Podcasting for IT Pros
April 12th, 2006 | Garrett MannSince the Forrester report last week I’ve heard a lot of new doubts about podcasting. The report was rather skeptical about their status and adoption rates for them. The biggest stat was posted in Forrester analyst Charlene Li’s blog that, “only 1% of online households in North America regularly download and listen to podcasts.”
But this was based on a general consumer audience. Does it have any relevance to IT marketing?
I know it’s a new medium with lots of room for growth, but in my experience there are too many differences between IT pros and the general public.
IT Pros are always at the cutting edge of new technology adoption and tend to be more avid consumers of information than the general public. “Time shifting” seems to be just what these guys would want to be able to get the information they need. I know they’re getting great traction across my campaigns.
April 20th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
I think podcasts still have their best days ahead of them. I have been on a few podcasts and the response has been good. I think they are a great way to “influence the influencers” who tend to adopt things early like this.
April 20th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
There is little doubt that such technologies as Podcasts are still in the Innovators stage and have yet to even reach the Early Adoption stage (see Geoffrey Morre’s ‘Crossing the Chasm’). That should not mean that IT marketers simply ignore the fundamental ease of use and creation of these types of marketing tools to reach the decision-makers within an organization. Podcasts are as simple as 1-2-3 if your organization is already producing webcasts for distribution. With very little effort, it becomes easy to adapt these presentations into Podcasts, which ultimately reach a completely different audience.
Since ProSight began including Podcasts as part of its marketing mix (started ~ 4 months ago), we have created 5 podcasts plus an RSS feed for distribution lists. We have captured a small % of sales leads from our efforts (which are minimal at best), but the quality of those leads (simply based on target title) has been Sr. Manager and above. I think this sort of technology is particularly interesting if you are trying to reach those individuals who are ‘on-the-go’, senior people. And it gives the perception to the general public that you are an innovative company. Which is you are marketing to IT, that can only help in your branding, positioning and sales efforts.
I fully respect the data from analysts who don’t believe this is a trend that will catch on and that it is a very small slice of the marketing mix, but for very little effort, I think there are major returns that have yet to be realized. I would strongly encourage anyone to give it a shot and see what sort of results you can get.
Questions? Comments? Happy to discuss further with anyone at steve.hall@prosight.com
April 20th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Podcasting is a heavily requested communication channel in our organization. We view it as just another way to get the ‘word’ out to our sales, channels and customers about updates, roadmaps, or other pertinent information.
We find it combines well with CD, MP3, and video for an audio form of communication. It compliments the physical documents and other print material that typically adds further depth, should the target listener desire to know more.
April 20th, 2006 at 1:57 pm
Just a data point: While some of the most progressive technology adopters I have worked with over the years were “IT Pros”, they were a small proportion of all the IT people I’ve met and worked with. With motivations spanning risk aversion to the political, many of them had to be dragged kicking and screaming to new ways of doing things. As corporate Financial Planning and Analysis, we were ravenous for data and the ability to manipulate it. Only by working with the renegade IT people did we get what we needed.
I don’t believe that things are any different today except we are starting at a different place.
I could be wrong. It’s happened once or twice.
John
April 20th, 2006 at 2:24 pm
Interesting take. I am finding in the health care field, almost zero penetration through Podcasting. A lot of people are talking about it but no one’s actually doing it. We seem to be on the fringes of this effort, as the more traditional media channels in health care IT are actually now starting to get Podcasting efforts off the ground.
April 20th, 2006 at 2:43 pm
Podcasts are overhyped by not overrated. For those who have a specific interest in certain subject matters, they’ll be a very key way of communicating. But it’s extremely targeted, so the appeal may be limited in number. That means they’re here to stay but not in a broadbased manner.
April 20th, 2006 at 4:09 pm
Our organization has embraced podcasting for both internal and external communications. While the medium is still in its early days we are seeing increased uptake on both sides.
Interestingly enough, while webcasts and iSeminars benefit from having both an audio and video component we tend to limit the length of our podcasts. Users seem to appreciate it and are learning that they’ll get the “just the facts” version of the subject matter. It’s more digestible this way and they can download and listen to a number of different podcasts in a 30 minute commute.
