How You Can Make Money From Podcasting For Local Business

Let’s face it, most of the people go into podcast as a hobby. They contribute many funny and somewhat valuable contents for free. Maybe they got hundreds of subscribers who share the common interests. But they rarely make good amount of money. Did you know that you can turn it to a revenue generating marketing channel?

First of all, what is podcasting?

In a nutshell, podcasting is a form of blogging that utilizes the spoken word and/or video as the method of delivery as compared to traditional blogging which utilizes the written text.  However, it should be noted that podcasting is not used for just “blogging” . Some companies/businesses have used podcasting as a means of communication, as well as a vehicle for their marketing activities. With its rapidly growing popularity, podcasting is seen by some as the future of radio and radio broadcasts.

Technically speaking, podcasting is a method of delivering series of digital content (primarily audio and video) through the net for listening and viewing on digital media players/devices and computers (desktops and laptops).

Podcast differ from the traditional downloading of media files (though websites and web browsers) such that they rely on RSS feeds (just like blogs and news feeds) which automatically notifies the end-users, particularly subscribers, of new releases/episodes and automatically downloads the material to the user’s preferred device without the user having to revisit the site on which the files are hosted.

How do you make money by podcast marketing?

For local businesses, no matter what you provide (product or service), it’s the best way to use podcast to brand you and your business. You can do this by providing podcast subscribers with valuable content/information, for free.

Just go all out and do your best to earn the trust of your subscribers. And while you’re at it, briefly talk about your brand, talk about your products or services once in a while. Just don’t rub it in, don’t smother your audience with it.

Don’t worry you won’t see any new leads for your local business for the first few weeks or even months. Once you’ve earned your subscribers’ trust, it’s highly probable that when your subscribers would need the products or services you are offering, they will go to you rather than go look for them some place else. And that’s where you’ll get your revenue.

What’s great about podcasting is that you can use this brand building techniques in combination with other techniques such as paid (extra) contents and advertising, thus maximizing your podcasting earning potential.

Does Your Business Have Multichannel Marketing?

In the early days of online shopping, the big retail chains were slow to invest in an e-commerce channel because they thought it would cannibalize their store sales. Eventually they realized the Internet was not a threat, but an opportunity. Now retail chains account for a sizable share of total online sales.

Multichannel retailers (with retail chains or catalog/call centers) accounted for 56% of the Web sales generated by the Internet Retailer Top 500 Websites, and the magazine estimated that the sales of the 500 largest Websites represented 74% of total sales by online retailers in 2008.

Retailers covet multichannel shoppers because they spend more than single-channel shoppers.

Today, many retailers conduct business in multiple channels—brick-and-mortar stores, Websites, catalogs and call centers—but few are adept at coordinating these channels.

The Multichannel Retailing enables retailers to offer a superior shopping experience and gain more loyal customers—and more profit.