Podcast Production

What Are Podcasts?

Podcasts, also known as ‘business radio shows’, are increasingly commonplace in many types of business.  Certainly the term ‘podcast’ has been swishing round the interwebs for many a year now, but for those that are unfamiliar, what does it actually mean? Well, the word itself is fairly straight forward, a blend of the words iPod and broadcast.

The iPod was the first portable mp3 player, and has arguably become the world’s most popular mp3/multimedia player to date. Businesses soon realised that by creating their sales and marketing messages ‘to go’, people could literally load a pre-recorded podcast on their mp3 player and take it with them, without being tied to a computer screen. iPods were the first devices that podcasts were developed for, hence the coining of the phrase.

However, what I’ve found is that there are still a lot of people who don’t really quite ‘get’ what podcasts are all about, presuming that you have to have an iPod to play them on, so I prefer to now use the term ‘business radio’. That way, people have a preconceived idea of what it could involve, having, essentially, your own mini radio shows that are pre-recorded on your website so your colleagues and clients can download and listen to them at any point, day or night.

So how would they help me?

Well, in a variety of ways. One way to think of business radio is as an audio version of a newsletter. If you or your company send out a monthly bulletin of information to your clients and contacts, it could be worth thinking about adding a radio show in to the mix. For those of you that have looked into, or even just heard about NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), you’ll know that people absorb and ‘learn’ information in a variety of ways, some prefer to read text, some prefer to listen, some through graphics and illustration, and some more hands-on.

The techniques employed in producing a business radio show or podcast are near enough the same as creating an actual commercial radio segment, meaning you can have broadcast quality content for a highly affordable price, in a format that makes it very easy for people to listen to. Material can either be recorded solely by me, or mini ‘radio shows’ can be produced, with both myself and you engaging in a chat/interview style using Skype.

The benefits of podcasts

One of the main benefits is that you’re more likely to open up your and your business to a whole new audience, the people that don’t really read through a text-based newsletter fully, but are quite prepared to listen to a 2-3 minute audio clip; of which they could hear that golden nugget of information that could mean the difference between them hitting the delete button and you making a sale.

The ease of execution is also worth noting with podcasts. Because the mp3 audio files are reasonably small, they can be easily hosted on your website for people to download. They can also be submitted through iTunes, a free download, where your customers and contacts can subscribe to your shows; therefore, every time you release a new edition on a monthly basis (or whatever time frame you choose), they will be automatically downloaded to their podcast directory on their computer. What could be easier?

The main reason podcasts are so beneficial is because they are in their very nature, a viral product. People will forward them on, it will get re-tweeted on Twitter, shared amongst other social bookmarking, shared amongst other people’s Facebook pages. The list is endless. Your end result is to gain more exposure by having podcasts produced, and being multimedia, it’s a proactive marketing exercise that could really pay off.

Is Podcast Production Expensive?

Not at all, I have created several ways people can utilise the power of having these shows produced, with varying budgets. It depends on how long you want the recording to be, if you want library music or bespoke composed music, sound effects and stock ‘atmos’ tracks. I have podcast/radio show packages starting from just £55, so why not pick up the phone and have a chat to me about it today?

For a more detailed quote, you can contact me here.