With savvy consumers wired into the Internet, it’s no surprise that the travel and entertainment industries are venturing into podcasting. Expedia’s "Three Day Weekend—Destination LA" podcast offers advice, including tips from locals, on how to make the most of a visit to the City of Angels. Podcasts from Fine Wine Press feature interviews with people around the world about making, understanding, tasting and simply enjoying the fruit of the vine.

And there’s more. BMW used podcasts to trumpet innovations it was displaying at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Fidelity Investments offers podcasts on practice management, compliance and other issues for registered investment advisors. Even Revolution Yachts has sailed into podcasting, offering information on its 6.5-meter craft for Mini-Transat racing.

Recently, I started using podcasting to point to what is definitely a considered purchase: high-end business-to-business consulting.

The reaction has exceeded even my most hopeful expectations. We are seeing conversion rates of 30 percent on our thought-leadership papers (which are referenced from each podcast). That is 200 percent more than an average-dimension direct mailer and 2,000 percent more than a typical e-mail blast.