With the amount of potential customers online growing every day, podcasting is becoming an extremely effective method for widening your personal customer base. The advent of the internet brought a new level of customer interaction to companies all over the world, and podcasts can be viewed as a similar innovation in terms of the way they can increase the level of communication between a company, and a consumer. Short of actually speaking to a customer on the phone, a podcast may be the closest to real communication that a company can get, making it one of the most valuable tools in your marketing toolbox. Everyone now expects hundreds of emails, mostly junk, in their inbox every single day. As a result, it has become increasingly impersonal, and increasingly unread. Podcasting on the other hand can make the customer feel a connection to your company or your brand, the way a phone call or a letter can, but with much less time and cost for the value. Listening is still the best way for people to take in information and retain it, so what better way to educate people about your business than through an audio medium? Podcasts are remembered much more clearly by their listeners than emails or blog posts are. These reasons all contribute to the essential necessity of companies from all sectors needing to create a regular podcast.

One should very loosely tie themselves to a "schedule" however. Having a schedule for you podcasts is important, but do not feel like you can not vary from it if you have a special reason. You can feel free to make an extra podcast if you suddenly have an important update, product launch, or urgent message to communicate to your customers. When a customer realizes that you have a system of communications in place to make them aware of new deals or products that they are interested in, they are likely to check back often for that update. This can lead to increase time spent on your pages, as well as some powerful word of mouth for your company or website.

One of the large positives of podcasts is advertising the podcasts itself. Though things like e-mail messages or adverts can get lost in a SPAM filter completely unnoticed, people seek out podcasts much like magazines. If they come across your podcast, it follows that they're interested in what you do and so get rid of the need to cold sell or cold advertise to people. By not having to find customers to distribute your message to, you can concentrate on getting the message you want directly to your existing customers. Not only that, they are very easily found. You can notify users via RSS, put them on a website, and even have them on iTunes. And the best part – it's in all those places for free! In most kinds of advertising, the concept of no cost distribution of your ad is a fantasy, but a created podcast can be distributed effectively at absolutely no cost, making it a truly unique opportunity.

Lastly, in today's world of instant communication, a company's reputation can go a long way. A lot of people purchase based on a company's mission and value statements, and things like environmental records. Because podcasting is still fairly new, it is generally associated with companies that have progressive and forward thinking values. This can be a powerful tool for attracting the youth demographic to interact with a business for the first time. The youth demographic is also by far and away the greatest consumer of iPods and other MP3 players. This is more than just a coincidence, and you should be using it to your advantage. You can create a youth and young adult friendly image and transmit it via technology used by nearly all youth and young adults. At the going rate of free, you can not afford not to invest in podcasting.

AD2 (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Source by Matt Josdal