“Podcasting is a long-term strategy to build audiences,” says Sarah Mitchell

Staff Writer

Sarah Mitchell was initially sceptical of podcasting until she started doing it herself. She now sees the huge potential it can have for companies looking to connect with audiences.

Mitchell is Director of Content Strategy at Lush Digital Media, an international award-winning content-marketing company founded by James Lush, until recently, former Breakfast Show presenter at 720 ABC Perth.

“It takes a while to build an audience,” says Mitchell, “I think one of the problems we have in business is we’re still very attached to the kind of results that you used to get in advertising in the ’60s and ’70s. And content marketing in general takes time, takes patience, and you have to chip away at it one week at a time.”

Mitchell, herself, was not convinced that podcasting was worth the time and effort when James Lush created their own podcast, Brand Newsroom, in 2014.

“When we started Brand Newsroom,” Mitchell recalls, “I remember we were about two months in and [Managing Director of Media Stable] Nic Hayes and I were looking at the stats and I think we had 19 people that had listened to one of our episodes. And that was quite depressing because we’d put a lot of effort into producing that episode.

“But then when we got talking to each other we realised that that 19 – between he and I and our families – we probably accounted for 11 of those!

“We sat there and thought … ‘Is this worth our time?’ And we presented this idea to James Lush that maybe this wasn’t really going to work or wasn’t very effective.”

“[Lush] said, ‘You just can’t take this short-term approach. This is a long-term play. So, let’s revisit it in a year and see where we’re at.’

“And I’m so glad he took that view because if we go back and look at the stats on that episode now, I think it’s hovering around a thousand.

“This is the great thing, we know that when people find an episode of our podcast – and it’s true of every podcast – they will start over at the beginning and listen to the back catalogue.”

“I’m glad we stuck with it.

Sarah Mitchell’s interview is from Episode 8 of the highly-regarded podcast series on Australia’s podcasting industry, BE Podcasting – Engage Your Audience.

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