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Sweet marketing music

Tanner Montague came to town from Seattle having never owned his own music venue before. He’s a musician himself, so he has a pretty good sense of good music, but he also wandered into a crowded music scene filled with concert venues large and small.But the owner of Green Room thinks he found a void in the market. It’s lacking, he says, in places serving between 200 and 500 people, a sweet spot he thinks could be a draw for both some national acts not quite big enough yet for arena gigs and local acts looking for a launching pad.“I felt that size would do well in the city to offer more options,” he says. “My goal was to A, bring another option for national acts but then, B, have a great spot for local bands to start.”Right or wrong, something seems to be working, he says. He’s got a full calendar of concerts booked out several months. How did he, as a newcomer to the market in an industry filled with competition, get the attention of the local concertgoer?

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by Andrew Tellijohn
March 2006

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Sales

business builder sales  

Podcasts can get
tough prospects
to listen up

by Albert Maruggi  

Imagine if you could find your prospects and customers eager to listen to your presentations. Imagine that these presentations are short, focused “radio” shows that can be enhanced with music, sound effects and even video to create a more compelling message.

Here’s the topper: Instead of having to dial hundreds of people who might be interested in your product and repeating your presentation over and over, you aim your content specifically toward an audience that has subscribed to have your content delivered automatically.

That’s podcasting – a way to use professionally produced content to reach a carefully targeted audience. Whether they subscribe or manually download individual episodes, the podcasts are designed to be flexible. The best ones are lively and short, intended for playback on a portable digital audio player like an iPod, cell phone or PDA.

Why is this powerful? Because everyone in business is multitasking, trying to do more with less time. The medium of audio allows people to be more productive. Podcasts can be listened to on the daily commute, while working out, or while walking the dog.

The best podcasts are those in which individual episodes stand on their own and, more importantly, all the pieces fit together  and lead the audience along a path. That path could lead to discussions and a proposal, top-of-mind status or, at the very least, a perception about your company that will increase word-of-mouth exposure.

These ideas stem from the extensive firsthand experience of a former podcasting skeptic. My company, Provident Partners, began podcasting a year ago, when the medium was still a sandbox. Since then, our Marketing Edge podcast has been downloaded tens of thousands of times, generating leads, customers and media coverage. That converted me from a skeptic to an advocate.

How to engage
To produce an entertaining and informative podcast – with the objective of building relationships with the media and generating new business – we have a few best practices.

First, the types of businesses best suited for podcasting include the following characteristics:

• They have an expertise in a particular discipline, such as financial or business management, technology, law, health care, international trade, etc.

• They need to establish trust in order to secure a meeting or sale.

• They must demonstrate superior skills and experience.

• They are involved in changing industries, markets or complex regulatory environments.

Podcasting can help fill the prospect pool and expedite the sales cycle for companies with products or services that involve educating prospects and customers about new concepts.

Podcasts should be informative, without giving away the “secret sauce” – that’s saved for closing the sale. The types of information that make successful business podcasts include:

• How-to information, just enough to get people interested.

• Product or service benefits and capabilities.

• Any type of changing factors, such as market conditions, technology, regulatory and legal issues.

• Real-life stories from customers.

• Best-practice methodologies your firm uses or recommends.

• News issues that affect your prospect or customer basePodcasts can be a building block for those people with whom you can’t get an in-person meeting but who are still viable prospects.

Here’s how:

• Create a series of podcasts that address the major decision drivers of the prospect base.

• Produce and distribute those podcasts in short, easily digestible segments, making it easier for the busy prospect to get your message.

• Integrate the distribution of other marketing tactics – direct mail, sales calls and so on – pushing prospects to the podcast.Drive listeners to visit a Web site, send an e-mail or make a phone call for even more information or to obtain an offer.

Attracting listeners
People generally find podcasts in two ways: searching on the Web or being driven to the podcast by offline information. With a sufficient Web presence established, your podcast is easily found via search engines, podcast directories or the iTunes podcast directory.

You can also drive traffic to your podcast by promoting it with direct mail pieces, phone calls, e-mails, Web marketing or media coverage.

Given that podcasting is still developing, podcasters can generate some media coverage for even greater marketing effectiveness. There are several options to generate this kind of attention. Consider the following:

If your company is the first or one of the first to produce a podcast in your market segment or profession, this should be heavily promoted. Usually, companies will get first-mover status and establish a thought-leader position if this tactic is successfully executed. Other public relations tactics related to a podcast include:

• Create newsworthiness by interviewing newsmakers in your industry.

• Produce podcasts tied to current- event news hooks such as government policy, industry trends and technological advancements.

• Distribute media advisories to publicize highlights and important segments from your podcast.

Nearly all businesses have high-speed Internet connections, and broadband access in homes is now equal to dial-up access, and it’s still increasing. This has helped podcasting establish a foundation as a new marketing medium.

The second key element is the convergence of the cell phone, digital audio player, and PDA. This device is making companies re-engineer their marketing tactics. I call it device marketing, and podcasting is a major function.

Just as the Web didn’t eliminate the need for printed information, podcasting is a complementary tactic in an overall marketing mix. But it’s a tactic that can make a company truly stand out. 

contact Albert Maruggi is president of Provident Partners in St. Paul, a marketing, branding and communications firm: 651.695.0174; amaruggi@providentpartners.net; www.providentpartners.net