The post Podcasting for destination marketing: you can do this! appeared first on Tourism Currents®.
Podcasting in your living room (photo by Kate Oseen on Unsplash)
The relatively recent combination of multiple digital audio hosting services and directories, smartphones everywhere creating a simpler user experience, and frustration with overcrowded channels like Facebook has meant lots of interest in podcasting for destination marketing.
This is Part Two of our short podcasting series – Part One is 7 questions to ask before starting a tourism podcast. We’ll share some ideas for easy audio content, how to get visibility in the audio world without having to do a show yourself, and learning resources.
In Part Three of our series, we’ll talk to several DMOs who are podcasting for destination marketing, and get their advice and lessons learned.
Ideas for Easy Audio Content
You can create audio content without committing to an ongoing podcast show. Three suggestions:
** Create an audio version of work you’ve already done.
We’ve started experimenting with making an audio file of some of our written Tourism Currents blog posts (and a short video of them as well.) The DMO for Queens, New York does a podcast called It’s In Queens; it’s simply a variation of their weekly blog post about upcoming events.
** Experiment with an audio mini-series. Travel Oregon did one called Oregon’s Haunted Spots. The screenshot below shows the episodes embedded on one of their website pages, with playable SoundCloud boxes.
** Create a music playlist on Spotify that fits your destination. Examples of DMOs that have done this include:
- Visit Seattle
- Explore Butte County, California
- Visit Norway
- Visit Wheeling, West Virginia
- Visit Madrid
- Visit Brasil
- Explore Georgia
- Visit Britain
- Visit Mississippi (we especially like their Mississippi Blues Trail playlist – a song for every marker on the Trail)
Get Into Podcasting for Destination Marketing Without Doing It Yourself
** Offer to be a guest on the podcasts that cover topics that appeal to your visitors, guests, and customers.
Consider not only general travel podcasts like Amateur Traveler and Indie Travel Podcast (here is a whole list of travel podcasts) but take advantage of niche tourism opportunities.
There’s Talkin’ Birds for birding, or The Podcask about whiskey, or A Taste of the Past about culinary history, or Wet Fly Swing for fly fishing, or Arch and Anth for archaeology and anthropology.
For more digging into what’s available, we like the Listen Notes podcast search engine. It’s getting easier to see podcast results in regular Google searches, too.
Tip —->> You can use new market research service SparkToro to find out which podcasts a particular market/audience likes. For a bike tourism example, a SparkToro search for “My Audience frequently talks about … bicycles” brings up the Bicycle Talk, Velo News, Cycling Weekly, and Bike Karma Bicycle and Cycling Stories podcasts (in addition to social media cyclists follow, websites they like, and more.)
** Don’t forget the obvious, if your budget allows – sponsor episodes or buy ads on relevant podcasts, Spotify, and Pandora.
Resources and Learning
** Blogs about podcasting – Podcast Insights, The Podcast Host, and the Buzzsprout Blog.
** Podcasts about podcasting 
– The Audacity to Podcast, She Podcasts, and The School of Podcasting.
** Simple hosting for audio files – Podbean or SoundCloud. More elaborate for a podcast show – Libsyn, Blubrry, or Buzzsprout.
** Simple gear list – your phone (especially handy for on-the-go interviews,) a microphone like the Samson Q2U, Blue Yeti, the Røde NT-USB, VideoMic Me, or SmartLav+, a pop filter, a quiet place to record – your closet full of sound-dampening clothing will do in a pinch – and Audacity (free) for audio editing.
** Podcast transcription service – Rev.com
** Podcasting community and conference – Podcast Movement in Dallas, Texas, August 5-8, 2020 (still on, as far as we know… Update – the conference dates are now October 19-22, still in Dallas.)
What do you think? What questions would you like us to ask DMO podcasters for Part Three of this series? Let us know down in the Comments.
PS. In case you missed our recent COVID-related posts:
** Tourism marketing and coronavirus: decisions now are key to what happens later
** Mostly for partners, but some DMOs as well – Is it time to launch an online store?
Not already getting these blog posts via email? Click here for the Tourism Currents newsletter signup page.
The post Podcasting for destination marketing: you can do this! appeared first on Tourism Currents®.
