Nail Down Your Niche


We've discussed this before but it's a point that's so important it's worth mentioning again: Where broadcasting is broad and unfocused, podcasting at its most effective is very focused and very specific. From a promotional point of view, appealing to a specific audience is a very good thing indeed. When your audience is specific, it's usually easier to find and it's almost always easier to craft an effective message.

Think back for a moment on the work you did back in Chapter 2, "Guidelines for Designing a Killer Podcast," on defining your listeners. Not only was that work valuable when it came to designing your show, it's also extremely valuable now that it's time to promote your show.

Based on what you know about your listeners, can you make some educated guesses about

  • What they read

  • What other podcasts they might listen to

  • What conferences or conventions they attend

Since you've already done a great deal of work defining your audience, the answers to these questions ought to be relatively easy. Those answers, now, will allow you to develop some specific low-cost/high-impact promotional efforts for your podcast. (For the purposes of this discussion, we're going to assume that your promotional budget is somewhere between small and nonexistent.)

Let's take a look at how what you know about your listeners can translate into promotional strategies:

  • If you know which publications your listeners readboth online and offlinethen you can contact the editors at those publications. For example, if your podcast is aimed at owners of older homes who are renovating, then you might contact Homebuilding & Renovating Magazine (which also has a website). You might be able to write an article for them in exchange for a byline that includes a link to your podcast.

  • If your listeners are likely to be listening to a particular podcast, you might approach the producer of that podcast to explore the possibility of exchanging promos for each other's shows.

  • If there is a particular show or conference your listeners attend, you could approach the conference promoters with an arrangement to become the "official" podcast for the conference. You might provide podcasted content to show attendees in exchange for visibility among a group that closely matches your listener profile.

  • If there are organizations that your listeners belong toeither personally or professionallythen you should be active in those organizations.

These are just some examples of ideas of using your listener profile as the basis for low-cost promotional efforts for your podcast. But the number and variety of opportunities are only limited by your imagination. The guiding principle for all of your promotional efforts is to earn prominence and visibility in the niche your podcast is aimed at.



Absolute Beginner's Guide to Podcasting
Absolute Beginners Guide to Podcasting.
ISBN: B001U8C03Q
EAN: N/A
Year: 2004
Pages: 167

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