Podcasting for Business-Are Your Customers Worth It

June 29, 2008 · Comments

ipod shuffle Are your top 10 best customers worth $50 each and a few hours of your time? Here’s an idea: why not buy a few Apple iPod Shuffles, load them up with recorded audio version of your most important product and service information, or your sales pitch, or your annual report, or whatever else they’re probably not reading in expensively-printed paper format, throw in a little bit of podsafe music in between each bit, and send it out to them?

Think it’s crazy? Christopher S. Penn records a daily podcast about financial aid information, money saving tips, and a little bit of podsafe audio, and he’s brought in millions for his company. Is the show boring? Not at all. Chris has TONS of info that you can use, even if you’re not in financial debt. And he’s got WAYYYYYY more listeners than if he were to write about this all day long and count on people to read his materials.

Is it hard to start podcasting? You need to know about a few tools and methods, but after that, no. How can you learn about starting out? Attend a PodCamp, read a good book on the topic ( Podcast Academy: The Business Podcasting Book is recommended by me), and start learning by doing.

What do you think? How would your very best customers react to seeing a nicely packaged iPod in their mailbox one morning?

Photo credit, Re-ality

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  • Once you're up and rolling, I have a new eBook and audiobook for you, too!

    http://www.christopherspenn.com/2008/06/28/8-st...
  • I hope he appreciates you hehe! yeah, without your explanation I'd never listen to Christopher's podcast in a million years, I've paid all my loans off! Cool, I'll check it out.
  • This is awesome. Compared to what some companies spend to get their message out, this is cheap. If you get the ipods into the right hands, you have the opportunity to increase ear-share. You'll have more of their attention than you could otherwise get. I say mix in some clean humor as well.
  • @Jim: Humor is insanely tricky - what's clean and funny to one person is abhorrent to another.

    @Darren: I definitely appreciate Mr. Brogan, even if I banged him up a little with a lightsaber. :-) Seriously, without him, there would have been no PodCamp 1.
  • Christopher,

    I just watched the video on your site. I really like the way you point around to the different features available to listen, subscribe, etc... Thanks for the great ideas!

    Doyle Slayton
    Sales and Leadership Strategist
    www.SalesBlogcast.com
  • Chris -

    I think your idea is right on, and yes your best customers are definitely worth $50! (of course depending on your industry, but I think most would apply).

    Thanks for recommending our book! I appreciate it. We made sure to address the business case for podcasting, and wrote the book for the marketer, or business owner, rather than writing a heavy technical book. Thanks again!

    Greg
  • Chris,

    Brilliant post, as usual! Thanks for point this out. I think that at times we're so trapped inside social media that we forget to take it into the physical world and give pieces of us that people can carry in a pocket or wallet. What other ways are there to bring our social media messages into the physical world for people?
  • Pure brilliance, Chris! I had heard of people sending headsets for webinars and earphones for mp3s but the shuffle idea tops them all!
    Thanks!
  • Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins
    Heya Chris - Perfect idea.

    If your customers aren't worth $50, though, are they worth $3?

    Go to ebay, and get the knock-off iPod shuffles. You can buy them in any volume you want. They get shipped from Hong Kong, so they take a while, but they're $3 a pop.

    At that price, you can't afford not to.
  • This is a great marketing method, and really can be profitable, I think that if I was the customer and the company sent me a gift like that, I would be a customer for life.

    Thanks Chris!
  • We're experimenting with the use of Blog Talk Radio doing a weekly 30-min show called the Bizzuka Buzz. It's where we talk about the company, interview guests (clients, reseller partners and subject matter experts) and discuss topics related to web design, development, content management and Internet marketing.

    It's too early to tell if the show will pay off in terms of new business, but it is helping us in terms of branding and getting us some additional google juice. Plus, it costs nothing but a bit of our time.
  • I think that any company should think their top ten customers are worth at least fifty dollars. Even if the company has a strict budget, spending this fifty dollars on each customer should generate enough customer loyalty to make this cost seem minimal in the long run.
  • One thing I might add to the conversation is that it's not enough to just send out an iPod. Once you drop that device in the mail, you are committing to your client that you will follow through with valuable information that is relevant to them. And that you will do so on a regular basis. While every business should feel their top customers are worth more than $35 dollars, there are bound to be some businesses where it is not appropriate/relevant/valuable to invest the time into following up with their gift. Just playing devil's advocate here.
  • I think this is BRILLIANT. What a clever use of resources. It's personal, compliments the receiver, and who can say no to a free ipod! I can't think of a better way to (almost) ensure that your podcasts are listened to. This beats itunes, email, website, blog, you name it-I think execs will flip over the personalization involved in their receving a pitch like this.
    Rebekah Lovell
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  • primrosemill
    The name of the game is vision. Internet marketing would lead to mobile marketing was my assumption. But to carry loaded sales pitches in an iPod, thats visionary.
  • bsmotoring
    We need to bring our social media marketing into the physical world in a neat and graceful manner. Your video was very instructive. $50 is peanuts.
  • myrtlebeachcondos
    The iPod as a sales marketing tool is a revolutionary concept.
  • thecuttingteam
    I consider this whole idea of podcasting for business as revelutionary as you can get.
  • I agree with primrosemill. If you get a customer for life for a mere 50$, its definately worth it. And yes, its very revolutionary as well.
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