Friday, November 28, 2008

How to Market Your Podcast

By Theo McLanahan

Podcasting is an exciting way to grow your website and connect with your customers. Like a website, a podcast needs to be marketed. Simply creating one and putting it on the internet won't attract much traffic.

There are many different ways to market your business podcast. If you're looking at growing your list at the same time, you might opt to keep your podcast private. This is easy to do- set up a mailing list within your autoresponder for your podcast subscribers. Include the link to sign up on your website.

Should you already have a mailing list, simply send those members an email letting them know you are offering an exclusive podcast- encourage them to sign up. You can also ask your affiliates to spread awareness about your podcast, and offer them the opportunity to buy advertising.

When you are ready to release a new podcast, send an email to the people on your list with the downloadable link. Of course, you can also use this list to market other products and services you offer.

If your goal is to gain website traffic and find new customers through your podcast, you could choose to make your podcast available to the public. Similar to blog directories, there are many podcast directories that allow you to submit your podcast. People come to these directories and search for podcasts they may be interested in. Many people could easily access your podcast, without knowing your website existed beforehand.

In order to submit your podcast to a directory, you'll need to add an RSS feed to it. You may have done this in the past with your blog. If not, don't worry, as it is very simple to do. There are many feeds to choose from, and you can find them by doing a Google search.

iTunes is most likely the most well-known podcast directory. You can easily add your business podcast to the iTunes store. By following this link: http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/store/podcast/ you will be directed to Apple's Support page. Here you will find a form to fill out to have your podcast added. It will also answer any questions you may have.

There are many other directories that you should also submit your podcast. The more places you have it listed, the more likely you are to have visitors find it. Two other large directories are Podcast.net and Podcast.com. By simply doing a Google search, you can come up with many more. - 15465

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