If you’re old enough to have watched any prime-time TV in the 1970s, you might remember a program called “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom,” a weekly nature safari show hosted by a kindly gentleman named Marlin Perkins. What on earth could Mutual of Omaha, an insurance company, hope to accomplish by producing a TV show about safaris? The answer is that the show was popular within the demographic of educated parents who need - you guessed it - Life Insurance.

By association with the content and qualities of the show and its host, Mutual of Omaha built a solid, nationwide brand name. This is the important message here: Sponsoring a show about the benefits of having insurance would be pure self-promotion and therefore would have done little to brand the company and create the emotion of trust which is what insurance is all about. You never gain someone’s trust by saying, “Trust me.”

The “Wild Kingdom” strategy was essentially the same as that of a podcast. A podcast creates a marketing channel of it’s own that reaches your prospects and creates branding by association.

A podcast is basically a periodical “broadcast” over the internet. It is also known as an “RSS feed” (Really Simple Syndication) though not all RSS feeds are considered podcasts (such as news feeds). It can also be referred to as a “webcast”, “netcast”, or “videocast.”

“Podcasting” is a contraction of “iPod” (the ubiquitous digital audio players made by Apple Computer) and “broadcasting.” Although normally an audio or video file, a podcast can consist of nearly any content such as a PDF newsletter, images, and data files. The content can usually be accessed directly at a website, as well as automatically downloaded to your computer each time a new episode is posted.

A program called an RSS reader or podcast reader such as Apples iTunes is required to automatically download a podcast. The program will automatically and periodically connect to the publisher’s host and check for new episodes. If it finds one, it will download the file automatically.

If a podcast reader is not installed, the files can be accessed directly if they are hosted on a website, or accessed via a link in an email and most newer version browsers have RSS feeders which will give subscribers an updated drop down list of all available episodes. Generally each episode is available for both downloading for later use, and “streaming” for immediate use. So there are four methods by which subscribers are reached:

Subscription - Requires a reader, automatically downloads to your computer

Download - Creates a copy of the file on your computer manually

Streaming - Listen or watch immediately

Email Subscription - Link contained in an email

In order to be an effective marketing tool, a podcast needs to be utilized by as many people as possible. Channels for “syndicating” your podcast include iTunes, Yahoo Podcasts, MySpace, YouTube, and many dedicated podcasting directories. Prospects find your podcast via keywords embedded in the files. The content and the keywords need only be of interest to your prospects, they need not be related to your business (remember “Wild Kingdom”). For example, a local service business might create a podcast of local entertainment, news and events and act as the podcast’s “sponsor.”

Podcasts achieve some specific things as part of a marketing campaign. Podcasts are great for branding, adding credibility, creating good will, and for advertising just like “Wild Kingdom.” They keep your prospect engaged on a daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis creating top-mind awareness. They allow you to give a longer pitch than a radio or TV commercial. They create a more intimate bond with your prospects. And they do something “Wild Kingdom” couldn’t do, they encourage traffic (in fact the best kind - frequent, regular visitors) to the website where the podcast is found.

The effectiveness of a podcast as a marketing tool can be easily measured to assess return on investment. By measuring the number of subscribers and downloads you can build an accurate picture of how many prospects are being reached. Tracking of incoming leads through that podcast channel will provide a ratio of listeners to leads. Tracking sales will provide a ratio of sales to leads. Then by tracking profit margin an actual ROI can be calculated.

The ROI of a podcast will usually increase over time. It may not be profitable for months, it may break even for a year, but then achieve outstanding results for years to come. Therefore, podcasting requires a long-term commitment. The most important thing to measure in the beginning is how useful the podcast is to your prospects and how well received it is. If your prospects are coming back again and again, your investment should pay off very well in the long run. In fact, you could be the next Mutual of Omaha.

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