By Nettie Hartsock
“You can’t look at podcasting as just an audible version of a white paper. For example, what reads well in a newspaper doesn’t always sound good on radio. Podcasts should be uniquely crafted with the final delivery mechanism in mind.” - Terri Avnaim, director of corporate marketing at Quest.
Quest Software is a $476 million global software company based in Aliso Viejo, California. Quest Software’s focus is on creating software that enables organizations to achieve more performance and productivity from their applications, databases and Windows infrastructure. The company has more than 18,000 customers for its enterprise software.
One of the challenges operating in the savvy IT customer sector is how to best develop new and innovative methods of marketing to prospects.
“Our customers and prospects are IT professionals who are generally on the cutting edge of all things web-related. So we thought it would be worthwhile to explore podcasting as a new way to communicate with our target audience,” said Terri Avnaim, director of corporate marketing at Quest.
“Our main goal in using podcast technology was to provide a quick and easy delivery mechanism to showcase our expertise and thought leadership in IT operations. We are also hoping to take advantage of the natural ’sharing’ that seems to happen with podcast episodes to increase awareness of Quest Software.”
A secondary goal, according to Avnaim, was to gauge the viral aspects of the podcast medium.
Podcasting Parody: Humor Worked
The company produced a parody podcast episode about a topic that it knew would resonate with its target audience and make them laugh, said Avnaim. Note to marketers: Know thy audience!
The podcast parody was called Real IT Heroes Series: Mr. Overconfident DBA (database administrator).
“This was done to test how much an episode might potentially be passed around. We were surprised to find that - without any promotion at all - a number of people have posted links to the parody from their blogs.”
Avnaim noted the real question still to be answered is can Quest reach the same level of viral activity within content-rich podcast episodes.
Quest posted its first podcast on its website in June 2006. Avnaim says the company is still in the early stages with podcasting and has produced 10 episodes. Quest has just started to promote them to targeted audiences via email.
Avnaim cited one of the initial benefits of launching a podcast effort was the low production cost. “The risk was minimal and the potential payoff is high,” said Avnaim.
One of the more recent podcast episodes was created as a white paper synopsis, with the goal of showcasing some white paper content in an effort to get listeners to read the white paper.
“It was not time-consuming or difficult to create, because we had so much content to work with in the existing white paper. However, the written word doesn’t always translate well verbally, so some tweaking was involved.” Avnaim also notes that it’s too early to tell if this particular episode will be successful.
Marketing Results
In the first test, the company conducted an email marketing campaign with a podcast as the offer. The offer was sent out to 190,000 contacts and Quest received a 2.39% response rate, which Avnaim noted met their expectations.
“We are in still in the early stages of this program, so it’s too early to tell if these same results would be realized in other marketing campaigns. Most of the episodes in our podcasts are thought leadership pieces that showcase our expertise in certain technologies, such as Oracle and SQL server databases and new Microsoft technologies such as SharePoint.”
One of the most important lessons learned in the initial offerings, according to Avnaim, was that the podcast outreach is similar to any other marketing program, in that you can’t assume “if you build it, they will come.”
Avnaim notes that everything needs a solid promotional plan to get off the ground. “You also can’t look at podcasting as just an audible version of a white paper. For example, what reads well in a newspaper doesn’t always sound good on radio. Podcasts should be uniquely crafted with the final delivery mechanism in mind.”
In addition, Avnaim offers other tips on podcasts:
- Make them conversational and casual.
- If a podcast comes across as too scripted, the speakers don’t sound genuine or credible.
- Pick your podcast hosts and speakers wisely.
Quest is currently tracking how many people visit its podcast page and listen to the episodes, but is not requiring registration for podcasts.
“We believe that podcasts are all about the open sharing of ideas, so we don’t want to restrict access. Because we’re not requiring registration, we can’t track which listeners actually turn into sales opportunities and eventually into customers.”
Avnaim notes the goal was not about lead generation, but rather to increase overall awareness of Quest Software as a thought leader in systems management.
The Future
“In evaluating podcasting’s success, we’ll be looking at how many people listen to them, as well as how many people subscribe to our site via RSS. That’s really the end goal of a podcast: finding people who will value your content enough to subscribe to your podcast and be notified automatically as we post new episodes. When your audience is pulling your content - versus you pushing it out - you know you are developing real value to them.”
On the white paper podcasts specifically, Avnaim says the jury is still out on whether that is an effective use of a podcast.
“We used white papers and articles in the trade press to convey this type of information, and will continue to do so, but podcasts appear to offer another vehicle for knowledge sharing and thought leadership,” said Avnaim.
On the marketing future, Avnaim says the company is also looking into vidcasting. Vidcasting is a podcast with a video feed. “Vidcasts have the potential for broader appeal, since a lot of the people require visuals to stay engaged with content. We’re looking forward to learning more about vidcasts in the coming year.”
To see all the Quest podcasts, visit http://www.quest.com/events/list.aspx and click on the PODCAST tab.
About the author: Nettie Hartsock is the managing editor of the WhitePaperSource Newsletter, and specializes in developing compelling interviews and case studies. She can be reached at nettie@whitepapersource.com.
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