Summer Listening: 5 Best Podcasts for Marketers in 2020

With these marketing podcasts, you can brush up on relevant skills while working from home

Today’s news cycle seems to move at top speed, and the world of digital marketing is shifting just as quickly. Now more than ever, it’s essential that marketers keep up with expert conversations and stay aware of the atmosphere among consumers.

Thankfully, digital media offers several avenues for catching up, including podcasts! Check out the following series to gain useful insights from particularly engaging minds:

1. Marketing Over Coffee

If you’re looking for rich marketing insights that are insightful and to-the-point, Marketing Over Coffee is for you. Each week hosts John J. Wall and Christopher S. Penn discuss topics ranging from SEO to social campaigns, to impactful offline marketing. What helps Marketing Over Coffee stand out is its casual presentation. Each episode is about twenty minutes long — the time it takes to finish a cup of coffee — which is a perfect length for commutes or to jump-start your day.

Where to start: Marketing Over Coffee maintains a list of its most popular episodes, including several chats with industry legend, Seth Godin.

2. Community Karma

Community Karma succeeds at many things. At its core, the series explores community branding with an emphasis on holistic perspectives. It also has a goal of building connections within the marketing community itself by highlighting unique campaigns and initiatives. But where Community Karma really shines is its joy and excitement for the field, as represented by enthusiastic hosts, Erin Jones and Carrie Hill.

Where to start: Community Karma’s recent episodes make holistic recommendations for adapting to COVID-19, but don’t overlook classics like how to be “awesome” during a crisis.

3. The Science of Social Media

Buffer runs a fantastic marketing blog, but it’s not always possible to play its articles in the background. That’s where The Science of Social Media comes in, exploring anything and everything related to social media marketing. If you want to understand social media platforms, listen to guests like Mari Smith, or find inspiration for new campaign techniques – this podcast is for you.

Where to start: Last January, The Science of Social Media re-released its classic episode “The 7 Important Skills You Need to Be a Successful Social Media Marketer,” and the advice is as relevant as ever.

4. Marketing School

Neil Patel and Eric Siu need little introduction in the modern marketing world, so imagine them together in Single Grain’s Marketing School. The end result is a richly informative podcast filled with nuanced but actionable advice that you can digest within ten minutes.

And the best part? They release a new Marketing School episode every day.

Where to start: With new daily episodes, you can safely dive into any recent episode and know that you’re listening to something immediately relevant.

5. Throughline

One thing to remember about marketing is that you can’t only pay attention to marketers. Sometimes the best lessons and inspirations come from history, or art, or an anecdote. To that end, I’d recommend giving NPR’s Throughline a listen. This podcast explores current day events through the perspective of history and testing the old saying — “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Where to start: With COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protests in full swing, Throughline has no shortage of relevant topics to discuss. Recent episodes look at everything from public perceptions of protective masks to how today’s racial climate resembles the year 1868.

This list is just a sampling of shows you can listen to from your favorite podcast outlet. Whether you choose these podcasts or search out others, always find something that can challenge your assumptions, expand your mind, and help you become a better marketer.