Kit Behling of Milwaukee, Wisconsin writes:
The writers of “Single Married Widowed Divorced” need your help.
We are a group of technologically challenged, over-35 women who have jumped on the podcasting bandwagon—uh, make that bandwidth. We have a website and a play and a weekly podcast in which we examine real women’s relationship stories.
“Each week we poke around some theme (examples: sleeping arrangements, kegeling, guilty pleasures, romance). Regular show features include:
—Table Talk: Listen in while the writers chat about the week’s theme.
—Working Mom in Her Car: Patched in from a vehicle somewhere in suburban Chicago, Working Mom is funny and on edge and always has a comment—if not for us, then for the person who just cut her off.
—The Retired Therapist: Puts everything in a well-reasoned physiological or psychological context. And reassures us that no, we’re not crazy.
—Story Time: One of the writers gives us her take on the week’s theme.
“Our challenge: How do we publicize this podcast to our target demographic, women ages 35 to ?, who will probably laugh & cry & ah-ha right along with us but may be scared off by the podcasting technology? Are your Publicity Hounds up to this challenge?”
To whomever you plan to send a podcast, start a month or so beforehand with a simple text or Word e-mailed release spelling out your effort — and, maybe more importantly, what a podcast is and how listeners can hear them. (I advise only e-mailing for releases on this subject because anybody who can’t figure out e-mail isn’t going to be a good cast prospect, anyway.) I’ve found that once they have it put plainly to them, would-be listeners enthusiastic about tuning in, and after a while even regard casts as easier ways to take in information than reading!
There are many ways to promote your podcast: email newsletters, podcast directories, press releases, blogs, etc. But it sounds like one of your perceived challenges is that many of your potential listeners are not tech-savvy enough to immediately plug right in to your online podcast.
Since podcasting is so hot these days, see how far you can get with local media: try to get on local radio stations or in newspapers to plug your show, and be sure you emphasize how EASY it is to listen to the show. Podcasting is unique because it can time-shift and location-shift your program for the convenience of your audience. Also stress the type of information the listeners will get and the benefits of listening to your podcast.
Also send out keyword-loaded press releases to sites such as PRWeb.com; these can help bring curiosity seekers and media folks to your podcast.
But most important – when your potential listeners arrive, make it as EASY AS POSSIBLE for them to listen or download. Many people don’t want to download an MP3 because they are on a dial-up, so make sure you have an ‘instant-streaming’ solution, such as a flash-player optimized for 56K streaming. That way people can click and instantly listen without waiting for a long download.
I checked out your website (www.singlemarriedwidoweddivorced.com) and feel you’ve done an ‘okay’ job on making it easy, but you can do so much more: add the flash player, and put directions on your main page on how to listen.
Determine your keywords and post them consistently in every one of your show notes. Also, make sure you post a podcast regularly – and live up to the schedule you tell your listeners you’re committing to. And don’t forget to ‘ping’ the search engines – it help you rise in the search engine rankings for your keywords, making it easier for potential online listeners to find you.
And finally, why not do something a bit outreageous, like Joan preaches? Throw a contest, give something away, do an online event – and be sure to use the Hound’s methods of promotion on those, too!
Best of luck!
Launch a publicity campaign called “Get Your Mom Off Your Back.” In it, you will try to persuade the teens and tweens of single moms to give their moms something to do other than rag on them by downloading your podcast show for their mothers and showing their moms how to listen to it. Pitch it to teen pubs, put up a MySpace page, etc.
I can see that the others covered some of the basics, but what I noticed is you don’t have an ezine. Start sending out a weekly ezine with updates and additional information. Also submit articles to places that run them — EzineArticles.com comes to mind — that support your podcasting message to draw your listeners in.
Lois Carter Fay
Marketing Idea Shop.com
http://www.marketingideashop.com
Kit, start making the rounds of all the bloggers whose blogs are read by your target audience. Post comments, and within the comments refer to your podcast.
Also, contact ezine publishers who target the same audience you do and let them know about the podcasts. Do a search for “ezine directories” or “ezine directory” and you’ll find lots of directories where you can do this research.
But my very best idea is to start blogging on your topic. A blog pulls in traffic like a giant magnet. Read Don Crowther’s excellent ebook “Blogging for Business” at http://tinyurl.com/7fjrk