B2B - Pitching it right...

There's a whole new sub genre of books out there, advising businesses on how to make podcasts for their marketing and PR offerings. Some companies do-it-themselves and get it so right. One of my favourites is still Wiggly Wigglers (who started off marketing wormories!). But there are others who, in my opinion, get it so wrong and compromise their brand image by releasing sloppy sub standard audio.

Then there is the 'research' that says podcasts don't 'work'. And I agree that if you don't get the content right they won't. Plus, once upon a time (about a year ago) simply having a 'podcast' was enough to flag up that you were at the cutting edge and automatically brought you kudos. That is now a quaint old fashioned attitude! It's also vital that it integrates with your website and all the other aspects of your marketing strategy, but that is too big a subject for the scope of this post. We'll come back to that one at a later date...

The Podcats audio in the business to business category that I have been most pleased with recently is the piece we made for eglue.

eglue is a global business technologies company that - and I quote from their website - ' provides uniquely effective real-time customer interaction management solutions that are enabling customer-facing mass-market corporations to do just that'.

They have a very specific target audience - considerably fewer people than those interested in the success of this year's peregrine breeding season of this month's Nature's Voice. And every person who is interested enough to listen to the audio may have the buying power to be very interesting indeed to eglue!


eglue are clients of Penknife Design - with whom Podcats has worked on similar projects in the past. And this new commission from Penknife has kept me on my toes in that I am working with subject matter that is way over my head. I have had to draw on all my experience as a journalist in order to pitch it right. Simplifying it so much that I can understand every word would be dumbing it down too much for the people eglue are interested in attracting so deciding the level of complexity of the conversation is crucial.

In this case Peter Hurst - eglue's marketing consultant in the UK - who is the interviewee put up to take part, is pivotal in advising me on what needs explanation and what doesn't. Once we've established that my job is to package it into a format that makes it a 'good listen'.

It will be interesting to see how well it works for them.

Talking the Walk

So which town will be the next in line for a 'Talking the Walk'? At the moment the front runner is Henley in Arden a gem of a town near Stratford Upon Avon and in the ancient Forest of Arden mentioned in Shakespeare's As You Like It...

I'm very proud of this series - and was even more proud when it won a silver medal in the Excellence in Tourism awards. They are made for the south Warwickshire tourism website Shakespeare Country in conjunction with local councils, charities and town centre companies. 

There are lots of cheap and cheerful audio guides out there but our aim with Talking the Walk is go a step beyond them by offering audio that is as interesting to listen to at your computer while you browse as it is to have with you on your mp3 player while you are walking the talked walk! We use local people with a love and a knowledge of their town and that I hope comes across.

They are more expensive to make than a script read in a studio with some atmos and music laid on, but they are built to last! With regular downloads over several years they increasingly become a good investment. And the beauty of audio is that it is very easy to update should anything change.  

The most recent addition to the series wasn't for a town at all but for Compton Verney - an 18th century Stately home with a remarkable art collection. The walk however is in the, often overlooked, Capability Brown grounds with the head groundsman of 30 years John Schumann and garden historian John Phibbs...

Others in the series include Shipston on Stour, Warwick and Southam. 

You can also find them on the Podcats website and at Visit Britain  the official British Tourism website. 

For a taster see the YouTube promo below....

Daniel and the Chichester Peregrines...

Podcats have been producing this 20 minute magazine based podcast for the RSPB for just over a year - it is published monthly and we are making episode 15 at the moment.  

One of the stars of this month's episode has to be Daniel. At just 10 years old he is the youngest RSPB volunteer and when I interviewed him on the phone this week I found that he is also one of the most articulate! 

How it all started...

In 2005 when I was first setting up Podcats, people kept asking me how I thought I was going to make my living as a professional podcaster. They'd shake their heads and sigh at the thought of the improbability of such a thing being possible. At the time I was still presenting radio shows for Saga 105.7fm (now Smooth Radio) in Birmingham.

 

I had been set up to do voiceovers with ISDN and editing facilities since 2000 and I had portable recording equipment - at that time an HHB mini disc recorder - and I was sure there was a way to transfer my skills to the net and make my living from it.

3 years later I can report that its going very nicely thank you! I no longer work in terrestrial radio although I do still work as a voice over, often for other people's podcasts. See Beermat Radio.

My old professional mini disc recorder has been pensioned off and I now have an HHB Flashmic which I love and I'm sure I'll mention from time to time!