Podcasting

Podcast in Retro. Photo courtesy of David Shortle on Flickr

Nothing strikes fear in the hearts of freelancers, small business owners and sales professionals more than the phrase “cold calling.” Some of the professional service providers that I work with would rather starve than pick up the phone and talk to someone they’ve never met before, much less ask them for business.

Todd Schnick, featured speaker at today’s WIN ATL meeting, says there’s a way to banish cold calling from your sales cycle and still get in front of your hottest prospects. The answer for Schnick is podcasting. Schnick and his business partner realized that they could land intimate, one-on-one conversations with their ideal clients just by inviting them to be guests on their online High Velocity Radio show.

Think about it. Instead of putting someone on the defensive by calling them up to sell them something, you’re flattering them and offering them a platform to promote their agenda. Schnick says the audience listening to the podcast or online radio show isn’t what matters to him; it’s the guests. He chooses guests that might buy his services, asks them about their business challenges (just like a good sales professional would during a traditional sales call) and then builds a rapport with the guests after the show.

Schnick calls the time immediately following the show, right after the microphones turn off, as the “post-show buzz” time. This is the time when the guests are feeling good about getting through the interview and are open to learning more about the hosts who just did them a favor. This technique must be working. Schnick said he and his business partner have been able to turn 1/3 of their guests into clients.

Another benefit of podcasting or creating online audio presentations is content generation. If you’re looking for SEO-friendly content for your blog or website, podcasts are great vehicles. Schnick is now in the business of producing online radio shows for clients on trade show floors. In the past week, Schnick conducted 40 interviews on behalf of a client at an industry trade show. Not only was this a fun and interactive way to get people to spend some time in the trade show booth, the client now has at least 40 different content files for the website or other digital promotional materials.

Schnick closed his presentation by naming some of the tools that he and others may use to do their podcast prospecting:

BlogTalkRadio.com. Basic service is free. “BlogTalkRadio allows anyone, anywhere the ability to host a live, Internet Talk Radio show, simply by using a telephone and a computer.”

Skype. Schnick likes the premium Skype service because of its good audio quality.

For editing the long pauses, ummms and uhs out of your audio recordings, try free service Audacity, Apple’s Garage Band or audio editing software from WavePad

Schnick recommended two products by Blubrry. The first is the PowerPress plugin for audio and video content creation in the WordPress blogging platform. He also uses Blubrry for media hosting since audio files are really large.

I am a huge fan of Terry Gross and her NPR program Fresh Air. I first listened to Gross’s syndicated interview show in the early 90s during the 30-45 minute commute home from my television job in Chattanooga. I am thrilled that Fresh Air is now available via free podcast on the NPR website or on iTunes.

My husband is much more into podcasts than I am. He updates his iPod each morning before going to work and spends the entire day tethered to it via headphones that rarely leave his ears. It’s maddening to call to Zach in our split-level house because I can’t compete with Adam Carolla or someone from ESPN warbling to him like he’s the Manchurian Candidate.

With Twitter, Facebook and other content platforms cropping up in the last five years, you would think that podcasting had lost a little of its shine. Not necessarily according to Edison Research, a company that’s been tracking consumer use of podcasts for some time. In their 2009 study, they observed that 1 in 4 Americans had watched or listened to a podcast at least once. Findings from their 2010 study are even more interesting: they were able to create the profile of the average podcast user. Here’s the breakdown:

• Gender: 59% male, 41% female
• Age range: 18-44
• Education: the majority of podcast users are college-educated. 30% had some post-college study
• Income: 31% of users reported a household income greater than $75,000/year and about 20% reported a household income greater than $100,000

In a nutshell, podcast consumers are the advertising sweet spot – exactly the type of people that advertisers are trying to reach.

This phenomenon reminds me of a 2009 Fresh Air podcast when Gross interviewed actor Gabriel Byrne about his HBO drama In Treatment. She asked him how he prepared for his role (Byrne plays a therapist on the show) and made the act of listening visually appealing.  His response resonated with me.

“Listening, I think, is one of the most profound compliments that you can pay to another person, to truly listen,” Byrne said. “And to feel that you’re heard is deeply fulfilling.”

If only podcast producers could find a way to listen to their audiences while the audiences are listening to them. Maybe they’ll create technology that will get inside our heads through our earbuds? Until that time, we’ll continue to pay these content producers the profound compliment of downloading and listening.