The Best Marketing Tactic I’ve Learned in 12 Months

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May 11, 2011 By 12 Comments

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Everyone is going slightly crazy here in Stockholm today on account of the brilliant weather. After one of the longest, snowiest winters I can recall we’re all basking in 22°C and glorious sunshine. Sure, there’s work to be done but the sunshine makes you smile.

When the weather’s like this Stockholmers go a little crazy having been cooped up all winter. And maybe it’s time to take some of this kind of energy and look at your marketing strategy and see what you can do.

What one thing could you do if you were feeling open to lots of new possibilities, new energy instead of just starting at the sun?

I Started a Podcast

Last year I started podcasting on April 29 in a fit of spring / summer madness! The energy I had built up after another long winter (note the pattern!) bubbled over into exploring what I could do with a channel I felt drawn to having spent a lot of my career as a university lecturer before starting Jontus Media.

Although I’m only up to 19 episodes since Christmas I’ve tried to put something out every other week or there abouts. The impact of the podcast has been immense, not only in terms of lead generation but also growing my network and online connections.

As a professional speaker the podcast has been my way of showing people that I’m comfortable talking. Compared to last year I’ve been booked more regularly to speak at conferences around the Nordic region. The podcast literally gives visitors to my site a chance to check out who I am and how I communicate.

Adding this new content to my efforts has had the wonderful effect of feeding my creativity as well as introducing me to a different group of people on the Net who hadn’t connected with me before.

Sure, it has been a learning curve improving the audio quality of my show as well as the content format (and I would have chosen a better name for the show!), but the effort has been worth it. Just today a new client told me the podcast was one of the key ways she felt drawn to get in touch, and another podcaster invited me to co-host a weekly show with him.

It’s helped me learn new things, exchange ideas and forced me to grow as a thinker. I’ve also realised that not everyone is as much of a geek as I am and it’s helped me think about making my content more accessible to businesses just starting out negotiating online marketing.

So here’s my thought for today:

If you could seize the moment and get creative, what could you do to really add something new to your marketing mix ?

Filed Under: communication strategy, podcasting
About Jon

Marketing and Communications Consultant. Head of Jontus Media. Podcaster. Life-long Liverpool FC supporter. Guarded by basset hounds.

  • http://www.3hatscommunications.com/blog/ davinabrewer

    Hey Jon gorgeous picture.

    Excellent point about adding podcasting to your mix as one of your marketing goals is more speaking opportunities. I wonder about your mix, adding that weekly co-host gig, if something else that maybe wasn’t working has fallen by the wayside.
    I have a behind the camera kind of voice, so not sure podcasting or video blogging are for me. I do ‘think’ I want to try some more videos and presentations, but don’t want to just crank it out for the sake of boring old content. I need ‘something’ need to find what will drive my ‘inbound marketing’ engine in terms of client development, something more strategic than meeting as many people with a pulse as possible. Let’s see.. billboards, skywriting, chain letters.. nope, gotta think of something else. FWIW.

  • Richard Bosworth

    Davina makes a good point about being clear on the objective of your podcast project and you clearly have made it work for you. How much time on average does it take you to produce your podcasts?

  • http://twitter.com/jennwhinnem Jenn Whinnem

    Jon, I especially liked the point about how the podcast showcases how comfortable you are speaking. Never thought of that as a benefit of podcasting!

    I hadn’t realized you’d only been at podcasting for a year – the way you talked about it, I thought you’d been at it much longer. Kudos!

  • http://www.jontusmedia.com/ Jon Buscall

    The first shows took longer to make as I was struggling to learn the technology and what worked best in terms of a work flow and sound quality.

    Nowadays I spend about an hour prepping the show and then record. If it’s an interview, I try to keep it to half an hour tops. If it’s just me I aim for about 20 minutes.

    I record into a digital recorder (Zoom H4N) via a SoundCraft analogue mixer. In other words, I plug my mic into a mixer and then take the sound out of the mixer into a digital recorder. I then load the .wav file into my computer and edit it.

    The music and Skype calls come from my Mac into the mixer and then out to the digital recorder. Recording music and voice simultaneously instead of editing it in by hand afterwards is quicker albeit a bit fiddly to begin with.

    The editing process usually goes fairly quickly. I work in Adobe Audition (Mac) and cut out any glitches or retakes. The best way to spot these is to note down the time as you’re recording or leave a couple of seconds silence after the error. That way you can spot the part to edit in the .wav file when you open it in an editor.

    I guess it takes about 2 hours to record, edit and post a show.

  • http://www.jontusmedia.com/ Jon Buscall

    I’m about ten minutes walk from that view as I respond to your comment :=)

    I’d consider trying a podcast Davina. The best way to do this is either to interview someone or have a co-host where you discuss things. I make a podcast with a canine behaviorist in the UK to help grow her business. My role is to ask questions and comment, she comes up with the show outline, main topics and training. It’s proved very successful because people seem to like the banter, just as much as the content. We’re get audiences from around the world. Zambia is the number 3 source of traffic for listeners.

    So go think about what you could do with a podcast!!! Just get in touch if you have any questions.

  • http://www.jontusmedia.com/ Jon Buscall

    Thanks Jenn! In my usual compulsive obsessive self I literally devoured everything I could find and jumped on board the goodship podcasting! I can’t believe how much I enjoy making this kind of content.

  • http://www.3hatscommunications.com/blog/ davinabrewer

    I can think about it, think some mix of graphics with the interview for a video is my best bet for something different. Zambia is a bit of a commute. ;-) Maybe I could reach as far as the Caribbean or Hawaii.

  • http://www.jontusmedia.com/ Jon Buscall

    Thanks Jenn!
    I got into it and loved the medium! I just need to find three hours to make the next edition ! Things are busy right now.

  • http://www.jontusmedia.com/ Jon Buscall

    Something in the region of 2-3 hours to plan, record and edit a show. Now and then I can record and edit and publish within an hour and a half, but that’s when I’m on top of my game.

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