7 Solid Podcast Marketing Tips

1. Know Your Competition

Are there a large number of other people Podcasting about the same subject matter as you?

You should be aware of your competition’s websites and their Podcasting topics. Try to offer something different. Offer your customers something that is relevant, interesting and unique or that puts a unique spin on a familiar topic. Use Podcasting directories to find out who your competitors are.

2. Who Are Your Listeners?

Research your target audience.

Podcasting is still a niche market, but is growing rapidly with the popularity of portable media devices such as the iPod. The average subscribers to Podcasts are educated, employed, well traveled, and looking for interesting content. The average Podcast subscriber is around the age of thirty. However the market is expanding exponentially to the less than 18 and over 50 demographic as potable media becomes more affordable to the masses.

3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is a key marketing technique for the Web. It is the process of writing or editing the content to include key words people might use when searching for a product, service, idea, or entertainment.

How do you optimize your Podcast? Write transcripts.

Before sitting down and writing your Podcast script use a service like KeyWord Tracker, which helps you improve your ranking in search results. Once you have a list of the top keyword searches for your topic write them into your script and publish it as a transcript along with your Podcast. Including a transcript of your Podcast will attract more visitors to your site then a Podcast alone with a brief header.

4. Content Creation

There are two reasons people listen to Podcasts, to learn or to be entertained.

Podcasting is not the time to use your best sales pitch. Over selling your topic to people in your Podcast is a sure-fire way to send their business elsewhere. People are looking for fun, entertaining, and informative information – for free.

If people are visiting your website to listen to your Podcasts you have already accomplished one step in the selling process, building relationships with the public. Once they have listened to your Podcasts they will likely go to your website to check out your products or services because they feel connected to a familiar voice that represents your company persona.

5. Regularly Scheduled Episodes

Your listeners will expect a regular schedule for when they can ‘tune-in’ to your Podcasts. Depending on your business and how much content you can create you may want to Podcast anywhere from daily to once per week.

Make sure you can deliver when you say you can. You might have other responsibilities in your organization so keep a realistic time line. When you hire a voice over actor for your Podcast you will ensure regular episodes are done on-time, on budget, and with no interruption in your personal or work schedule.

6. Spread the Word

Once you have your Podcast recorded and uploaded to your website it’s time to get the word out. If you already have a customer base registered to your website consider emailing them about your websites new feature. There are numerous directories to submit your Podcasts to.

Try Podcast411.com for a list of directories. You may also want to use social networking sites such as Facebook, Digg, and Stumble Upon to promote your Podcast and grow your listener base. You can also write and distribute articles and press releases about your Podcast to help you spread the word.

7. RSS Feeds

Make sure you include an RSS Feed and an ‘Email to a Friend’ option for your Podcasts.

The RSS Feed allows you to syndicate your Podcasts making it easy for your audience to listen with automatic delivery to their portable media devices or personal computers.

Adding the ‘Email to a Friend’ option allows your current audience to spread the word to others who they feel might be interested in your topic, ultimately growing your listener base.

Podcasting for Publishers - Powerful Posts from Around the Web

Our team is always stumbling across great posts on a variety of publishing topics. I have compiled a few of the best we have found recently on podcasting and listed them below with a brief intro from each post. Enjoy!

Podcasting & Publishing

1. The Value of Podcasting

People looking specifically for content they can consume as a podcast now have ways to get it through me. Where before they’d have to come to Friday Traffic Report to read, they now have options to listen to great marketing interviews …

2. Podcasting dead or alive? TrendsSpotting marketing indicators

I’ve gathered few indicators to suggest that as long as we believe in the technology to allow podcasting (ipods, MP3 players)– we can still believe in the potential of the podcasting tool. Not one to replace other existing ones (as …

3. Comment on TubeMogul Marketplace = Wow (The Game Continues To …

Two weeks back I added 7 episodes of my Video Tutorial Podcast to a few different sites using the TubeMogul service. Suddenly I noticed a lot more views generated through Video Service sites like Reverr, Howcast, DailyMotion, … …

4. Video: Podcasting in Plain English

Despite being around for years, podcasting is often misunderstood. This video is our way of building awareness and hopefully adoption of a technology that any computer user can use. …

For a real-life example of a professionally produced podcast, voice over intros and all, check out our Voice Over Experts podcast.

If you have a question about publishing a top quality podcast or a tip for our readers, please comment below, we’d love to hear from you!

Doctor’s Visit - Time for a Podcast Checkup

Now that you’ve released your podcasts and are gaining an audience, you can now take steps to measure and evaluate your success and take your podcast to the next level by expanding your audience.

