Audio Marketing Comes of Age: Educate First and Sales Will Follow

"Podcasting" is one of the newest and most popular marketing formats that have taken a strong foothold on the internet over the last several months. The word "podcasting" is actually a derivative of Apple's "iPod" and "broadcasting". It actually refers to the ability of RSS 2.0 to automatically deliver audio and video files over the internet by subscription.




Often times, podcasts are actually delivered via MP3 files that can be played from an iPod, a MP3 player, or a home computer. You can learn more about this technology here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting
http://www.ipodder.org/whatIsPodcasting
http://www.itgarage.com/node/462


Ironically, a couple months ago, I had done a telephone interview. All of the people listening to the show dialed up into a remotely hosted phone bank to listen to the show. Although that program was delivered through a standard telephone system, a few listeners who later contacted me had said that he heard my "podcast". It seems a lot of people automatically applied that term to the phone interview, although the interview was not available in a computer format or even accessible from a computer.


A BIG FAN OF TALK TELEVISION AND RADIO

I have always been a huge fan of talk radio and talk shows. I still am.

When my wife is not in the room, I listen to lots of educational television and political talk shows. When my wife is not in the car, I primarily listen to AM radio. My primary focus in the car is politics and news, unless it is late at night and then it is Art Bell I listen to the most.

Of course, my wife hates that kind of thing, so that is why I only listen to it when she is not around and when she is asleep. I would rather enjoy the show than to listen to her nag about why I listen to that "crap". ;-)


LOOKING TO THE HORIZON

I have always felt that there would be a place in internet marketing for content delivered via an audio format.

Back in early 2000, I had explored the possibility of bringing some of my own content to the internet in a streaming audio format. Unfortunately, at that time, I really did not have the time or resources to seriously pursue the idea. I was forced to shelf the idea in 2000, because of the high cost of the bandwidth required for delivery of streaming audio programming via the internet.

By the end of 2004, "podcasting" had come of age, and marketers the world over were offering audio formatted business information online. I guess that five years ago, I was just a bit ahead of the curve.


AUDIO PROGRAMMING IS STILL A GOOD SELL

Like I mentioned before, a couple of months ago, I had done a live telephone interview with a mentoring program, and we had several hundred listeners to the program. From that one interview, I managed to pick up a couple of thousand in new business and several new and regular clients, and that was a really small listening audience.

All I can say about that event is that it sold me on the idea of using audio programming to sell my online services.


SOME PRODUCTS AND SERVICES CANNOT BE SOLD DOOR-TO-DOOR

I am in a unique business. Often times when I speak with people, who are not running an online business, they will ask me what it is that I do exactly. Here is where the challenge enters the equation.

You may have never logged onto the internet or you may be a regular internet user, but if you are not engaged in the business of selling goods and services online, you may not understand my service. I can't tell you how often I talk to non-marketers and get a blank stare when I try to explain my business to them. Even my wife's aunt and uncle get the "deer in the headlights look" when I try to explain to them the nature of my business. He runs a successful offline business, but it does not bring him any closer to an understanding of my business model.

Many of you who know me, understand precisely what it is that I do and can understand why I make a good living doing it. You can understand the value offered to my clients through my business model.

Those of you who don't know me do need to understand a bit more about me before I continue.

At this very moment, you are either looking at someone's website or reading their online newsletter, and you are reading this article that I have made available for free to publishers and webmasters.

In this article, it is my goal first to educate you about something of interest to "you". My hope is that when you get to the end of the article, you will be quite taken with me, and you will want to know more about me. Then, when you read the About the Author information at the bottom of this article, and you will visit my website and review my products and services with interest.

That makes sense, right? You have come farther than most people I talk to about my business model.

With my primary service, I am the "go-to man" for getting your articles delivered to the highest numbers of publishers and webmasters who are interested in finding content that they can use with their ezines and websites.


EDUCATE FIRST, AND SALES WILL FOLLOW

When using free-reprint articles to market your online business, you are often more successful in getting your article reprinted and in getting traffic to your website, if you take the attitude of educating your reader above all else. If you get lost on the idea that you are using this promotion method to promote your business, then you will have missed the key to your success.

Remember what I said above, "it is my goal first to educate you about something of interest to you." You are the reader, and you will only be willing to read what I have written, if I am providing information to you that is of interest to "you".

Many marketers make the mistake of thinking their article is intended to sell their products or services, instead of themselves.

When you are willing to address the concerns of the reader above all else, then you will have provided a service of value to your reader. In doing so, you sell your reader on "you". And, your About the Author information serves as the teaser/lead/ad to take your reader to your website, where you will get the chance to sell your reader on your business, products and services.

Educate your reader first, and sales will follow.

This system works for hundreds of my clients and for myself.


THE LONG FORM, PERSONAL, INTERVIEW

When most people think about radio advertising, they think about 30-second and 60-second ads. This is fine for people who sells cars, hot tubs, groceries, and other products that are already well-understood by the listening audience.

But, if your business were like mine --- difficult for the average person to understand, then a 30- or 60-second radio spot would be a total waste of your advertising budget!

On the other hand, it would be different if I could get 15, 30 or 60 minutes to explain to my listeners what my business is and how it would be beneficial for the listener to use it for the promotion of their own business, then I would have a good chance of getting my listener's business.

In my phone interview, we actually spent one hour and twenty minutes talking, and that interview generated a couple thousand dollars in new business. It was the most profitable one hour and twenty minutes I had ever spent.

Can you imagine how much more business I would have picked up if the audience were coast-to-coast, and I was reaching hundreds of thousands of listeners instead of hundreds of listeners? And, can you imagine how much more business I could have generated from that interview, if it had been simulcast live on the internet and archived in MP3 format for me to make available later to visitors to my website?

I can imagine... That is why I got so excited when I was able to strike a deal with a nationally known, radio personality to make this kind of service available to my clients.