With the growing popularity of podcasting, publishers and marketers around the world are asking themselves how to monetize this content channel.

1. Marketers: Monetization Through Enhanced Marketing Initiatives

While publishers might find it relatively easy to integrate podcasting in to their business models without really "creating a revolution", the opportunities for marketers really go beyond traditional marketing tactics.

To understand the opportunity we need to understand what podcasting brings to the marketing table: the power of voice, delivered directly to our prospects, customers, employees and partners.

While text might still be the most "usable" format and the easiest to consume, voice itself has the unique feature of being able to express emotion and bring personality in to marketing communications.

For marketers, monetizing podcasting won't come through ad sales or content sales, but through opportunities to enhance their marketing communications with the power of emotion, delivered directly to their receipients.

Here are just some possibilities, which we will take a more detailed look at in future articles in this series:

a] PR: Audio press releases, messages from company executives, expert interviews and other industry related material, all delivered directly to the media.

b] Direct marketing: Sales letters and other ad creative, delivered in audio and directly to your prospects.

c] Customer Relationship Management and User Support: Personal messages and greetings from company executives, persoanlized messages to key clients by key account managers, educational content and industry interviews, seminar or conference recordings, product support information and tutorials, ...

e] Promotion: Achieving additional company/brand/product exposure by providing podcasts and promoting them via podcast directories and search engines.

f] E-commerce: Audio product announcements and presentations, delivered to prospects that opt-in to receive latest product information. In the case of audio products, podcasts can also carry short excerpts or previews of new editions, thus enticing prospects to order.

g] Branding and Prospect Conversion: Educational content and industry interviews that help shorten the sales cycle or generate/improve company credibility and enhance its brand.

h] Advertising in third-party podcasts

And so on ...

In these examples monetization does not come through directly generated revenues, but indirectly through improved sales.

Actually, marketers are already starting to take advantage of these opportunities.

As described in InformationWeek, Oracle is planning on providing 10- to 20-minute podcasts daily for its user conference next month, "designed for the ears of the software developers and database administrators who buy its products".

The podcasts will be available via Oracle Technology Network TechCasts on the vendor's Web site and through online podcast directories, including iTunes and Podcast Alley. "If you're a developer or database administrator interested in new technologies, then podcasting is an excellent resource," says Justin Kestelyn, editor in chief of Oracle Technology Network. "You're going to hear directly from the people involved in the project what the technology has to offer."

Clearly an excelent Customer Relationship Management implementation.

Other examples provided by InformationWeek also include:

a] IBM is offering podcasts for investors on different uses of their technology. Again, a Customer Relationship Management tactic, this time aimed at business partners instead of prospects or customers.

b] Purina is "supplementing its traditional advertising with podcasts published every other week for veterinarians and pet lovers. They include interviews with vets and other experts on animal training, pet surgery, medical insurance, and behavioral issues." Could be classified as Branding and Prospect Conversion.

c] Purdue University is recording class lectures and making them available as podcasts. Certainly a User Support implementation.

d] And the most interesting example, demonstrating the power of voice for marketing communications: "And religious groups are using podcasting as a virtual pulpit. One of the more successful examples is Tim Hohm, a senior pastor at Central Assembly in El Sobrante, Calif., who delivers a 15-minute inspirational message twice weekly called RevTim. Subscriptions to RevTim have grown to 6,000 since the podcast was launched in December, ranking it among the top 50 most popular podcasts on Podcast Alley."