Podcasts: The Under-Appreciated -- But Powerful -- Communications Tool

Gene Del Polito, president of the Association for Postal Commerce and very likely the direct mail industry’s premier postal expert, has a podcast. Gene has been doing his podcast since October 2006. Over the years, Gene has interviewed a host of experts from all sides of postal matters: USPS representatives, mailers, Postal Union reps, Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) members, etc. Gene’s podcasts aren't a scheduled item, but always appear when there’s something important to talk about.

The useful thing about this industry podcast -- and effective podcasts generally -- is that Gene interacts with interviewees as though the listener knows very little about postal matters (for example, he asks interviewees to define their acronyms). This sensitivity to listeners defines a good podcast. But don’t take my word for it ...

Software developer Bruce Eckel who blogs at Computing Thoughts lists dos and don’ts for podcasting. I was struck by Bruce’s tip: Don’t use Video if Audio is Enough .. which got me to wondering why more marketers don’t do podcasting.

Seasoned (since 2003, for heaven’s sake) podcaster Nick Marino’s post at AudioShocker partially answered my question. As with video production, sound is not only a critical element of quality, it’s one of the most difficult to control. If you're still interested in giving this under-used strategy a shot, though, start here, with John Nolt’s “Podcasting Pointers.”

How many marketing-related podcasts are out there? An Odeo search of the words “direct marketing” turned up 881 podcasts, but almost nothing of interest to marketing professionals. In addition to Gene's, Marketing Brillo suggests the following five podcasts for a serious marketer's iPod.

• Like all things Duct Tape, John Jantsch’s Duct Tape Marketing podcast has the pulse (and makes the money).
• The B2B Marketing Podcast from Voices in Business features interviews with top business professionals.
• CC Chapman’s Managing the Gray podcast looks at new (and social) media.
• Bob Knorpp’s The BeanCast covers the ad industry (and its Mad Men and Women).
• John Wall and Christopher Penn’s Marketing Over Coffee podcast takes a broad view.

Looks like there’s room for more great marketing podcasts. Thinking about doing it? For a free primer on podcast marketing, download Christopher Penn’s ebook.

-- scrubbed by Marketing Brillo