Podcast marketing is met with skepticism by some corporations and businesses. Certainly it is new terrain, and can often appear more like a Wild West show than a viable advertising medium. But just as a viable country emerged out of the “Wild West”, as podcast and video marketing is being refined, a very viable marketing medium is emerging.

A recent announcement from a group of Podcast professionals may allay some concerns businesses might have in investing in podcast marketing. In fact, as a business using Podcasts, you are a type of pioneer, and as such, you are invited to join and have a say.

“Industry leaders from the podcasting community announced today the formation of the Association for Downloadable Media (ADM). The goal of the ADM is to develop standardization of audience measurement and advertising for downloadable media. The ADM will focus primarily on the world of podcasting, downloadable media and portable content monetized by advertising and sponsorship.
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There has been a need for industry standards in the podosphere, and the ADM will help accelerate its growth into a commercially viable medium. “Podcast advertising is a burgeoning medium for marketers.” “Spending on podcasting advertising will quintuple over the next five years, from an $80 million market in 2006 to $400 million in 2011, says Geoff Ramsey, co-founder and CEO of eMarketer, Inc.” eMarketer estimates that spending for online video advertising will reach $410 million, an 82.2% gain over last year’s $225 million figure. In two more years, US marketers will spend over $1 billion, and only two years after that (in 2010), Internet video advertising will be a nearly $3 billion business. Much of online video will be downloadable. Further, it is estimated that Apple has sold over 100 million iPods and that more than 300 million copies of iTunes have been installed. And according to an Arbitron/Edison Internet and Multimedia 2007 study, the number of people in the U.S. who have listened to a podcast has grown to 13% in 2007. Agencies (AAAA).
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Podcast marketing, just like blogs and RSS marketing, is not going away. If the Wild West metaphor can be used once more, shaping and taming the frontier of online marketing promises to be just as profitable as taming the Wild West turned out to be.

Podcast marketing and videocasting can prove to be a powerful catalyst for traffic and sales. Josh Bernoff at Groundswell interviews George Wright, marketing director of Blendtec, a company that made their powerful little blender into an A YouTube star.

Pondering the dilemma of selling an un-sexy blender for the rather steep price of $400 , Wright visited the company development lab. After witnessing a dramatic demonstration of Blentec’s pulverizing power, he produced an in-house video and proceeded to put it on YouTube. The rest, as they say, is history. As an integral component of a blog site platform,video or podcasting can produce some stunning results, unless you think a five fold increase in sales is negligible.

“Once the first video, of a Coca-Cola and a chicken, caught on through getting featured on digg, it was clear that YouTube marketing was working for Blendtec. They went through marbles, cubic zirconia, and tiki torches, but the most popular so far has been the iPod obliteration with almost 4 million views.

Forget the views. The question is not “Will It Blend?” but “Does It Sell?” And the answer is: Yes. According to Wright, consumer sales have increased five-fold since the videos went up on YouTube and Revver.”

Hewre is a synopsis of what Blentec did right in their video production. Follow the link below for the full interview.

1. It’s funny. It’s visually arresting. It’s short…
2. It’s authentic. These guys are geeks. Wright told me the CEO — Tom Dickson, who’s featured in the video — is an engineer. It comes across. This stuff ain’t slick, folks, and if it were it wouldn’t work…
3. It’s original. Figure out what your unique value is. Then film it and put it up there….
4. It actually connects to the value of the product. You see these videos and you can’t help saying “Can that blender really do that? Maybe I should get one.”….

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Search engine visibility is, ultimately, about the successful conversion of your readers to consumers of your product or service. Properly optimized sites flood you with traffic but how you handle those potential customers from there determines if they subscribe to your RSS feed and become a “regular”.

Communities of Passion

“Communities of passion” is an excellent phrase used by Fred Greene of Smarter Podcasts that describes those groups of enthusiasts that tend to congregate around the object of their passion. Examples would be skate boarders, surfers, bicyclists, amateur photographers, or, in Fred’s example, golfers. If you are a retailer who has a product embraced by passionate users, podcast marketing is increasingly becoming one of the most productive blog marketing methods available for you to showcase your brand.

Edwin Watts Golf is showcased as an excellent example. As interviewer Paul Colligan of Profitable Podcasting explains, consumers want to learn “how to be better consumers” of the products and pursuits that they love. Producing podcast content that instructs an “enthusiast” on the wisest ways to invest in their passion, converts them into a loyal customer.

Become the Content

What makes Edwin’s approach to sponsorship different,however, is they signed on with the understanding that they wouldn’t hawk a thing, but instead , became part of the content. In that way they could position themselves as “thought leaders” for the game of golf by answering listener submitted questions while covering all of the newest developments and techniques in the game of golf.

Edwin’s 15 minute spot becomes a seamless part of the entire golf Podcast, allowing them to provide relevant info to the listener and encouraging their listeners conversion to customer by virtue of the value of the information given, not by “being in their face”.

One listener emailed the golf retailer to declare that they were making all of their golf purchases from them simply because of the value they provided with their weekly Podcasts. That’s a convert! The campaign has been so successful that Edwin has signed on as sponsor for another 52 shows. Since the podcast ranks at the top of YouTubes sports categories, you can imagine the exposure Edwin is getting.

If you market to a “community of passionate users”, podcasting is a means to make them passionate about you as well.

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Business blogging for the lone entrepreneur is nothing short of a windfall. Especially for those whose commodity is knowledge. Video and podcast marketing have afforded teachers, language experts, trainers, and consultants of all stripes an entirely new and potent means of serving and expanding their client base.

