If you’ve used the Internet at all this year, you’ve probably 
heard of podcasting.  It’s the one word that’s almost guaranteed 
to come up in discussions of small business marketing, and with 
good reason too: podcasting has become more and more popular over 
the past 12 months, and is set to become the most powerful 
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 
little like a blog and a little like radio – and they’re starting 
to take off in a big way.

In marketing terms, podcasting presents a new and very powerful 
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 think 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 big 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 something people will 
be interested in hearing.

Why use marketing podcasts?

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

Marketing Podcasts Help Build Tangibility

By creating 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 
something your customers/listeners can relate to and understand.

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 
something free- and something which they’ll hopefully enjoy 
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 creating 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

Creating 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 .MP3 and uploading 
it to your server.

Once uploaded, your podcast is ready to be distributed, 
and this can be done through aggregators such as iPodder 
(http://www.ipodder.org) & 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"  - 
   http://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 perhaps help to explain the growing popularity of 
podcasts: audio "blogs" or radio shows distributed by RSS and 
used as a new, and highly effective , form of marketing.  This 
article explains the benefits of marketing podcasts, and gives a 
brief guide on how to get started. 

Robert Moment is a business strategist and author of "It Only 
Takes a Moment to Score" found on Amazon.com and Barnes and 
Noble. Robert shows entrepreneurs how to turn ideas into wealth, 
how to avoid becoming a statistic and have FUN ! Download the 
FREE Special Report , "17 Profitable Ways to Turn  Your Ideas 
into Money" at http://www.sellintegrity.com