Why do online marketers take the time to do live and archived podcasts?
Are they simply wasting their time or is there value?

Stay tuned for an exclusive interview with a business friend of mine that will be posted within the next week or so that sheds more light on these questions about podcasts. However, to help you “see” the effects of podcasts, here are some recent stats:

Now granted, these are not HUGE numbers. I had 11 listeners the first day, then 12 a couple weeks later, then 5, 1, 0, 2, 4, 6, 4, 9, 6, 6, 6, 11, 10, 2 and then WHAM - 22! My best day yet. That’s a total of 117 downloads in less than a month of doing podcasts at MollerMarketing.com.

These people find me through links on other sites, social media efforts, and through iTunes where I post the podcast for free to the general public. (If you go to iTunes and type in Moller Marketing in the search or How to Start an Online Business, you’ll see my podcast show up.)

To get you all more involved in the Moller Marketing Podcast, the first reader to make a valid comment on this post will be the first “sponsor” on the next podcast. This will be a FREE offer so act now!

Moller Marketing will also be offering a special introductory advertising rate of only $10 for podcast sponsorship. Starting in July, there will be 3 sponsorship spots on the Moller Marketing Podcast - one mentioned at the beginning, one in the middle, and one at the end of each recorded conversation. I will be presenting one podcast per week . The $10 introductory fee will include ad placement for the entire month of July 2008 - this means your business will be promoted at least 4 times in the month of July, plus a content link in the text of each podcast.

Each sponsor will be required to provide the following:

• Complete Payment made prior to launch (email mollermarketing (at) gmail (dot) com for further details.)
• 3-4 sentences of text that explain what your site is about, what you are offering and a special promotion that we can track.

The friend who taught me about podcasts has helped one of his sponsors sell $2,000 worth of product in a month because of the mention of the sponsors product, site, and promotion. Stay tuned for more fun to come!

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Are you getting the short end of the advertising stick? Is your ad agency really helping you see the ROI you need and want? These are important questions all businesses, both online and offline, must ask themselves if they want to stay in business for the long haul.

Since I do alot of advertising sales and coorporate sponsoship deals, I care about helping clients get ROI (return on investment) with their ad campaign: if I don’t care, they won’t be doing business with me for very long.

Here are some things I’ve found that can be helpful:

1. Have an Advertising Goal in mind: Although this may be basic knowledge to most, marketing directors better have some key questions answered if they expect ROI:
   • What do you want the advertising campaign to do? Is is branding? Is it public awareness? Is it to generate leads (names, emails, addresses)? Is it to make sales (most campaigns have this objective)?
   • If it’s sales, what specifically do you want to sell with the ad? Have you targeted a specific product that you can make a good return on or is your ad generic? These are things to think about. Yogi Berra once stated that if you don’t know where you’re going, any road can take you there.  This is way too true in advertising - if I don’t know specifically what I want to accomplish, I can’t blame it on the ad agency for not producing the results.
2. See Your Advertising from the Clients Perspective: Often times it’s good advice to take a step back and ask, “If I was someone looking for my own product or service, why would I buy from me?”  This may be a tough question to answer since most of us our bias.  If so, get feedback from others, take to heart what they say, ask around to people you don’t know; have them give you a short summary of what they thought the ad was attempting to do.  You’ll never know what other people think about your product, service, or ad, until you ASK!
3. Include Benefits, Not Features in yourAdvertising: “Only $499″ is not as effective as “Save $50 Today!”  It’s all about “What’s in it for (The Client), not what’s in it for YOU.
4. Small Success Leads to Big Success:  I know, you’ve heard this one before.  But small DETAILS lead to big success in advertising too.  Did you include a nice picture?  Was the ad description clear?  One of the best ad campaigns in history was only two words: Got Milk?  Get the point?
5. Timing is crucial: This tip relates back to tip 1 - What do you want to happen?  WHEN do you want it to happen is important to answer too.  Today, tomorrow, in two weeks, next year - BE SPECIFIC!  It’s also important to think about the industry you’re in.  Almost every industry I’ve ever been a part of has seasonal ebs and flows.  It will do me virtually no good to attempt to market Football Memorablia in June.  However, off season can be a great time to work with marketers in industries that find themselves in one of the ebs (low times).  Think about the timing before you dive in to a campaign with both feet.

These five tips on getting ROI on an advertising campaign have proven to help my own businesses drastically and also the business of the companies I’ve helped with advertising campaigns.

Let me know how it helps your bottom line too.

photo by Web Liquid

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Today’s the day for the exciting conference call by Mark Kaye! He’ll be teaching us how to get free publicity on TV and the radio. I know there are only a few seats left so sign up while you can. (and no, this isn’t a paid promotion or affiliate campaign - I’m really going to take advantage of this education)

Did you know that Dr. Phil, Martha Stewart, Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup for the Soul) and even Sean Hannity stated out with free advertising as guests on somone elses show? I feel like the education I’m going to get today could save my companies lots of money in advertising budgets as we practice what I’m going to learn.

Here’s how I plan to use the information from this call today:

1. Test it out! I’m going to do a “case study” on Free Radio Advertising. After getting all the information I plan to create a detailed plan on how I’m going to implement it. I’ll include deadlines, details and track progress to prove to myself, Mark, and all my readers that these concepts turn in to REAL MONEY! I can’t wait to share the positive results.
2. Duplication! After it works with one business, I”ll do the same thing with the other websites I have. We are headed to Door County, WI this summer for a family vacation. The first thing I’ll do is contact the local radio station and set up an interview to indirectly promote our site.

Again, tonight is the night for the call. It starts at 7:00 p.m. EST and will run for about 2 hours. If you are as excited as I am but can’t attend live, you will be given a replay at no additional cost. Mark also plans to provide documentation that can be printed out and followed step by step.

One other cool thing is this money back gurantee:

So really, there’s no risk - it’s a win/win for everyone.

If you’re serious about taking your business to the next level, both on and offline, this class is highly recommended. Talk to you then.

Save 25% with this link

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