Market Your Business With Podcasting!

A podcast is a collection of audio or video files that can be easily downloaded to any portable player and mobile devices. You can store it in your mobile device and listen to it any time you wish. It was the famous computer based company Apple gave life to podcasting through the iPod in the year 2004. But, in the present trend it is not compulsory to use an ipod to listen to podcast, as it can be downloaded and stored even in personal computers.

Advantages and uses

* You can store the podcast in your computer for any number of days and listen to it even when you are not connected to the internet.

* You can subscribe for a podcast once and download the new podcasts automatically. Updating podcasts is very easy and quick.

* Of all the latest technologies available for developing the business, podcasting is the best one in terms of cost and as well as in quality. You can quickly communicate the message to the audience who is living millions & millions of miles away.

* Through podcasting the content and information is reached to the audience exactly how you want to convey. So, you will gain only loyal customers through podcasting marketing.

* Podcasting is the latest and innovative technology used by marketers. Normally, business people grab the audience through article writing to their website and make them read the contents. Podcasting is not so. You can save it in your mobile and listen to it while you are jogging, driving, hiking or working. You can conveniently listen to it any number of times.

* Some time your key employees may fail to attend the conference and presentations due to personal problems. In such cases, you can update the message to them through podcasting.

* Details of every new product you launch can be updated to your sales representatives using this latest program.

* Distribution of podcasting is simple. Especially, submitting and publishing your podcast through social network directories will have great impact with the audience.

Podcasting technology will turn out to be a successful one, if you follow certain tips. The podcasts should be short in length and should carry only quality information. This is just like video marketing, so people will not spend more than 3 or 4 minutes to listen to your video file. Using a quality podcast you can build cordial and long term relationship with your customers.

Internet Marketing - Using Podcasts   Six Benefits of Podcasting   The Benefits of Starting a Podcast   Podcast Transcription: Converting the Spoken to the Written   

Market Your Business With Podcasting

A podcast is defined as a series of digital media files mostly in the audio format. Apple's very popular portable media player iPod formed the basis of the term podcasting. In fact, the term has been coined from the words "pod" and "broadcasting". Podcasting gained instant popularity in the year 2004, and today, online businesses use it as a powerful online marketing tool.

Some advantages of podcasting are:

• Podcasts are downloaded by interested customers and thus, they remain stored in their computers and media players till they want to hear them. • New software and setups allow newly added podcasts to get automatically delivered to subscribers. • Podcasts target audiences that are interested in listening to the content you provide.

From the business point of view, here are some advantages of podcasting in the field of online marketing:

• Podcasts can spread the business message to the global audience. • A regular mode of communication with listeners and customers is established through podcasting. • Value-added content is supplied to subscribers that that make up a significant percent of the loyal audience. • Podcasts increase the market visibility of the business and also have a positive affect on sales and conversion rates.

Here are some ways to make use of podcasting as a useful online marketing tool:

Providing News and Updates to Subscribers

The subscribers to your business website podcasts receive news and updates about your business and products on a regular basis. Whether it is the opening of a new branch, launch of a new website, or an announcement for a new business product, the information is effectively delivered by podcasts to the subscribers.

Establishing Internal Marketing

For a business to grow online and offline, it is important to keep all employees involved in various company events. Podcasts can help you establish internal marketing within the organization, which further translates to efficient external marketing. Here are some ways of doing so:

• Business presentations and conferences that are not attended by all employees can be podcasted to keep them updated. • Sales representatives can be easily updated on new products and guidelines using podcasts.

Marketing Your Business Expertise

Podcasting helps a business group create programs that offer guidance, suggestions and advice, and solve common queries of the customers. You can involve the expert members of your staff in discussions that can be recorded as podcasts and made available to subscribers. This maintains the interest of subscribers to keep in touch with the podcasts released by you.

Podcast the Business Feedbacks

Podcasts are quick ways to inform subscribers about the feedback received by the business in the market. You can integrate customer feedback in regular podcasts and make them available on the internet. It is a good way to make an impression on those who have recently joined your podcast subscriber list.

Distribute Your Podcasts

Podcasts can be easily distributed across the web by submitting them to online directories. The links to podcasts can also be distributed on social media marketing platforms. This helps enhance the market reach of your business.

How to Make Podcasts Effective

Here are some useful tips to make the best out of podcasting for online business marketing:

• Just like online videos, podcasts must be short in length, but should carry valuable information for subscribers. • Quality is an important factor in podcasting. For this, you must use popular recording devices and editing software. • It is important to make the content informative and entertaining to bind the interest of the listeners. • Regularly update the content of the podcasts, and don't allow much gap between two consecutive podcasts. • Make sure to submit podcasts to genuine online directories and search engines.

Podcasting provides a great opportunity for online businesses to regularly communicate with their targeted prospects. Remember that podcasting is the medium to build up long-relationships with the customers and to enhance the brand value of your business.

Internet Marketing - Using Podcasts   Six Benefits of Podcasting   The Benefits of Starting a Podcast   Podcast Transcription: Converting the Spoken to the Written   

Why Podcasting Works

You've probably heard by now that you should have a podcast. That podcasts are an excellent tool that should be in every learning content product marketer's toolkit. That they increase traffic. That they increase reputation. That they are wonderful marketing tools.

