Traditional sales and marketing messages have become less and less effective nowadays. People hate hard selling. They hate to be sold.

But they love to solve their problems and improve their life. Even if that involves buying.

“Buy this!”

“Our product is the best!”

Those lines are out.

When did you feel paying attention to a banner ad on a web page? I bet long time ago.

People have developed a syndrome called “ad blindness” when they don’t notice that flashy designed banners anymore. They programmed their mind long time ago to look away.

It doesn’t matter if you are giving away the best product for free, chances are people feel suspicious about that — if only they notice — and never click-through.

In fact, banners got as little as a fraction of 1% click-through rate, not to mention they have risen their shield of awareness when clicking.

“Oh no, this is another sales message. I am not going to be sold,” they repeat in mind.

The conversion become way more difficult.

I would bet you feel the same with most traditional marketing and sales messages, if you even still pay attention to them.

Sidenote: Well, before I get hate mails from banner ad designers and marketers, I would say that banners, albeit their low response rate, still could be effective if designed differently. What I refer to in this context is old-fashioned and flashy banners.

A podcast, on the other hand, is a tool that forces you to do things differently.

Obviously people are not going through podcast directories or search engines trying to get people to sell to them. They go online for information.

Unless the information is good, they wouldn’t want to carry it with them while commuting. People seek for any kind on information just for hobby, to satisfy their thirst of information and certainly to support buying decision.

So, the basic rule in using podcast as a sales and marketing tool is that the content needs to be good. Subscription is based on quality of content and unsubscription is a click away.

Add to that the fact people are very busy nowadays, and there are a lot of podcast to listen to with so little time…

Selling with podcast is an entirely different beast. It could be very effective because instead of using hard selling, we actually make people want for more.

But still, a sound strategy is required for podcasting to be effective. Just because you have a podcast doesn’t mean they will buy from you.

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