the car industry), how we got to where we are today, and what the state of current events can tell us about the prediction of the future.
Listen online / Listen on iTunes
10. The Marketing Book Podcast
Ask any marketer what books they should read to broaden their perspective or advance their career and they’ll give you a list of their favorites. But then you ask another marketer, and you may get a few new ones. Soon your list is a mile high and you can’t possibly read them all. This podcast is the answer – why read a marketing book when you can get the cliff notes on a podcast? This podcast has over 170 episodes, so you’ll probably want to go through their feed and figure out which books you want to dig into first.
Listen online / Listen on iTunes
Conclusion
Podcasts are a great way to learn from other marketers and gain inspiration for campaigns, innovation, copy, tactics, and more. This short list are some of our favorites, but we know there are many more out there.
Drop us a note below and let us know if there’s a show you’d recommend adding to this list!
