Hi, Reader.

Welcome to the first edition of the Podcasting in Professional Services newsletter. My goal is to help you on your business podcasting journey by delivering three things each week:

1. Stories and perspective from other business podcasters
2. A fact, stat, or news relating to each week's theme
3. A small challenge to push yourself to grow your show

In the spirit of this being the first edition, I thought I would share what I've learned recently about the synergies between podcasting and email marketing.

Podcast Examples: Living on the Edge, The Marketing Mix

A few years ago, Steve Cummins was a marketing leader at an IT firm called Opengear, where he ran a podcast called Living on the Edge as part of an account-based marketing strategy.

“I started a podcast where I was interviewing CTOs, CIOs, top level IT folks about this idea of something called network resilience,” said Steve. “I would say, I have this podcast on network resilience. We'd love to interview you about how your company deals with this, pays attention to it.”

“If I could get an interview with somebody at, let's say, PayPal, you immediately get some credibility within that organization because people now are aware of your company,” Steve continued.

Today, Steve is Principal and Chief Marketer at Solent Strategies, where he used his previous podcasting experience to launch The Marketing Mix, where he has the kinds of conversations with marketers he’d enjoy over a cocktail.

Steve realized the podcast is a great way to meet and chat with new people, but he needed a way to keep the conversation going. Like a perfectly mixed Rob Roy, Steve Cummins paired his podcast with a newsletter of the same name, allowing him to leverage existing content across multiple platforms.

Email and Podcasting Roots Pre-Date the World Wide Web

Digital marketing channels tend to come and go. Remember Clubhouse? But there are a few that have stuck around. In particular, email and podcasting have roots that pre-date the world wide web...

In 1971, the first electronic mail (email) system was created by Ray Tomlinson. It was developed with the help of a program called CPYNET. Interestingly, the @ symbol was used in email addresses since its inception. In 1976, Queen Elizabeth sent an email and became the first monarch to do so.

Podcasting has roots that date back to the '80s. Before the advent of the internet, RCS (Radio Computing Services), provided music and talk-related software to radio stations in a digital format.

In October 2000, the concept of attaching sound and video files in RSS feeds was proposed in a draft by Tristan Louis. Writing for The Guardian in February 2004, journalist Ben Hammersley suggested the term "podcasting" as a name for the nascent technology.

But perhaps nothing made podcasts more popular than when Apple added podcasting to its iTunes 4.9 music software and built a directory of podcasts at its iTunes Music Store in June, 2005.

While only 15% of the U.S. population ages 12+ listened to online audio monthly in 2005, that number has grown to an estimated 75% in 2023, according to The Infinite Dial.

Podcasting Challenge: Recycle Existing Content

Folks who subscribed to your email newsletter this week didn't see what you sent 6 months ago. Here's a small challenge that shouldn't take more than an hour to do, but could have an outsized impact:

1. Filter your email list to include anyone who has subscribed within the last 6 months.
2. Craft an email to promote a podcast episode you released before those folks subscribed.
3. Monitor email performance, and take note of download numbers for that specific episode.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of Podcasting in Professional Services. Thank you so much for reading. If you have any questions or feedback, please reply to this email.

Cheers,
- John

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PS—Need help marketing your podcast? Book some time with me to see how we can grow your show.