If you’ve used the Internet at all this year, you’ve probably heard of podcasting. It’s the one word that’s nearly guaranteed to come up in discussions of small business marketing, and with excellent reason too: podcasting has become more and more standard over the past 12 months, and is set to become the most commanding marketing tool of the future. But what exactly is it?

What are marketing podcasts?

In simple terms, podcasts are like radio transmissions which are broadcast over the Internet and subscribed to by listeners who subscribe to an RSS or Atom feed and listen either over their computer or via hand-held devices such as iPods. They’re a small like a blog and a small like radio – and they’re starting to take off in a huge way.

In marketing terms, podcasting presents a new and very commanding method of communicating directly with your clients, both current and prospective.

What are marketing podcasts about?

The simple answer to this question is that a marketing podcast can be about anything and everything you reckon will be of interest to your listeners. You may want to talk about a new innovation you’re using in your business, interview some of your industry leaders or discuss some of the huge issues in your area of the business world. The choices are endless, and it’s up to you to use your imagination to come up with a touch people will be interested in hearing.

Why use marketing podcasts?

There are many uncommon ways in which marketing podcasts can help benefit your business . Here are just a few of them.

Marketing Podcasts Help Build Tangibility

By making a podcast you let your listeners/customers see the real you- the people behind the business. This helps give your business some kind of tangibility and personality: rather than just being a faceless corporation, your business becomes a touch your customers/listeners can relate to and know .

Marketing Podcasts Increase Your Credibility

By offering a podcast on a particular subject, you’re establishing yourself as an expert in that subject . People like to buy from experts – podcasting helps build trust and, by extension, grows sales.

Marketing Podcasts Add Value to Your Business

By offering a podcast, you’re giving visitors to your website a touch free- and a touch which they’ll hopefully delight in enough to want to hear more of. This means that they’ll become repeat visitors, and may even turn into customers.

Podcasts Build Loyalty

In the same way that email newsletters build loyalty towards your business by providing free information to subscribers, marketing podcasts work in much the same way. As you start to build up a listener base for your podcasts, you’ll be making your own form of word-of-mouth advertising as your listeners tell other people about your podcasts and your business.

Getting Started in Marketing Podcasting

Making a podcast is surprising simple. In terms of hardware, all you’ll need is a computer, mic and broadband connection. Simple, free pieces of software such as audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) allow you to record it, then it’s a matter of saving the file as .MP 3 and uploading it to your server.

Once uploaded, your podcast is ready to be spread , and this can be done through aggregators such as iPodder (http://www.ipodder.org ) and FeedDemon (http://www.feeddemon.com ) or via web-based directories such as Podcast Alley (http://www.podcastalley.com) and BlastPodcast (http://www.blastpodcast.com) .

Some podcasts for you to start off with:

“The Marketing Moment” – www.digitalpodcast.com/detail.php?id=3024

“Win Federal Contracts” – http://www.podfeed.net/category_item.asp?id=2515

According to a recent survey by Pew Internet and American Life poll, around 22 million Americans own MP3 players or iPods. Those figures I don't know help to clarify the growing popularity of podcasts: audio “blogs” or radio shows spread by RSS and used as a new, and highly effective , form of marketing. This article clarifies the benefits of marketing podcasts, and gives a brief guide on how to get started.

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