Permission Marketing

Marketing expert Lisa Wehr states that“With the advent of Google’s Universal search, it’s never been more important for online marketers to add well-optimized new media such as Podcasts to their marketing mix…”

By the combination of RSS publishing and podcasting you have positioned yourself to enter into what Seth Godwin calls “permission marketing.”

“The name of this game is to get your prospects to point to themselves as hot prospects. They literally agree to learn more about your company and its benefits… The first and main rule in permission marketing is that it truly is based on selfishness: Prospects will grant you permission to market to them only if they know exactly how they’ll benefit.”
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When your readers subscribe to your RSS feeds, they have given you permission to tell them more about your service and expertise. Now you have to consistently deliver quality content that will make them loyal subscribers.

A poorly produced podcast will derail your, so far, successful marketing efforts. Consulting a podcast marketing specialist will ultimately save you in costly missteps.

Common Podcasting Mistakes

Here are some common mistakes to avoid:

• Poor sound: Invest in a good mic and headphones. There are editing programs that will allow you to edit out coughs and “uhms”, as well as lay down tracks of music.
• Solo or Co-host. To achieve a conversational tone, you might want to consider having a co-host. Have a list of talking points that will deliver the info you promised, avoid a delivery that sounds as if you are reading from a script.
• Infrequent broadcasts. If possible, record several episodes in advance., Continuity is important.
• No alternative: Consider also offering a written synopsis or, better yet, a transcript of your podcast.

Podango, a hosting service for individually owned podcast stations, today launched a very useful station by Jason Van Orden. It’s called The Podcasting Mastery Station and is meant to assist new podcasters and to share podcasting know-how.

If you are not familiar with Podango, go check out the site. It’s very well designed and well organized and can lead you to new podcasts to listen to. As well, if you want to include your podcast in the site, you can either add it to an existing station (a niche), or start a station of your own.

The company provides a complete platform that allows the creation of podcast stations, independently owned and run by Station Directors who act as guides, to bring together the best podcasts in their focused area of interest and interact and converse with their subscribers. Each station distributes multiple podcasts and includes community interaction tools to enable an enhanced community conversation. In addition, the listener can tailor the information they subscribe to, via a custom RSS feed, to participate in the information most relevant to them.

The new station includes many podcast veterans and is great to help you brush up your podcasting skills. Topics revolve around podcast production, podcast marketing, and making money. For example, check out this podcast: Kick My Apps: The Corporate Podcasting Applications Challenge.

Via Business Wire

Open Culture, a site which is itself a podcast directory, links to a great resource for podcasts called the “Public Radio Podcast Catalogue” on PublicRadioFan.com

With over 900 public radio programs from all around the world on all sorts of big and niche categories, it’s a great directory to find content - and submit content to. If your feed matches one of the categories, as with any directory, simply ask to be a part of it.

This directory is great for getting new subscribers because of the ease of subscription. The podcast feed is linked to directly, so you can begin downloading right away. When promoting your podcast feed, look for podcast directories with this feature.

Business Week reports that podcasting is poised to attract a significantly larger share of the online advertising pie. And that a multi-billion-dollar pie.

According to eMarketer, advertisers will spend more than $400 million on podcasting by 2011, while the spend was only $80 million in 2006.

The expected fuels for the fire are: Google AdSense entering podcasting with the ability to insert audio ads via keywords and better metrics for podcast listeners - marketers love metrics, after all.

The medium isn’t waiting for Google, however. On Feb. 14, podcast company Podtrac unveiled a free online service that enables advertisers to research audience information for audio and video podcasts based on demographics, size, and other characteristics. The company, which helps connect roughly 5,000 of the top podcasters to advertisers, includes data for all podcasts in its new service, including those from major media companies with whom Podtrac is not affiliated. It indexes its data to information in Mediamark Research’s Survey of the American Consumer.

The hope, explains Podtrac chief executive and co-founder Mark McCrery, is that the service will give advertisers enough data to become comfortable with the new medium. "We want to grow the market for podcast advertising," says McCrery, adding that advertisers want the same information they get from traditional media when buying ads online…

As the CEO and founder of Kiptronic, a startup that places ads within audio and video podcasts, Cobb says marketers have been skittish about advertising on a digital medium that, though it reports downloads, can’t always charge based on the number of people who interact with the ad. "There is no way for somebody who is jogging and listening to a podcast at the gym to click on an ad," Cobb notes.

The entry of major media companies into podcasting has encouraged advertisers to embrace the medium, says Bob Fogarty, vice-president of sales and business development at PodZinger, an audio- and video-search engine that also sells advertising on podcasts. "When you see major players like Clear Channel (CCU) and CBS Radio (CBS) and personality types like Rush Limbaugh have adopted podcasting, you realize it has sort of crossed over into the mainstream," says Fogarty…

The more targeted the audience, the more likely advertisers can reach a consumer willing to buy their product. And in theory, that increased targeting will at some point lead to higher-priced advertising.

Podcasts, and video podcasts, are increasingly popular in many niche segments. Some niche segments number in the many millions, as YouTube will attest, so there is a driving force to understand podcasts and embrace them, either through podcasting or via advertising on podcasts.

If you are looking to do a more-than-just-talking podcast, or have a spiffy intro/exit to your regular podcast to make it more professional, RadioDaddy is a great place to find voiceovers - free.

RadioDaddy is a volunteer service. So, if you put in a set of guidelines for the exact voiceover you need, a volunteer - often a pro - will record it for you. If you go into the commercial section, you can even request background music, and more details.

The site has voiceover options for many areas, including a forum just for podcasting. The return time on a request seems to be quite fast, from looking over the forums, and you really can’t beat the professionalism of a tailored podcast setup, at no cost to yourself.

image via middlewick of morguefile