Podcast Evaluation

There are a number of key areas that you’ll want to evaluate. Here’s a list to help you get started.

• Number of Subscribers VS. Number of Listeners
• Website Hits
• Feedback
• Promotional Efforts
• Web Presence
• Elements of your Podcast

Podcast Promotion Action Plan

Now that you’ve released your podcasts and are gaining an audience, give yourself the opportunity to measure and evaluate your success, thereby taking your podcast to the next level and expanding your audience.

Create an action plan that will help you to stay on track and methodically dominate your niche or market.

Burn Your Podcast Feed with FeedBurner

Getting Started with FeedBurner

FeedBurner is an excellent service that manages your RSS feed for you.

What exactly is RSS?
RSS, commonly referred to as Really Simple Syndication, is a subscription mechanism that
enables you to receive new content as it becomes available, either downloaded to your PC or
media player. RSS files are used to summarize the contents of the audio programs.

At FeedBurner, you add your podcast’s RSS feed ( i.e. http://yourdomain.com/yourpodcastnamehere/index.xml ) and burn that URL into FeedBurner, which makes your podcast available for subscription using any feed reader such as Google Reader, FireFox Feed Reader, Bloglines or hundreds of others.

This feed is also used to submit to iTunes, so it’s best to use FeedBurner to make the next step. If you do, the marketing and promotion of your podcast, a whole lot easier.

Your FeedBurner feed will be something like this: http://feeds.feedburner.com/yourpodcastnamehere

FeedBurner has a great tutorial on podcasting that you should definitely checkout.

Two Options for Hosting Your Podcast Audio

As you probably know, you’ll need to upload your MP3 of your podcast to a web hosting service. By doing so, you’ll be making the audio available for download by anyone with Internet access.

Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Did you know you had options as to where to upload? Well, now you do and here they are:

Free Podcast Hosting Services

The easiest solution is to host your MP3 at a podcasting hosting service, such as LibSyn.com or HipCast.com. These are wonderful web services that will not only store the MP3 file of
your podcast, but also provide you with some statistics including number of downloads.

Regular Web Hosting Services

If you currently have a web host, for example, the company that is already hosting your web-
site, you can just as easily work with this set-up. You may need your webmaster to assist you
with configuring this part, however in short, you’ll need to create a new directory on the server
called “podcasts” and upload the MP3 file to that directory using FTP, short for File Transfer
Protocol, which is the standard means of adding new files to a website.

At the end of this step, you should have your first episode uploaded to a web hosting provider.

How to Submit Your Podcast to iTunes

Having your podcast included in Apple’s iTunes podcast directory is a lot easier than you may think. Simply follow these 6 steps and you can expect to see your podcast included in iTunes within 7 days.

Six Steps to Seeing Your Podcast on iTunes

1. Open the iTunes program.

2. Sign-in to the iTunes Store. You’ll need to create an account if you don’t have already one.

3. Within the Store, click on the section called “Podcasts” on the left hand side menu bar.

4. Click on “Submit a Podcast” on the left hand side menu bar.

5. Enter in your podcast feed URL.

6. Confirm the on-screen detail, the click submit. You’ll receive an email once your podcast
has been accepted by the iTunes team.

Once you’re podcast is in iTunes, come back to this article and leave a comment to let us know the name of your show so that we can subscribe.

Podcast Script Writing - Sample Show Outline & Podcast Intro Script

So, you’ve got the voice or at least a voice in mind for your podcast.

What’s missing? A script or your game plan!

Take a look at a typical outline that will help you to plan out the duration and distribution of content throughout your podcast.

Sample Show Outline

- Show intro monologue (who you are, what you’re going to talk about): 30-60 seconds
- Intro music jingle (repeat for each show so listeners identify the jingle with your show): 30-60 seconds
- Topic 1: 3 minutes
- Topic 2: 3 minutes
- Interlude (music or break): 30 seconds
- Topic 3: 3 minutes
- Topic 4: 3 minutes
- Closing remarks (thank audience for listening, thank guests, talk about the next show briefly): 2 minutes
- Closing music jingle (suggest same as Intro music jingle): 2 minutes

Podcast Script Example
Every week, Voices.com and a team of voice over coaches share tips, tutorials and techniques for voice actors from around the world. To get a feel for the podcast intors script writing style, I’ll include the example below.

“Welcome to Voice Over Experts, brought to you by Voices.com, the #1 voice over marketplace. Voice Over Experts brings you tips, pearls of wisdom and techniques from top instructors, authors, and performers in the field of voice over. Join us each week to discover tricks of the trade that will help you to develop your craft and prosper as a career voice over talent. It’s never been easier to learn, perform and succeed from the privacy of your own home and at your own pace. This is truly an education you won’t find anywhere else!”

