For small businesses, trainers, speakers or anyone who wishes to establish themselves as an expert, creating a podcast, webinar or teletraining seminar is relatively easy and inexpensive. I’m in the professional speaking bureau industry, so this type of marketing and interacting with prospects is ideal. For this article we will concentrate on using a podcast for marketing, rather than building product. Once you get used to podcasting then it’s very easy to create products to sell online or give away to your clients as gifts.
I’ll give you an example, yesterday I made a quick 10 minute marketing podcast on “How to Create a Podcast on a Budget.” I am using this podcast as a marketing tool to let my audience know that I offer a range of marketing services for them. Later in the evening, I created another podcast and this time I interviewed an up-and-coming rock star, Joshua Adams, who lives in Las Vegas. I have attached the video link here as an example. WATCH VIDEO.
This is very powerful and demonstrates the importance of being active on Social Media. After all, if you are creating marketing podcasts and products to sell, you need people to sell to. I met Joshua through Twitter and have since brought him on to radio 2UE as a guest, have interviewed him for my blogs and now we have an audio interview with slides. Why is this powerful? Because Joshua has a huge fan base and is heavily involved in the music industry in the U.S. and he is promoting the podcast to all his massive social media following and guess who is getting some great exposure because of it? As a result of this podcast, I have been interacting with more people on Twitter and growing my own brand. As well as exposure for my brand through Joshua, I am also helping grow Joshua’s brand through my efforts which of course is win/win.
Here is how I recorded this podcast in just one hour: I made a PowerPoint presentation with high quality photos of Joshua. I then logged into my software, created an event, chose a template, uploaded the PowerPoint which became my slides and uploaded an MP3 of Joshua’s song, “I Promise You” to play at the end of the interview.
When the time came for us to record, Joshua called a local number with a conference code to call in Las Vegas at 11pm at night for him, and I rang a local number in Sydney with my conference code. I was actually recording on my mobile! Joshua and I conducted the interview and the result is the podcast which is now circling around the world. It was that easy!
Now I realize not everyone gets the opportunity to interview celebrities, however with a little bit of planning I am certain almost anyone could do something using podcasts. For example, it could be a series of 'How to...' recordings.
With the right software you could also conduct live webinars, training events and a host of other events. These events can be paid events for attendees. Eventbrite is a great platform to promote the event and collect the money.
Here are some easy steps to get you started:
- Choose your software, do your research and find what suits you best.
- Choose your topic – something that you are already an expert in and can continue with follow-on podcasts.
- Invest in a microphone if you are recording on the computer, in my case I prefer to ring the local teleconference number.
- Write a script. I actually use my slides as my script.
- 30 minutes is max! Anything more is too long.
- Make sure you are in a noise-free environment and no one is going to walk in on you or a phone rings. I locked myself in my room when I did the Joshua podcast and put a note on the door “Recording in Progress” just in case a family member forgot I was recording.
- Once you have finished the podcast, the world is your oyster; you can post it on your blog, your YouTube channel, electronic newsletter, your website and through all your social networks.
- You can also upload your podcast to www.soundcloud.com. What I love about Soundcloud is the ability to grab the HTML code for embedding into your website and blog and a very impressive media player is created.
By Deb Carr
Debbie Carr is the Director of Voxy Lady & Vox Presenters Speaker Bureaus: www.voxylady.com.au and www.voxpresenters.com