podcast marketing
TRANSCRIPT
Learning Objectives
At the end of this presentation you will understand:
• What a Podcast is• How Podcasts Work• Podcast Market and Download Demographics• Podcast Creation Best Practices• Podcast Marketing Best Practices
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What is a Podcast?
• Digital or audio file available for download or streaming over the internet
• Podcast name = broadcast +
• 75% of Podcasts are accessed through
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How do Podcasts Work?
• Podcasts are subscribed to and downloaded through software known as a podcatcher
• The podcatcher software is used to: – Access a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed– Check for updates– Automate the process of downloading new
podcasts as they become available
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Podcast Market
• Market for podcasts has grown significantly– 18.5 million podcast users in 2007 – 65 million podcast users in 2010
• Podcast market characteristics– Well educated– High incomes– At ease with interacting with others and information over the
internet
• The market that advertisers desire
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Podcast Download Demographics
Education
High school graduate 15%
Some college 19%
College/graduate degree 23%
Gender
Male 22%
Female 16%
Household Income
Less than $30,000 19%
$30,000 to $49,999 17%
$50,000 to $74,999 19%
$75,000 and above 23%Age
18 to 29 27%
30 to 4920%
50 to 5415%
65 and older8%
Podcast Creation
• Simple and low cost
• Basic process involves two steps
1. Create and an audio and video file
2. Associate this file with a piece of XML code known as an RSS feed
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Podcast Creation Best Practices
The next section of the presentation will cover:
• Podcast Discovery• Podcast Subscribing• Podcast Length• Podcast Message Delivery• Podcast Format
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Podcast Discovery • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Podcasts – Dedicate an entire page or website to your
podcast– Add the word podcast to your domain name for
improved search engine indexing– Provide detailed text notes on your webpage for
each podcast
• Remind people to share your podcast with others
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Podcast Subscribing
• Subscribing to a podcast should be as few clicks as possible
• An obvious way to SUBSCRIBE NOW helps
• Provide an additional option for consumers to subscribe through email
• Provide as many options as possible to subscribe to your podcast
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Podcast Length
• Most impactful podcasts do not cover more than one topic per episode
• More topics + longer Length = forgetting • Most effective podcast length is between 3
and 5 minutes
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Podcast Message Delivery • Avoid complex language and organizational
lingo
• Dramatization and humor improve the odds that the audience will remember the message
• Most memorable podcast messages were those that used literary devices to connect with audiences
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Podcast Format
• Often podcasts are broken or unusable by bad RSS feed
• Use a web feed management provider
– Will ensure podcast’s RSS feed is error free – Will ensure podcast is accepted by most podcast
listening software
Example
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Podcast Advertising • Podcast Advertising Spending
– $165 million in 2007 – $435 million in 2012
• Advertising penetration is just under a third of traditional audio and video podcasts
• Average number of advertisements per podcast is 2.4 and typically 16.3 seconds
• 60% of podcast advertising is directly or indirectly relevant to the content of the podcast
Podcast Advertising Best Practices
• The next section of the presentation will cover:
• Podcast Content• Podcast Disclosure• Podcast Advertisement Type• Podcast Advertisement Placement • Measuring Success of Podcast Advertisement
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Podcast Content
• Select podcasts to advertise with that have a reputation for publishing great content
• Poor content = poor marketing effectiveness
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Podcast Disclosure• Disclose podcast creators and sponsors
• Disclosure increases the overall credibility through the elimination of questions about who is trying to influence the audience’s attitudes, beliefs, and actions
• Disclosure increases the likeliness of the audience linking to their website, Twitter accounts, and Facebook profiles
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Podcast Advertisement Type
• Two common types of podcast advertising are1. Sponsorships 2. Traditional ads
• Sponsored ads are less intrusive than traditional advertising (Due to the less persuasive message nature of sponsorship)
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Podcast Advertisement Placement• Place advertisements at the beginning of a podcast rather than
in the middle – Less irritating– Less likely to interrupt consumers listening to the podcast
• Can use traditional advertising at the beginning of the podcast, and sponsorship advertising in the middle of the podcast with minimal consequence (When traditional or sponsorship advertisements are placed at the beginning of a podcast there is no significant difference in intrusiveness)
• 72% of the time the sponsor is recognized by the podcast talent (This increases the marketing effectiveness and decreases advertisement intrusiveness as it alerts the viewer a message is coming)HITenlightenment.com
Measuring Success: Podcast Advertisement• Important to establish measures and monitor trends
• Common metrics include– Number of website visits– Number of episode downloads – Number of subscribers– Focusing on a metric that has some type of commitment from
the audience (e.g. number of subscribers to a mailing list or newsletter)
• Important to monitor metrics over duration of time and compare these with previous time periods to establish trends (e.g. are the numbers of subscribers over the last 30 days increasing?)
Podcast Segmentation and Targeting
“According to long-tail theory, these targeted audiences should be especially valuable to advertisers and marketers. Although the audiences are small, each listener or viewer is very interested in the subject, and the audiences should therefore carry commensurately higher ad pricing. The long-tail part of the equation hasn’t kicked in yet.” Chapter 11: PODCASTS (2009)
Question
With targeted niche audiences, podcast advertising should yield premium rates, but the market potential has not yet been realized.
Why do you think it has not been realized?
Podcast Creation
• For more information on podcast creation visit: http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/
References• ANDRIOLE, S. J. (2010). Business Impact of Web 2.0 Technologies. Communications Of The ACM,
53(12), 67-79. doi:10.1145/1859204.1859225
• Chapter 11: PODCASTS. (2009). Consumer Use of the Internet & Mobile Web (pp. 83-86). Richard K. Miller & Associates.
• Harvard University (2012). Podcast Production. Retrieved May 2012, 2012 from http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k1967&pageid=icb.page23750\
• Haygood, D. M. (2007). A Status Report on Podcast Advertising. Journal Of Advertising Research, 47(4), 518-523.
• Penn, C (2008). The 8 Step Guide to Podcast Marketing Basics. Retrieved May 20, 2012 from http://www.christopherspenn.com/8stepguide.pdf
• Responses to Podcast Ads. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 12(5), 533-537. doi:10.1089/cpb.2009.0074
• Tulley, C. (2011). IText Reconfigured: The Rise of the Podcast. Journal Of Business & Technical Communication, 25(3), 256-275. doi:10.1177/1050651911400702
• Waters, R. D., Amarkhil, A., Bruun, L., & Mathisen, K. S. (2012). Messaging, music, and mailbags: How technical design and entertainment boost the performance of environmental organizations’ podcasts. Public Relations Review, 38(1), 64-68. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.11.004