Sales is tough today. Trying to get in front of the business owner or decision maker for a meeting is close to impossible. You have to fight through endless voice mails, unanswered emails and the hope that direct mail lands on their desk. Unless someone is looking for your product or service, they generally won’t look for you online, so all the content you create, all the advertising you do won’t matter until they go searching. Create a podcast and you’ll have a new and unique way to reach new clients.
Referrals offer an opportunity to get in front of decision makers but generally that’s only when they have a need. It’s a marketing process that generally requires you to wait for others to make the introductions. When you create a podcast, you can leverage your referrals to get you interviews of your ideal clients.
Podcast marketing is a relatively new idea that provides a host of small business marketing benefits.
Writing Acumen Not Required
A podcast refers to the regular production and distribution of audio content. It can be delivered to your customers, followers and prospects and anyone on the web. A podcast isn’t about writing, it is about asking questions, telling stories and sharing knowledge. For business owners that have an unlimited amount of industry knowledge, the voice on a podcast can position the host as an industry expert.
Relatively Easy to Create
Even someone with no technical experience can create a podcast. There are services that will do all the work for you or you can use garage band on your mac or audacity on you pc for recording and editing. A microphone can be purchased for less that $100. dollars and you are ready to record.
It’s Your Show
What do you want to talk to your decision makers about?
- Think about realtors. They could create a podcast around local restaurants and get the inside scoop of each one. The audience would be those that like to eat out and are looking for restaurant ideas. The Realtor could be the sponsor of the podcast, hence built in advertising.
- A chiropractor might want to talk to HR professionals of big companies. They could create a podcast around healthy work and talk to HR professionals at the companies they are targeting about their programs.
- Someone who is a business coach might want to talk to more business owners, so they might create a podcast around leadership or social responsibility.
You can create a show about any topic you want. The key is to have a show that is relevant to the audience you want as clients and to have the show be relevant to that audience. For example, if you are an insurance agent selling homeowners insurance, you might want to reach more realtors. By creating a show about where they refer their clients for insurance, probably won’t get you an interview. But if you create a show about top trends for selling homes or what buyers are looking for today, you’ll probably find many agents that want to be interviewed.
The Marketing Advantage of A Podcast
One of the beauties of a podcast is that you have content for your blog by transcribing the audio to text and posting to your website. It makes the task of having to write fresh content disappear because each conversation will be unique and therefore each blog post will be unique. You can also do a series of interviews and turn them into an ebook or a white paper. There are two additional benifits to marketing your company when you create a podcast. The first, you’ll have new material for social media posts. Secondly, have your guest promote their interview which will expand the reach of your episode.
The Convenience Factor
Listening to podcasts is so easy. While podcasting is in its infancy, most people know what it is and with a little help can easily learn how to listen to them. Your reach with a podcast can be worldwide, hence attracting a larger audience. A lot of people like to listen to podcasts in their car while driving and some people listen to podcasts instead of radio.
However you look at it, creating a podcast to be used as a sales tool is gaining traction. Podcasts are becoming a proven method for increasing brand awareness and conversions. If you would like to learn how to create a podcast for your small business and reap the benefits of this exciting tool, contact us today and we’ll answer your questions.
Debbie DeChambeau is a business and marketing consultant and founder of Select Business Team. She is the host of the company podcast, facilitates business development meetings and speaks about marketing and business. Her newest passion is podcasting. Talk to her about your podcast idea!