Marketing Roadmaps

Podcasting in business?

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One of the things I try to do on this blog is put things in a practical context for marketers who are trying to figure how (or whether) to integrate new technologies like RSS, blogs and podcasting into their marketing plans.

Podcasting has been the issue du jour (or semaine I suppose) with (among others) Dave Taylor and John Wagner representing the "podcasting doesn’t work for marketing" contingent, and Ben McConnell, Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz coming in on the pro-podcasting side. Not surprisingly, they all make good arguments for their point of view. And John does appear to be softening.

But like so many discussions in the blogosphere (remember character blogs), I think many of the anti-arguments are confusing content with form, and dismissing the form because some examples of the form aren’t particularly good. Blogs and podcasts are forms, or channels of communication if you prefer. The opinion, messages, stories, pictures, etc. etc. communicated on blogs and podcasts are the content. Some blogs have good content, others not so. The same is true of podcasts.

From a practical marketing point of view, I think the answer is that podcasting CAN be a useful component in a marketing plan, under the right circumstances. Just because "everybody is doing it" is not a good reason. Every business doesn’t  need a blog. The same is true of podcasting. The right reason to do a podcast for your business is because it will be an effective tool for communicating your message.

So what makes a podcast special, and more than just web-delivered audio content? Two things: the ability to subscribe to a feed and then easily download the material to a mobile device (MP3 player, iPod). So, if your intended audience for your marketing message does these two things, a podcast might be a very effective way of communicating with it on a regular basis. And as the technology improves, more and more listeners will shift from portable CD players to portable music devices, opening up a larger potential audience.

In particular, I believe podcasts will be an effective addition to the MarCom plan for high stakes messages. There’s been research that shows that people RETAIN a message they heard better than a message they read. [Note: if someone has the original reference and research, I would be ever so grateful. I have it somehwere but I just can’t surface it.]

So, if you have a very important message or story you want to communicate to your audience, and they are mobile listeners, a regular podcast on the topic that drives home these high stakes messages could be a very nice supplement to your written and visual materials. Doesn’t replace the written content; we need both. And it has to be entertaining, which is of course the hard part. A good podcast should be indistinguishable from a good radio show…assuming of course you want people to listen all the way through and more than once.

Now, I am a prime target for a good marketing podcast. I’ve had an iPod for more than two years, and I take it with me whenever I travel. I listen to it in the car, when I work out and at my desk.

I would be thrilled with a regularly updated podcast from a fitness company that mixed music, health tips, fitness tips and the like, delivered in 15, 30 and 45 minute segments.

Are you listening Gatorade? I might buy your Propel fitness water more often if you were reminding me..subtly… every time I worked out.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Susan, I’ll have to look, but…your comment that people remember more of what they hear than what they read is off the mark. People remember more of what they READ and if you want to go further, more of what they READ and HEAR. Together, the two are powerful for retention. Apart, reading wins.

    I’ll be at Blogher and we can discuss, if you like. I’ve written about this before, so I should have it at the tip of my fingers, but…I don’t. I have so much data stored in the old brain that… when I’m forced to recall significant info, I resort to a hard drive search.

    However, I also know that recalling is easier than remembering. In other words, association is the best way to get people to remember you, or your product/service. The human brain finds it easier to recall something it associates with some other familiar object or person (a monkey with a banana, Dick and Jane with baby boomers, any acronym that has made it into the vernacular, etc.).

    That’s why repeated ads (we all know the so-called magic number is 7) whether in print or radio or TV or Internet, including multi-media online, get the message through: the listener or reader comes to associate the product or service with the content of the ad. The current vogue on TV which pharmaceutical companies are using is beyond comprehension: they never mention the drug, just the symptoms it cures. Then, Ask Your Doctor. Seems so senseless and a waste of good commercial time.

    Meanwhile, this post on podcasting is right on! And, because it’s a blog post…it will be returned in a Google search many times over, satisfying the 7X rule and then some.

  2. Yvonne –

    Thanks for the clarification on the read or hear, versus read and hear. My point is indeed that under the right circumstances marketers should supplement their written materials with audio such as podcasts, but only when it makes sense for the marketing plan.

    If you have, and can find, that bit of research that I am referring to (and also have “somewhere”) I’d love to have it. I know it proves my point and I want to cite it correctly.

    Thanks for leaving a comment. It’s nice to know someone’s reading!