Marketing with Podcasts: Advantages, Applications, and Challenges

First and foremost, before we go further into details, please take a look at the following real-life example of using podcasts as a marketing channel.

BearingPoint, strategic service provider for Global 2000 companies, implemented podcasting to facilitate white paper downloads and generate leads. Their “Readers Digest” podcasts, summaries of their longer white papers, achieved an exceptional 30% response rate for white paper downloads. And even more important, these leads were just as qualified as leads generated from other more traditional lead generation tactics, but only at a fraction of the cost.

Do you feel that it becomes more difficult and inefficient to communicate with your customers?

Take email. Nowadays, even a legitimate personal email could be lost and landed in bulk folder or deleted forever.

Traditional radio and TV spots are out of reach for many businesses who have limited budget to burn. Usually companies who can spend on these media will not expect great ROI immediately from the ads. Many use it to build brand awareness.

Straight to the face ads in newspapers, billboards, web sites, etc? They are the same, if not worse. People are so skeptical about ads. They hate to be sold. Hard selling is out, resulting in dramatic decrease in the ability to win trust.

The problem is, people only buy from those they like and trust.

Where does the trend on media consumption goes?

Image credit: Peter Kaminski.

If you put yourself into your customer’s shoes for a moment, you will realize that they are now demanding control. They filter content that they don’t want, or switch to a better medium that promises more.

Think TiVo. And iPod.

Music fans are rabid about iPod and buying music online because they are not being exposed to ads at the consumption level. They also can listen only to the music they like and are not bound to time, not to mention the range of music they can choose from.

Why podcasting?

Let’s take a look at what podcasts have to offer.

Podcasts provide an entirely new way of communication between producers and consumers. Podcasting is a powerful way to deliver any type of messages to the listeners.

Businesses of all sizes and even individuals are on the same level of playing field in this new communication strategy. They have access to targeted market not available before in TVs or radios.

Thanks to the Internet, podcasts have global consumers around the world. They are not bound geographically to certain area or country.

To start a podcast, you also doesn’t need to know about regulations such as those found on traditional media publishing. Censorship is no longer a problem when you get involved in podcasting.

Podcasting is a powerful way to convey your message to consumers. If not an independent medium, at the very least it complements and amplifies current text-based content. How do podcast achieve that?

• Audio podcasting conveys emotion and thus achieves greater impact in communication with prospects and customers. It is the next best thing to direct conversation.
• Audio is portable and can be downloaded online, but then listen to while on the go, such as when commuting to and from workplace.
• Certain content, such as interviews, are better delivered in audio than in pure text, while yet again other type of content such as music depends on audio to function.
• Reading from the computer screen is a tedious task for many Internet users. Many of us learn better through audio (and video.)

Podcasting vs. Internet radio and media streaming

Multimedia consumption on the Internet is not so new. You should have heard about Internet radio and media streaming. They all provide ways for content publishers and marketers to deliver interactive and strong message right to the audience.

Podcasts chime in, carrying multiple benefits not available previously, otherwise it wouldn’t have strong advantages over the older mechanisms.

Internet radio allows anyone to tune in from anywhere around the world as long as they have a web browser (or music player) and Internet connection. It practically increases the reach of the media to include international audience.

That sounds cool but if you take the fact that you still have to tune in at a specified time to listen to your favorite program, suddenly it becomes much less appealing.

On-demand media streaming answers the challenge partially. Rich-media publishers now can stream their audio and video content to the end users at the time their audience prefer.

Business grade streaming servers are based on proprietary standards and protocols, which license is not cheap to acquire. Hosting such software require extensive server resources of your own with technical staff to install and maintain.

Media consumption via streaming servers is getting more convenient because of high speed Internet in mobile devices but the cost of this connection is still very high. You still can’t get up-to-date content automatically without checking on the site on a regular basis.

The advantages of podcasting

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Little things matter a lot when it comes to technology adoption. Podcasts have benefits that make it easy to adopt for the audience, and publish for the podcasters:

• Using existing technologies and standards. Instead of inventing new and proprietary technologies, podcasting uses the existing standards and protocols and get them all to work. For data transfer, podcasts need nothing more than an existing web server technology we use to host our web site. Podcast feed is just RSS 2.0 feed with enclosure. RSS is the standard used by web sites to syndicate information.
• Time-shifting. Podcasting allows content publishers to syndicate information far and wide. No listeners are forced to listen to a podcast at a specified time or using a specific kind of software only available on desktop computers or limited devices. Your audience can download your content and consume them at the place and time they choose.
• Portability. Downloaded media files from older technologies could be synced with your favorite portable media player but still they lack of automation to do so. When consumers are podcatching, they can choose the episodes they want to download and sync them to most portable or desktop media players automatically.
• Notification of new content. If you consume news feeds on a regular basis, you know how convenient they can be. Instead of visiting the site on a regular basis to see what’s new, you just subscribe to feeds and let the software go out and check for new content at the interval you set up front. This ensures that your audience will never miss any important message. No more overwhelming messages in the email inbox too. Audience can choose to skip or keep up with any episode they wish.
• 100% delivery rate, no spam guaranteed. There is no spam filter that will block your audience from receiving your messages. They receive information only from the sources they allow. Unsubscription just a single click away. Content producers don’t maintain any audience subscription data.
• Lower barrier to entry for your audience. Unlike other marketing channels, the audience don’t have to submit their names or email addresses to get information. They can get right to the content immediately when they subscribe and stop when they leave.
• Scheduled downloads. Listeners can choose the time when they want to download podcast files and schedule it with the podcatching software. This is great for people with slow Internet connection as they can start download podcast files at midnight, when the bandwidth is available.
• Superb content. This is not a direct advantage, but because subscription is just a click away without any submission of private information, podcasters have no choice but to give only superb content or their listeners may leave at anytime. Quality is not an option anymore.
• No complex procedures to follow for publishers. To create a podcast, you only need a recording device (simple mic or recording gadget is enough,) web space and blog software. Free options are available for file and blog hosting. Read another article about podcast tutorial for step-by-step guide on how to record, edit and publish your podcast.

