The document provides guidance on creating effective podcasts to engage audiences. It discusses defining goals and strategies for business podcasts. Key points include outlining the basics of podcasting, growth in popularity due to ease and portability, types of listeners and content that appeals to them, advantages for business such as building communities, and tips for production, promotion and measuring results.
1. How To Create Effective Podcasts
To Engage Your Audiences
Neville Hobson, ABC
2. “How-To” in The Next 75 Minutes
1. Start your own podcast and make it a
success
2. Build a community of listeners or viewers
and promote your podcast
3. Use podcasts to support your business
strategy
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3. What is a Podcast?
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4. What is a Podcast?
• Digital audio Optional:
file, typically MP3 • Auto-sync with
• “Radio show” format portable digital player
– Time-shifted: listen – Detach and go: listen
when you want where you want
• Delivered via RSS • Complemented by
show notes
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7. Who Listens to Podcasts?
• Majority of top-rated
podcasts come from
recognizable media entities
that are using podcasts to
expand their existing radio,
TV, cable or satellite
audiences
• The US podcast audience is
ballooning
– By 2013, there will be 37.6
million people who download
podcasts monthly, more than
double the 2008 figure of
17.4 million
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8. Who Listens to Podcasts?
“The demographic patterns of the podcast
audience, like those of the online video
audience, are highly dependent on the
nature of the content.”
Podcasting: Into the Mainstream
eMarketer, March 2009
www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1006937
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9. It‟s All About The Content
• The barriers to entry are incredibly low
– All you need is a computer, a microphone, some
free software and imagination
• Your audience can number in the single digits
– Unlike radio, you don‟t need big numbers to be
successful
• Whatever you do, it‟s all about the content
and your passion
– Actually, it‟s all about your listeners
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10. Podcasting‟s Advantages
• Audience can listen while they do something else
• Deliver specialized content to a niche audience
they can‟t get anywhere else
• Convey information that‟s best conveyed through
audio
• Build a loyal community of listeners
• Use the podcast as a means of soliciting feedback
• Use a podcast as an alternate channel to reinforce
communication via other channels
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11. Why Not to Podcast
• Your message does not lend itself to audio
(or video)
• Your audience is not inclined to listen
• Your message requires focus
• Your boss/client says “Hey, let‟s do a
podcast!”
– there must be a measurable (strategic)
business reason
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12. Why Podcast?
• Easy and complementary extension of your
existing PR and marketing activities
• Connect with customers, employees and
other groups in new and interesting ways
• Reach niche audiences otherwise
(financially) unreachable
• Be perceived to be at the leading edge
• Be seen as a thought leader
• …
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13. Elements of Successful Podcasting
• Relevance • Don‟t sell
• Keep to the point • Be authentic
• Avoid fluff • Respect listeners‟
• Info-tain time
• Build and engage • Integrate into
community blogosphere
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16. Strategizing a Business Podcast
• Communication is strategic when:
– It is planned as a means of addressing core
business issues
– Its impact on the business can be measured
A simple 4-step plan...
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17. Step 1: Goal
• Our example goal:
– Stem the defection of long-time customers to
a competitive brand
(“Produce a podcast” is not a goal)
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18. Step 2: Strategy
• Strategy = Plan of action to achieve a goal
• Our strategy:
– Influence customer perceptions favourably to
our brand
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19. Step 3: Objectives
• Objectives = Measurable activities as elements of
strategy (Step 2)
• Our objectives:
– Help customers feel like they are privileged insiders
by providing a unique window into the brand
– Create a bond between customers and the people
behind the brand
– Give customers more of a say in the development of
future brand extensions and marketing programmes
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20. Step 4: Tactics
• Tactics = Communication channels and tools
• Based on objectives (Step 3), we might
consider a variety of tactics, eg:
– Customer advisory panel
– Brand-focused blog
– Podcast
• The tactics we decide on will be what we
conclude to be the most effective for the job
and where the results can be measured
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22. Building Community
• Members of a community share a common
bond that increases a sense of loyalty to a
show
• Building community increases listener
loyalty, is a catalyst for content and helps
spread the word to increase your audience
• Tap into the social networking potential
presented by a podcast
• Host your podcast on a blog
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23. The Hobson and Holtz Report
• First episode on January 3, 2005
• Co-hosts: Neville Hobson, ABC (UK) and
Shel Holtz, ABC (USA)
• 60 mins, twice weekly, Monday and
Thursday, recorded via Skype
• Average per-podcast downloads: 1,3001
• Global audience2 Primary:
USA, UK, Canada, Australia, continental
Europe
• Building community: 2 on-the-ground regular
1. Libsyn aggregate metrics averaged for all FIR podcast
2.
downloads, retrieved May 4, 2009.
FIR Listener Survey, April 2009.
correspondents; 2 occasional contributors;
listener comments; Friendfeed Room
• Two sponsors: Lawrence Ragan
Communications and CustomScoop
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24. Building Community
• Involve listeners
• Encourage listeners
• Address their needs
• Engage
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25. Measuring ROI
• What are you actually measuring?
– Much depends on your goal
• Put the question in the context of other
communication tools
– How do you measure the ROI of an employee
newsletter?
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26. Measuring ROI
Not so difficult: Not so easy:
How many listeners? Financial return
First time, repeats? The value of a relationship
How many subscribers to And how are we defining
the RSS feed? „relationship‟?
How many citations by
others?
How many comments to
episodes?
And does the podcaster
comment on other podcasts?
Anecdotal commentary on
what people think
…
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31. Promoting Your Podcast
• #1: Get listed in iTunes
• Get listed in key directories
– Eg: Podcast Alley, Blubrry Network
• Get some influencer recommendations
• Network in the podcasting community
• Create podcast badges
• Record podcast promos
• Pimp for votes
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32. Reference
• Some of this material
is based on content in
this book
• Available from good
booksellers and
online (eg, Amazon)
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34. Who‟s Podcasting? 5 of The Best
FIR listeners recommend:
• Inside PR with Terry Fallis and David Jones
(Canada)
• Marketing Over Coffee with John Wall and
Christopher S. Penn (USA)
• Six Pixels of Separation with Mitch Joel
(Canada)
• Managing the Gray with C.C. Chapman
(USA)
• Donna Papacosta‟s Trafcom News (Canada)
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37. Copyright applies to this document - some rights reserved.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Details: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
www.nevillehobson.com
www.forimmediaterelease.biz
June 7, 2009
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