More and more lately, I’ve been stumbling across podcast feeds that are web-”rebroadcasts” of professionally produced and aired radio shows, like SportsBloggersLive and WebTalkRadio. I’ve noticed that many of them mention the fact that they are also accessible as live audio streams. Talk about blanket market coverage – having mass media relevance with traditional radio listeners; those accessing the content via streaming platforms who geographically wouldn’t be able otherwise to tune in; and the mobile, time-shifted nature of the podcast community. One might justifiably consider this the Holy Trinity of Internet content.
And so it goes. The traditional radio broadcasters are learning how to evolve, and that’s a good thing. If you’re a marketing and advertising-type person trying to figure out how to get into Podcasting, think Holy Trinty with regards to your strategy.
I’m getting a lot of questions about how a business should utilize Podcasting to improve their branding, increase sales, and so forth. It all starts with finding a niche for your Podcast idea – or locating someone who’s already in your niche and explore how you can utilize what they have created or make it better with additional funding. Let it run for a while so it can capture good stats. If it looks like it’s gaining traction with an increase in listeners, give some thought to how you can expand the listener base by implementing search engine visibility strategies and RSS aggregators.
One critical point here that most people are missing is the importance of copious show notes for each program. It’s not easy, but if you’re going to fund a show, make sure you have a budget that includes audio editing AND text editing. The more text you make available (with links) about a show, the greater opportunity you have for visibility in the search engines. Once you do this, the show will live for eternity on the Internet, and be significantly easier to find by your newer audiences in the future. The more shows you produce, the more dividends this search engine visibility will pay. In some ways, this is like blogging.
I recommend that you experiment with your Podcast program and solicit feedback – all the time. Whether you are producing it yourself or you’ve hired someone who’s already successful in your niche, make sure you stay current and focus on keeping the content fresh. Audio quality is important. There are those who might disagree with me here, but I believe people like listening to audio that sounds good to them. If there is a lot of background or equipment noise, if the microphone is low quality, if the editing is poor – then over time I can imagine your listeners will simply drift away. Remember, radio companies have quality audio production in their favor. They have the experience and the investment already in “commercial-grade” gear. Your program will eventually be judged on its sonic quality as well as the quality of its content.
Make the Podcast available via streaming, download, and RSS, then watch your stats. What we’re seeing is that the vast majority of Podcasts are being transferred using RSS, followed by downloads, with streaming coming in last. Still, you should offer all three. It’s like when you go to the grocery store and they ask you at checkout if you want paper or plastic. People like options to match up with their lifestyle, so don’t constrain them.
Again, create a healthy set of show notes for each program and make sure you’ve included useful keywords on each page. Dedicate a page for each program; don’t just cram them all on one page. If you can, run a poll on your website where people first come to find out about your Podcast program. This is a good time to see what kind of user feedback you can capture. Once they start pulling the Podcasts via RSS, you will be less likely to get them back to the website for a poll.
Over time, I’ll be developing these notes and comments on how to create and promote Podcasts. I just wanted to get this out of my head and into the blog as a starting point.