But why does podcasting work?

In this article I'm going to share seven reasons why podcasting works. Of course there are many other reasons. But here are the seven that first came to mind as I thought about why podcasting works.

1. People like them.

It's always easier to market with a media that people like for its own sake. People tolerate sales letters. People try not to let ads get to them. People try to ignore video ads. But a podcast isn't perceived as advertising. They're perceived to be an information or learning content product. Sort of a mini-teleseminar. They're convenient and they're well accepted.

2. They are personal.

Only video is a more personal medium than audio. Podcasts give people a chance to listen to you in action. They get to hear your passion. They get to hear your emotions. Podcasts give people the sense that you are accessible to your audience.

3. They provide short bytes of information.

We are busy today. There's no other way to put it. We're so busy that we are having difficulty absorbing the information -- the stimuli -- that are being aimed at us. Podcasts provide information in short, easily absorbed chunks.

4. They are regular and repeating.

Podcasts are generally released on a weekly basis. But whatever the schedule they are regular and recurring. That means that the message they are carrying -- whether that be reputation, branding or something else -- is regularly repeated and reinforced.

5. They are easy to do.

Podcasts don't really require a lot of equipment. Nor do they require a great deal of thought. A headset and computer with a copy of Audacity is quite sufficient. A basic outline of the points to be raised and a clock is all that one needs to produce a podcast. Complex outlines of multiple chapters and hundreds of points are not required.

6. They are quick to create.

Because podcasts are relatively simplistic and short, they are very quick to create. They don't take a lot of time. A fifteen minute show can be scripted, recorded and edited within about two hours.

7. They are inexpensive to distribute.

Bandwidth costs. Podcasts are relatively inexpensive since they can be recorded at a fairly low quality and still sound good. As a result they don't cost very much to distribute. Not only that, but there are free podcasting services which will distribute your podcast for you.

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Virtual Coaching Business Models That Leverage Podcasting and Teleseminars

Virtual coaching business is big business. If you are a service professional or engage in any kind of consultative expertise from industrial equipment design, to medical practice to marketing consulting, you can create a powerful marketing stream or profit center through podcasting and teleseminars.

Virtual coaching and consulting has grown alongside capabilities in online collaboration and communication. With both coaching and online collaboration growing by leaps and bounds, fast moving entrepreneurs have moved in with innovative business models that leverage both trends.

5 Virtual Coaching & Consulting Business Models

The following sections illustrate how different criteria can be combined or split up to form business designs that appear unique as a whole but share much the same fundamental characteristics. Each model can be enhanced by using teleseminars or podcasting tools.

1. Digital Infopreneur

An infopreneur business model rests on the ability to spot the informational challenges facing a market segment and to aggregate, package and promote an informational bundle that meets the needs of that market segment. A digital infopreneur accelerates the whole cycle by using the online channel as her primary platform for market research, information gathering, product creation and distribution.

Due to the low overhead of doing business mostly on the internet, a digital infopreneur business can often grow very quickly while maintaining significant profit margins. One of my favorite ways to get infopreneurs started is through the use of teleseminars and podcasting systems for lead generation and information product creation.

2. Virtual Counseling

A coaching client of mine was able to convert their marriage counseling business from a local scope to a national and international one. We did this by adding virtual counseling capabilities to their website. More than just sticking up a website and advertising nationally, virtual counseling involves the ability to turn generic counseling needs into a packaged list of situational and service themes.

By carefully segmenting the marketplace for degree of severity, desired counseling time frame and demographics, you can convert your expertise into a powerfully pre-selling content marketing system that attracts just the right people. In addition, you can use free tools like freeconferencecalling.com to give people an organized way to interact with you and receive optional access to recorded sessions.

3. Individualized Skills Coaching

Many executives and business leaders find that they need soft skills coaching for their subordinates. Skills like phone selling, negotiation, customer service, communication and others that are verbally-oriented can be taught by phone.

4. Small Group Coaching

Many business coaches also use teleconference services to run facilitated group coaching, mastermind sessions, strategic visioning sessions and other such team activities. Depending on the context, teleseminars can be an excellent way to transfer new professional knowledge and skills to a small group of people.

5. Recurring Membership Groups

Almost any small business can profit by incorporating recurring revenues in the form of memberships. This could be a loyalty rewards club for your highest referring clients, frequent user programs for the top 10% of your client database, or public-facing profit center established to solve challenges in one narrow problem area.

Teleseminars are a great way to build up your content and deliver it easily and conveniently to a large group of paying subscribers. Even free teleseminar services are often very scalable, allowing groups from 1 to 500 on the same call.

Internet Marketing - Using Podcasts   Six Benefits of Podcasting   The Benefits of Starting a Podcast   Podcast Transcription: Converting the Spoken to the Written   How to Begin Podcasting the Right Way   

How to Run Your Own Podcast

More than ever before, podcasting is incredibly easy to accomplish. It takes only a few seconds to access one of a dozen free tools that will record audio and upload it to your website. The key is to establish a solid outline of content and good technical tools to record quality audio.

