Episode 20: Promoting Your Podcast Part 2
Posted on 08. Nov, 2009 by lifestylepodnetwork@gmail.com (Lifestyle PodNetwork) in Marketing, Podcasting, Podcasts
Today’s show continues on last week’s theme where we started to talk about the things you need to know to promote your podcast successfully. We’ve got a whole heap more thoughts in this episode, plus your comments and some listener audio as well. This is a participatory show, so perhaps there are some things we haven’t mentioned, a promotional tip or technique you use on your show. This is where we want you to contribute to the community and share your thoughts, hints and tips with us on the blog, or by email to podcastersemporium@gmail.com.
We also answer your questions on the show, so if you have something you’d like to know about then drop us a comment on the blog, or send an email to podcastersemporium@gmail.com and we will be happy to cover your question in a future show.
Thanks to everyone who contribued to the blog and sent us audio comments since the last show, we love getting your questions, feedback and thoughts on how to podcast better.
Here’s what we mentioned in today’s show:
Does paid advertising work?
- Google adwords
- Consider your audience – will they see or read and most importantly respond to an ad?
- Banner ads
- 150×150 spots on relevant blogs
Plugging your show
- comments
- guest spots
- become a subject matter expert
- actively seek out opportunities
- Know your audience
- Email Signature
Guerilla Marketing
- Does it work?
- How do you know it works?
- Working with metrics
- Where did you hear about us
- Making a flyer
- Cafe’ Press merchandise
- Marketing Stunts
- Considering the legal implications of your actions
Community Promotion
- Ask your audience to tweet they are listening with link
- Ssocial Sharing tools e.g. StumbleUpon etc.
- Word of mouth
- Use Caution with “walled gardens” like Facebook
- Don’t waste too much energy
Be an an active member in your own community
- Respond to comments
- Post in forums
- Respond to emails
- Play voicemails
tweet
Services we mentioned in today’s show:
- You can get Pre-cleared sources of podsafe music for your podcast from Mevio Music Alley and Ioda Promonet.
- Cafepress for Merchandise and our 2Schooners show store.
- Moo Cards (US), Moo Cards (non-US)
- Stumble Upon (please stumble this show)
Podcasts we mentioned in today’s show:
- Entertainment Law Update with Gordon Firemark
- 2 Schooners
- Aussie Geek Podcast
- The Family Time Podcast
- Halo Dudes Podcast
- Sci-Fi Diner Podcast
Our new Podcasters’ Emporium 30 second bumper
We’d love for you to play our 30 second Podcasters’ Emporium bumper in your show. Let us know when you do, so we can mention you and your podcast on Podcasters’ Emporium
Download (mp3)
Marketing in an online world
Posted on 03. Jul, 2009 by James Williams in Marketing
It seems like only a few years ago that we were marvelling at this thing called the internet. We connected via dial-up and we searched – wide eyed – for things on Yahoo!
Over time, our connections got faster, more people got connected and Yahoo became less relevant. Does anyone really know when Google first appeared? I don’t remember seeing an ad.
It seems like only yesterday that the brave few bought things online, and now people bid, buy and ship all from their computer screens – not even casting an eye on the seller wherever they might be on the globe.
Our perception of our world, planet Earth is changing.
This new digital age has turned consumers of media into producers of media. Being both consumer and producer (or prosumers) individuals are much more empowered to create their own truth, meaning and dictate their own destiny.
The voice of the few large traditional media outlets, is being muffled by millions of online voices in the form of bloggers, podcasters and social media leaders.
These digital prosumers are one connected people of the planet, clustered into global online communities who share thoughts, ideas, and inspiration who communicate and build trust with people they may never see face-to-face.
Digital consumers are far more selective of the media they consume.
It’s no longer just about pressing the mute button during commercial slots either. They filter out email spam, they skip TV ads on Tivo, they select pages on a magazine website they want to view and when they create their own playlists of songs previewed and purchased on itunes, radio becomes irrelevant.
The old technique of interrupting people with advertisements won’t work in this new era, because the prosumer will continue to find ways of screening you out.
It’s only a matter of time before the old marketing techniques become irrelevant.
Insights from the Queue
Posted on 19. Jun, 2008 by James Williams in Marketing
It’s not everyday that a huge marketing machine like Apple has a big event in the Southern Hemisphere, and this week it was one of those ’special’ moments. Apple was opening the second biggest Apple Store in the world and I was in the queue watching marketing at work.
Apple Store Sydney Opening
Two years in the making, a big dose of interwebs hype and media attention for 4,000 people queuing in the rain to be the first people through the doors of Sydney’s new Apple store.
I was within the first 500 in the queue, hanging-out with other Apple fans from around the globe. Just in front of me, a group of school kids, excited to be part of an Apple event for the first time, recounting stories about the time when they got their first ipod and their first iBook.
I first started using the Apple Macintosh, over twenty years ago – in a time before these kids were born! I remember getting goose-pimples when I saw the first Macintosh – the Lisa – on the TV. I recall thinking “this is nothing like the Apple IIe, it’s going to change the world”. A grand thought for a 14-year old.
My school got a Mac just a few weeks later and my world changed forever.
A lot of people ask what is it that draws these people, sometimes from the other side of the world, to an opening of a store. There are no new products on offer, and there were no secret announcements. Just a cheap – but effective – limited edition t-shirt for each person through the door.
I wasn’t queuing for the shirt, a new product or some promise of a secret announcement. I went to experience how Apple markets something like the Apple store. I went to experience the queue as well as the store.
Most sane people would not queue for street blocks, waiting hours in the rain just to see a new store. But this is no ordinary store. It’s an Apple Store. It’s special, more attractive and somehow deserving of the wait.
Perhaps it was how long we’ve had to wait for a store like this in Australia, maybe it was the build up and plans under wraps, but never have I seen this type of cult-like following for the opening of a store. It was a remarkable sight.
My wait in the queue taught me that strong brands can get people to do things out of the ordinary and it showed me that smart marketers can tap otherwise hidden opportunities when these extraordinary events happen.
While I waited in a queue I witnessed music stores, sports stores and even recruitment agents handing out flyers to the sitting ducks behind carefully constructed barricades. No message, no shared enthusiasm, simply an opportunity to hand out pieces of paper to people with no attempt to connect.
A coffee vendor passed by offering free coffee with a friendly smile. The coffee certainly went down well, but I couldn’t tell you the name of the vendor who gave it to me.
The best marketing I witnessed was from Nudie – a niche crushed fruit juice maker with a name that always makes me smile. They were handing out product by the handful to the waiting crowd. What made it special was they connected with the crowd. The people handing over the drinks had beaming smiles and were brimming with enthusiasm. Their message was creative and hit the spot with the people who were waiting:
“Nudie loves Apples too!”
What wonderful brand alignment. They met my need, and with a simple message aligned their brand of juice with the buzz, excitement and brand of Apple.
And the juice didn’t taste too bad either!
Now, it rained on the opening night and what happens next is the missed opportunity.
Apple were giving out umbrellas to people queuing and then recycling them back out into the crowd once people were inside.
For customers who had been inside, and shopped, and shared the love there were no umbrellas for the trip home. What a huge oversight! For me it was a bit like the caring, the cheering and the love stopped when you walked out the door.
Apple missed a huge opportunity to send a very powerful message that they care as much about their customers as their customers care about them.
Now, Telstra have their flagship mobile phone concept store right across the road from Apple. Imagine if Telstra turned up on the footpath to meet exiting customers with an umbrella.
It just gets you thinking…