Besides the benefits of podcasting as a marketing channel, podcast audience also have the following traits:

• Loyal consumers. When they listen to a podcast and like it, they will subscribe to it and listen consistently.
• Narrowly targeted. Unlike radio, podcasts focus on very narrow topic or individual business.
• Engaged. Podcast listeners can only listen to one podcast at a time, not many different sites in different browser tabs trying to get attention at the same time.
• Measurable. Podcast producers can measure exactly how many times their podcasts have been downloaded and other metrics.

More about podcast listener demographics, metrics and statistics, refer to the podcast statistics page.

The drawbacks of podcasting, and the solutions

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Podcasting is not without its own drawbacks though. But if the advantages are way greater than the drawbacks, and if there are constant efforts to make it easy for the audience to adopt, it will become popular.

What are the drawbacks of podcasting? And how do you solve them?

1. The need to install a software (a podcatcher). Listeners must install a software to start receiving podcasts. One software could handle as many podcasts as they want, but still this is a barrier for adoption for the mass. Solution: 1) Part of the solution is the fact that podcasting uses the RSS 2.0 feed standard, making it immediately available for those who already consume news feeds via RSS. Many of the RSS readers have upgraded to support podcasts so the transition is painless. 2) iTunes is a desktop media player used by many, including iPod users to manage and listen to multimedia files and sync their files to their portable media. Since version 4.9, iTunes had added support for receiving podcasts. The feature is already there for the end users to use. As a podcaster, you just need to educate and encourage your audience to subscribe. Other desktop media players have begun to support podcatching too.
2. There is no number 2. There is really no other drawback on adopting podcasting other than the fact that consumers have to own a podcatching software. When desktop computers and notebooks begin to have that as part of standard installation, the adoption is then automatic. As told earlier, you can speed this up by educating your audience about how to use it and the benefits over other methods.

Marketing applications for corporate, B2B and B2C

There are virtually unlimited applications for podcasting. For example, a product promotion podcast may include information about how to use the product, the benefits of it, what problem it solves, customers comment, live interview with the experts, live talks with customers in live events, and so on.

What can a podcast be used for?

• News updates and insights. Listeners would be interested in knowing about what currently in the talk, trends or development regarding a topic they are interested in. This is an opportunity for podcasters to increase their visibility by becoming authority and trusted source for information.
• Relationship building. People don’t trust marketing message so easily now. Only after you provide value and establish a trustable relationship that they will see your marketing message as recommendation or even another piece of information. For B2B and B2C, this could be in the form of product samples, case studies, best practices, how to information, and so on.
• Brand building. Whether you want to position yourself as a though leader in your industry, or increase visibility and exposure of your product and service, you can tap into podcasts to continually have your brand heard by more targeted customers.
• Public relation. Educate people about what your product or service is, how it is different from others. Keep the target market informed about your business, current development, product and service. Let the media know what you are doing with your business that makes you different from your competitors.
• Marketing reach and business visibility. Podcasting allows you to reach as many people as possible, some of them not available through another form of media. Podcast listeners are savvy and well educated, they know something about the topic they subscribe to and purchase online. Used properly with other marketing methods, podcasting has been proven to extend your marketing reach to a level like never before.
• Corporate communication. Employees want to hear from top management more often. A podcast of this kind could be in the form of interview with employees, best practices from company leaders, tips from top sales person to increase sales, etc.
• Podcast advertising. Marketers not only can tap into the podcast space by starting their own podcast. If that is not an option, they can always buy ad spot on the podcast. Targeting the right podcast results in reaching qualified listeners.

The challenges in marketing with a podcast

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If it is so easy, why doesn’t everyone use it? What are the challenges in using podcasts for marketing your business and publishing information?

• Technology adoption. While podcasting is gaining its popularity in recent years, still it is relatively a new technology compared to others which have existed for at least a decade like web sites and emails. The adoption of the technology is still far behind those more mature channels. Rich media consumption like audio and video is only gaining popularity after the availability of broadband and other fast Internet connections.
• Software installation. As podcasting becomes mainstream, more and more software will support it and then it becomes the standard software for desktop computers and laptops. Until then, there is still quite a barrier to have end users to start using it to the fullest extent.
• Content ideas. A podcast consists of episodes. Like in radio or TV, it means you need to provide regular content for listeners to consume. In podcasting, the schedule is up to you, but the idea remains the same. To get the most our of a podcast, you must publish regularly to engage the listeners. The more they listen, the more they know about your business and the more they are likely to buy.
• Sales process. Perhaps you have already defined a sales process for your product line. The challenge for podcasting is that you must fit it into the right moment in the process. Podcasts can be used to generate and nurture leads. It can also be used to generate sales and deliver products — if they are in digital format.

Although podcasts are relatively new, don’t expect that you can just do it and then they will come. Like other marketing medium, it takes effort and patience to be able to do it right. But it should be worth the effort considering the unique opportunities podcasts have to offer to reach your target audience.