Is there still such a thing as a mass media? I don’t think so.

Of course we’ve always been a culture of diverse people with different backgrounds and interests, and marketing people have always recognized this. But until a little more then a decade ago you could place an ad on NBC during prime time and reach maybe 30 percent of all those watching television.

Or if you were a local business in St. Louis and you wanted to reach business professionals, radio ads on KMOX during morning and afternoon drive-time would have done it.

That is no longer the case. The media market is fragmented into hundreds if not thousands of specialized outlets. But don’t fret; this is a good, not a bad thing. We now have media outlets where we know ahead of the time that the vast majority of the audience is made up of rocket scientists, LSU sports fans, or Cold Fusion programmers.

And that is where the power of a Podcast (define) lies. Browse iTunes, Podcast Alley, or Odeo
(all popular Podcast sites) and there will be dozens of Podcasts that
are targeting the exact audience you want to reach, no matter how
specific.

Many people with a background at marketing firms (and I am one) will
wring their hands and say you are only reach a few hundreds or maybe a
thousand people with each Podcast, but if you place a $5,000 ad you can
reach 10,000 individuals. The question is, how many of those 10,000 are
really interested in your product?

This factor is why Forrester Research is noticing the use of Podcasts increasing rapidly among business professionals. Podcast work. Take my word for it.
I’ve been using them in my firm for almost two years. Now I will admit
many don’t get the concepts at first (just tell them a Podcast is an
MP3 audio file), but when they hear them the first question I get about
90 percent of the time is “how did you do that, I want to do some for
my firm.”