April 20th, 2006 at 5:02 pm
Podcasts for the IT sector won’t mature until content matures and is appropriately produced for this channel. In nature, podcasts, promoted and ported through the RSS channel, tend to build audience when episodic and unique to other IT media. As long as it remains an afterthought, they won’t increase revenue. Don’t ever forget that podcasting is not an audio medium but the first real transition to network broadcasting.
April 21st, 2006 at 8:07 am
I’ve used MP3s stored on my PDA (Treo 650) to listen to analyst briefings from Gartner Group. I found this relatively easy to do. However, I find it very easy to be distracted because the pace of the speakers is fairly slow. In the office I can speed up the pace by using Windows Media player (~1.4 to 2x speed) but I can’t do this on my PDA. So from this single data point, my recommendation is to find ways to use Podcast/MP3s etc… that are produced so the content is delivered concisely and in a compelling way. Recording inexperienced marketeers reading text or speaking to PowerPoints may produce a lot of dry content that may be missed by our multi-tasking, Starbucks drinking, overworked audiences.
April 21st, 2006 at 10:06 am
I agree that podcasting is at best going to address a niche market–early adopters and innovators at present–but I also feel that it will continue to grow as a medium. One of the reasons that I feel this way, being an avid podcast consumer (and thus fitting quite well into both previous categories), I find that I would oftentimes prefer to fill my “dead time” (on planes, trains, and in automobiles) with something that is educational rather than just simply listening to music.
I also agree that the main audience at present is IT folks, and therefore if you’re marketing to an IT audience, it’s a very good avenue to pursue. The main challenge is in finding the right audience. At present, there are literally thousands of podcasts out there, all vying for the listener’s attention, and therefore using podcasting as a lead generation tool is clearly a limited return proposition.
That said, podcasting can be a great way to build customer loyalty and to position your company as a thought leader. Again, if you’re marketing to the IT market, as we do, this image can be very important.
As a seasoned podcast consumer (and a burgeoning podcaster), I have a couple of words of advice to anyone considering creating their own podcasts. First, invest in quality equipment, especially microphones and mixers (the latter is important if you’re going to have more than one person speaking). Secondly, make sure to keep things moving along, and choose subjects and participants that are interesting and lively. Lastly, if you’re going to create a “panel-style” podcast (a great idea, IMHO), use Skype instead of telephones–much higher voice quality.
I’ve been tuning in to some podcasts that are published by a large three-letter software vendor and while they have some good content, they are often very dry and the audio quality is awful.
Those are my two cents/dollars/euros!
Mark Ehr
www.ehrtech.com/blogs
Email: mark_at_ehrtech.com (replace _at_ with @)
April 23rd, 2006 at 8:53 pm
If a technology audience is often present in a data center, lab, or other technical environment away from a traditional computer, the subscription model of a podcast would be very ideal to target this audience.
Recently, a report has shown there are more podcasts than radio stations –it’s quite amazing how targeted content for specific audiences will reap benefits.
Let’s not forget one of the greatest benefits –podcasts are cheap and have a long reach.
May 3rd, 2006 at 3:01 pm
We have seen a healthy adoption of our podcast. Podcasting is targeted - true.
Podcasting is will have broad appeal - true.
Podcasting will evolve into a necesity to deliver content - this is true as long as the content stays fresh, dynamic and interesting.
This is a fresh route into customers and the podcasting community should conserve the purity that has made podcasting a reliable source of information.
It is very easy to deviate and to turn podcasts into “adcasts”. Kepp it fresh, uncluttered and free.
March 1st, 2007 at 1:53 pm
[…] I commented on the original report in this blog back in April. At that time, while there was much skepticism on the adoption of podcasts in the mainstream market, we did not share the same outlook for the IT market where we have seen healthy adoption rates. Now that this skepticism seems to have eroded in the mainstream market, this medium is really poised to take off. And the key driver? According to Mr. Haven, content availability - the more the content becomes available, the more it will be consumed. I agree with this point, especially considering that at this time, podcasts can be produced very affordably with few technological barriers to download. […]
April 5th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
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