Three Ways to Record Audio for a Podcast

Recording a podcast has never been easier.

Today, we’ll explore 3 ways that you can record your own podcast.

Recording a Long-Distance Interview
For interview-style podcasts, you can record using Skype to record or plan to record via a conference call with free services such as FreeConference.com. Both services allow multiple people to participate on a call.

Recording an In-Person Interview
For those of you who intend to record and conduct on-site interviews, I’d recommend visiting
the location of the interview ahead of time to become familiar with your surroundings.

Scope out the best place to setup shop and minimize any extraneous or background noise (unless
that’s the atmosphere you are trying to create).

Try using a portable digital voice recorder such as the Olympus WS300M Digital Voice Recorder or Sony ICD-SX57 Digital Voice Recorder.

Recording One-Person Shows
If you are hosting the podcast and are speaking directly to your audience, life becomes a lot easier because you are in control of where you record, how you record, and the material you present.

Simply have your show outline ready, plug in your microphone, set-up your recording
software and hit record. Be sure to record in a quiet environment and let anyone present in the
office ( or house ) know that you are not to be disturbed until the recording is finished.

5 Tips for Creating a Podcast Episode Entry

This is where your web publishing tool comes into place. For simplicity, we’ll use Blogger as
the example. In essence, you’ll be creating a “New Entry” just like you would when posting an
article on your blog.

How does it differ then from a regular blog post? You’ll be including a hyperlink to the MP3 file
on your server where the MP3 is hosted.

Tips for Creating a Podcast Episode Entry

•Give your podcast a title
•Number your episode
•Add a short description for your episode
•Add a hyperlink to the MP3 file for this episode
•Add tags to help search engines identify the contents of your podcast episode

Once you’re done creating the episode, click “Publish” and you’ll see your post on the Internet.

5 Portable Digital Voice Recorders That Make Podcasting Easy

If you’re planning on recording interviews, a simple set-up including a quiet location and a portable voice recorder should do the trick. Here are 5 choices of portable digital voice recorders that deliver great digital audio.

1. Olympus WS300M Digital Voice Recorder

Recording, sound quality and storage capacity that doesn’t make a big dent in your wallet - if those are the qualities you’re looking for in a digital voice recorder, this is the digital voice recorder you want. With 256 MB flash memory, the WS-300M voice recorder can store documents and images as well as audio. As for recording, it boasts of up to 68 hours of recording time (or about 66 songs) with features such as index marking and a variety of playback modes. And the sound? Superior for the price.

2. Olympus DS-30 Digital Voice Recorder

The Olympus DS-30 is one of the company’s most sensitive recorders and is a great pick for those looking for quality sound recording. The built-in stereo microphone has three sensitivity settings and you can add an external mic if you like. The DS-30 digital voice recorder has up to 67 hours of recording time in LP mode, voice activation recording, five different recording modes, 256 MB flash memory and plays and stores MP3 and WMA files. A USB cable for quick file transfer and DSS Player Software for easy editing of your voice files are both included.

3. Olympus WS-311M Digital Voice Recorder

This one makes the list of best digital voice recorders because of its combination of features and price. The WS-311M has recording features such as a built-in stereo microphone, the ability to set up to 16 index marks within a file, slow and fast playback and voice filtering that are usually only found in higher priced digital voice recorders. To transfer files, all you have to do is plug the recorder into a computer’s USB port. Other features include 138 hours of recording time in LP mode, 512 MB internal Flash Memory and the ability to play and store both MP3 and WMA files. No editing software is included.

4. Sony ICD-SX57 Digital Voice Recorder

This digital voice recorder has two big selling points; a good amount of recording time (95 hours in LP mode) and the ability to play MP3 files. Whether you care about the second of these or not, this is a fine recorder with all the features you need for recording, playing back and organizing your voice files, such as voice operated recording, overwrite, cue and review, easy search and three message folders. File transfer is by USB cable and Digital Voice Editor software is included.

5. Sony ICD-U60 Digital Voice Recorder

It’s sleek and stylish but that’s not what earns Sony’s ICD-U60 digital voice recorder a place on this list; it earns a spot because of its features. The ICD-U60 has functions such as Digital Voice Up (which increases the volume of the person speaking when recorded at a distance from the unit) and Digital Pitch Control (which lets you hear recordings at slower than normal speeds to facilitate transcribing or editing) which I find really handy. It also has 512MB of built-in flash memory, a built-in USB connector for quick file transfer, and up to 251 hours of recording time in LP mode.

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