The new media of blogging, social media and podcasting are swiftly and thoroughly taking over the Internet as the dominant lead in marketing, sales and communication. Now, instead of assembling a packet of sales letters, samples and brochures, all one must do is to provide their prospect with the appropriate URL and let their content do the rest.
Client Marketing
Client communications and marketing is the lifeblood of any company, big or small. If you don’t know what your customers want, how are you going to provide it to them? You also have to stay in communication to ensure that the happy client stays that way: happy.
Client marketing is also another area that requires a corporation’s full concentration and best concerted efforts to be successful. There must be careful and methodical approaches to securing new clients and maintaining the existing ones. Yes, clients will come and clients will go, but corporations must ensure that they are not losing clients for the wrong reasons. Are your communications effective? Are you visible enough for them to remember you or for you to establish yourself enough so as to become a household name?
New Media
There are many, many venues that companies can successfully use to address their clients; websites, blogs, emails, social sites, etc. Podcasting is one such method that works wonderfully well for some companies who have a product and an effective employee base who can maximize the potential that podcasting can offer.
A podcast consists of a series of digital media files that are available as downloads and go directly to the user’s computer, provided that the correct software is being used to capture the podcast. The podcast has the ability to be downloaded or retrieved and enjoyed at the user’s convenience, which makes it more inviting and exciting to utilize.
With a podcast marketing system, your company has the ability to generate multiple podcast presentations at any designated number of times they choose. In other words, you can publish a podcast once or twice a week if you prefer. The listener has the convenience of going back to listen to previous downloads, listening to a series of downloads or selecting only certain dates or times of the downloads that interest them. But, for the corporation, the podcast equips them with phenomenal marketing power.
Whenever your company publishes a podcast, they are essentially making a “mini” television commercial each time. They have the space and time to introduce a new product, a new marketing concept, teach a series of lessons or strategies, or to even have one of the top executives present a weekly address. The ideas are limitless!
Communications is key. Marketing is key. Start by doing the following:
1. Identify those internal employees who have the necessary skill set and technical abilities to publish the podcast. Make sure that they have a desire for this new media and not just doing “their job.” Their enthusiasm (or lack thereof) will certainly show through on the podcasts.
2. Invest in the necessary software equipment that it will take to implement this new media. Shop online at various software dealers that have software that is specifically for the podcasting audience.
3. Connect your company with the major social networking site(s). Let everyone know that you have a podcast available. Tweak, adjust, post, comment and interact on these networking sites constantly.
4. Advertise the podcast on everything from your email signatures to sales letters to brochures. The more exposure your efforts have, the more traffic you will receive.
5. Be consistent with your podcast presentations so as to establish trust with your followers. Consistency is the key. Customers may not remember everything you said, but they will not forget the one week that you missed publishing a podcast presentation.
These are a few steps that will help get your company aligned with the podcasting idea and position you as a forward-thinking business.
Podcast Then?
Absolutely!
But wait…should your corporation or business start podcasting? Is podcasting going to really make that much of a difference in the way you do business? Will customers respond better? Differently? Be non-responsive?
Of course, no one can give you definitive answers to any of those questions because the use of various media processes all depend on several external factors, i.e., the nature of the business, the technical skills of the employees, the company’s ability to hold their own against their competition, etc.
But, podcasting, if done correctly and strategized correctly, can have a significant impact on your company’s interaction with customers and clients, which could essentially result in higher sales and an increase in your client base. Who would object to that?!
I am a freelance writer, blogger and professional motivational speaker. I primarily focus on business content, offering my clients strategic marketing strategies for their businesses. I have been an entrepreneur for over 13 years, after having worked extensively in corporate America.
