Luke Armour – Digital Marketing and Public Relations Observations, Commentary, Frivolity

Podcasting is an excellent way to get your message out directly to your audience. Whether it’s repurposing content in a new format or creating a whole new messaging strategy, a podcast can help deliver messages – and results – to your intended audience.

What is a podcast?

• A podcast is an audio or video file that can be subscribed to. While 75% of the podcasting audience tends to listen directly on its computers, the main benefit and key differentiation of a podcast is the subscription method.

Take a listen to this montage of just some of the podcasts I’ve done, including: http://media.libsyn.com/media/lukearmour/Luke_Armour_Podcast_Showcase.mp3″

• The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) Podcast (0:00)
• The Rundown with Luke Armour (3:27)
• All About IC, for IC Awareness Week sponsored by Ortho Women’s Health & Urology™ (5:35)

Do I have to have an iPod to listen to a podcast?

• Absolutely not. A podcast is simply a series of audio or video files. Those files are linked by RSS and that is a podcast. You can listen to/view it on your computer by downloading or streaming it. You can listen on your Blackberry or iPhone. You can download via iTunes or Juice and sync it to your portable mp3 player – like an iPod. There are even Internet-enabled radios like the Chumby that take advantage of wifi. The possibilities are abundant.

How can a podcast help my business?

• A podcast is a direct communication with your audience, almost a conversation. There are any number of ways to develop a strategic plan that will use a podcast to:
  • generate leads
  • increase sales
  • position you or your company as an industry expert
  • build stronger relationships with current client/customers
  • train users or provide tutorials
  • reach remote employees
  • guide visitors
  • provide virtual conferences
  • and more…

Who is listening to podcasts?

• In March, 2009, eMarketer noted that “as a percentage of Internet users, podcast downloaders are expected to grow from 9% in 2008 to 17% in 2013.”
• Around 50% of Gen Xers and Gen Yers who are online listen to podcasts. But over 36% of people online born between 1946-1964 listen to podcasts.
• eMarketer also reports that “The demographic patterns of the podcast audience, like those of the online video audience, are highly dependent on the nature of the content.”
• Podcasting has a global audience, but the US is second only to China in total number of listeners, with 29.5 million users in 2008.

How do I podcast?

• You decide how involved you want to be in the details, but the main process I use for developing and implementing a podcast as part of your strategy include:
  • Strategy meeting to develop goals, marketing plan, recording tactics and options
  • Develop podcast branding; including consistent, themed opening and closing
  • Provide hosting for files, RSS feeds, email subscription options, statistics and inclusion in podcast directories such as iTunes and Podcast Alley
  • Script/calendar/format development
  • Recording/engineering of audio
  • Implementation of marketing plan to drive listeners/viewers to podcast

Who is Luke Armour?

• That’s all detailed on this page About Luke Armour, as is my contact information.