Recording the Podcast

First, you should know how to record a good Podcast. You'll need quality tools that will allow you the freedom to record audio in your own house. It may seem like just another simple Podcast, but people expect to hear you, not your washing machine, so having the right mic and software is important.

One of my tools of choice is the Technical Pro Podcast System (or the Digidesign Mbox for those who can afford something a bit higher end). This standalone recording system will reduce feedback and ambient noise that is unavoidable with a plugin microphone.

It is possible to record your podcast with a standard microphone as well, but don't expect the world's best audio as a result. Sometimes, when starting, this may be necessary, but upgrade as soon as possible to a higher quality, standalone audio device.

Regarding software, there are a number of desktop audio recording software programs that can create MP3s for uploading. My favorites include Audacity (which is free) or Adobe's Audition 3 Suite (quite a bit more expensive).

For an extremely simple option, however, consider one of the many browser based services that can create a podcast and syndicate it at once. Blogtalkradio allows you to record a Podcast with your phone or upload your own MP3 (created with your standalone system).

Other sites with similar services include Gcast.com, Wild Voice Shout, and Podcast Assistant (a desktop tool that creates the XML that will broadcast your Podcast).

What to Have in a Podcast

The hardest part for many people I think, is actually getting a good Podcast in place that listeners will return to on a weekly basis. You don't need iTunes distribution or a major website portal to get those listeners.

You just need quality content that people need to hear. Below are some tips for what listeners will return for repeatedly.

* Interviews - Whenever you can interview an expert in your field, listeners will tune in to listen. It can be hard, especially early in your career, to lean these big interviews, but try to build a relationship early and you'll benefit substantially from it.

* Specific Tips - Offer specific, detailed tips and strategies, not rehashes of things people have heard before. Many times Podcasts are audio versions of free reports floating around the Internet. Develop better, more consistent tips that will deliver value to your readers.

* Questions Answered - Interaction is the key to engaging your listeners. The easiest way to interact is to solicit questions and answer them every week. Leave an email address or a phone number that they can call them in on.

* News Updates - Don't just report news in your niche -discuss how it affects listeners. For example if you're in the solar energy niche and a new system is released by a major company, with higher output ratings, discuss how this can affect someone's home solar system.

The key to a good Podcast is to offer something unique and engaging that your listeners couldn't get by reading your blog or articles. Be entertaining, provide regular value, and update frequently (consistency is very important here), and your podcast will deliver exactly what your listeners are looking for. Internet Marketing - Using Podcasts   Six Benefits of Podcasting   The Benefits of Starting a Podcast   Podcast Transcription: Converting the Spoken to the Written   

Coming Up With New Podcast Subjects

So you're sitting there trying to write your next podcast and what happens? Nada! Nothing! Total blankness! You just can't seem to come up with an idea. You haven't got the glimmer of a subject to talk about.

Has this ever happened to you?

You're not alone. Everyone has blank days. Everyone has points where they just can't think of anything to say. And if your podcast consists of multiple columns in a single recording then the problem is even worse!

So how do you do it?

How do you come up with new podcast subjects?

Well first off you need to realize that ideas are everywhere. No I'm not talking about in the ether -- although that may be true too. I'm talking about everywhere you are and everything you do. They're in the books that you read. They're in the television that you watch. They're in the newspapers and the radio. You just have to open your eyes and your mind to them.

Unfortunately, that means that they won't necessarily appear when you want them. Instead they appear at totally random times. So the first trick that you need to remember is always to have a notepad with you. This can be a little notebook that fits in your pocket. Or it can be a digital memo recorder (your MP3 player often has this built in). How you keep notes is irrelevant. Having something to record the ideas down when they occur is what matters.

Of course there's one source that you may not have thought of. Scary thing is that it's the best source of all. I'm talking about your customers. Or your audience. Or both. Ask them what problems they are having. Look at the questions they are sending you. Surely there are ideas in there. And they'll be the best ideas because they focus on your customer's questions.

The next little trick is to be efficient with your ideas. What do I mean with that? You've come up with an idea -- say "how to create ideas". Cool. One idea, one podcast. Right? Nope. Turn that idea into seven tips (or ten tips or top ten or top five or whatever). Now do a podcast on the overall idea. Do a podcast with the seven tips. Now do a podcast with each of the seven tips. Let's see, that one idea has now turned into nine podcasts. That's efficiency. Want to give away the farm? Add how, why and when to the mix. That works out to twenty seven podcasts. That's a half-year of weekly podcasts! From one idea.

Finally, remember that your podcasts can be turned into segments or columns. You may have an idea that won't give you enough material for a fifteen minute podcast. But what happens if you create a podcast with five six minute segments in it? Yes, you'll need more ideas but each idea will only need six minutes worth of material. That means more of the ideas will be useable. And the podcast will be longer!

Internet Marketing - Using Podcasts   Six Benefits of Podcasting   The Benefits of Starting a Podcast   Podcast Transcription: Converting the Spoken to the Written   How to Begin Podcasting the Right Way