The Relevance of Podcasting

A Statistical Overview of the Influence of Podcasting

The podcast audience is one that's exhibiting exponential growth. EMarketer, in a recently released report, estimated a total active podcast audience (those who download one or more podcasts each week) of 7.5 million in 2008 and 18 million in 2011. (The current total podcast audience--those who have ever listened to a podcast--is estimated to be approximately 20 million.) EMarketer podcasting analyst Mike Chapman believes that the 2011 active audience might actually grow to be closer to 30 million.

Why should I integrate podcast marketing into my advertising plan?

The internet is fast becoming the largest media platform in the world. Conventional media advertising has begun to see an effect as companies shift significant advertising dollars to online alternatives. This shift in allocation is a key sign that the internet will be an important method of reaching consumers in the future. Podcast marketing is a direct capitalization on the popularity of the net. The ability to distribute podcasts across a number of channels on the web makes it an easy way for anyone to build a strong consumer base. In its most efficient form, podcast marketing can secure thousands of customers at no cost to the advertiser. This makes it an essential part of any marketing plan.

Does Podcasting work?

In the marketing world it's a new day each day and creativity is a must for any winner. You have to be innovative and make sure that your clients or customers are kept up-to-date with your ideas. A normal day usually starts with a search for answers. More often than not the question is how can I grow my business? How can I gain market share? The answer is pretty simple and everyone in this competitive marketing world knows for a fact that innovation is crucial for conversion of your prospect customer base as your clients.

So is podcasting an answer to do this efficiently? Will it be effective for my business?  Here are some podcasting basics:

The traditional marketing tools such as radio and television have proven time and again that they are most effective to propagate your product or service. Once you have identified your target audience it's as simple as choosing the channel and the program to communicate your product or service with. The large reach of these mediums  have huge success rates. The traditional  marketing methods still prevail, but with the advent of mobile computing and devices like palm pilots and I-pods  the definition of mass marketing has been reinvented.  These internet enabled, handheld devices have revolutionized the way marketing looks at new media.

Podcasting is the process of sharing audio/video content from WebPages to potential customers. Now that the hand held devices have taken off the restriction of a fixed desktop or a laptop, pod casts are becoming the buzz word in the marketing industry.

Podcasting uses an XML based technology called RSS. An RSS file is the most used file to pod cast your content and consists of date, time, titles, and other information about the content that is being downloaded into the pod cast device. The way this works is very simple. Your pod cast content is placed on the web and when users login to receive the RSS feed your content is moved into the I pod or other players of your customer's automatically. This way you can benefit from  this innovative and economical communication solution. 

(podcastincome.com)