How to Promote Your Business online with Audio

Gone are the days when excellent copy and great headlines sold products. People just don’t have the time to read through multiple paragraphs of text on websites anymore. As a result, the dramatic rise of audio and video marketing. Video takes more time and money, so audio marketing is a low-cost alternative for businesses that want to their message out in an interesting and engaging way.

What is Audio Marketing?

Audio marketing is simply recording your audio content on a particular subject and giving it to your audience to entertain, inform or sell a new product or service. It’s an opportunity to tell your company’s story or showcase the benefits of a product in a fast and entertaining way. Audio marketing can be produced at home with a microphone and simple audio editing software or you can pay to have your audio done by a professional sound engineer.

Here are some important steps you should take to promote your business online with audio.

1. Define your Objective: Are you using audio to promote a product or service or to increase your brand recognition? Have a goal in mind before you create your audio script. Sales scripts have a call to action. Branding scripts are about getting consumers to view you in a positive way. Every audio you produce is an opportunity to showcase your business and let people know who you are.
2. Create your Content: Once you know your objective, create your content. Perhaps you will show your expertise on a topic via a compelling presentation or by interviewing experts in your field. You can also record a roundtable discussion with a variety of experts expressing similar ideas.
3. Decide on Your Distribution Channel: Will you be posting your recording on your website, in a direct mail to your subscribers, or on an online radio show? You could also create an mp3 file and offer it for sale on iTunes or have it hosted by audioblog.com. Paid recordings should contain quality content not available elsewhere.
4. Decide on a Format: There are a variety of audio formats to choose from. You could record and sell CDs on Amazon or create a professional Podcast that listeners opt-in for and sign up for automatic updates. This will help build your brand loyalty. A cheaper alternative is a simple mp3 file offered to website visitors.
5. Decide on Length: Short is best. Let your audio include only the important elements and discard all the extraneous information. Present your message in a clear, entertaining and compelling way. More is said with less.
6. Frequency: Should you update on a daily, weekly or monthly basis? You may decide that one podcast a week is enough to keep your followers interested and loyal. Audio will be one part of your larger marketing plan, so creating a schedule is important to maintain a consistent presence. The great thing about audio is that it is cheap to produce and easy to update.

– Video Caddy