Podcasting for marketing: communicating your brand, engaging your audiences, building loyalty and developing business
Podcasts are the fastest growing area of communications media. Global media research companies Nielsen and Statista report that every year more podcasts are being produced, more people are subscribing and listening and they’re doing it more and more often. As a standalone, or complimenting your film and video, Slate and Mortar offer you the complete podcasting service.
Our podcasting service is broken down into different areas for each of the podcast elements. Slate and Mortar help with all of these, or just the bits you need support for (and we can provide on-the-job training for the areas you’d like to do yourself). The key areas are planning, recording and editing, disseminating and reporting:
Planning
- Pre-interview discussions including creating and agreeing questions, themes and creative approaches
- Being clear about objectives, key messages and target audience (or audiences)
- Development of the ‘treatment’, which is something comparable to a rough or draft version of a script
The tone of a podcast is typically conversational which means that a full script is not necessary, however a treatment is something that sets down the subject, themes, approach and ‘flow’ of an individual episode or a full series.
Recording and editing
The recording can be facilitated face to face or remotely via Zoom, or other suitable online audio recording applications. At the present time it’s recommended that most recording takes place remotely, however when circumstances change, we can record ‘on location’ or in a studio. This will depend on your requirements but podcasting provides the flexibility to be used as you need it to.
We ensure that your podcast is produced to the highest standards. When recording remotely we’ll give you all the support and advice for a smooth and effective process. When on-location and face-to-face, we’ll ensure high quality and when a studio’s required, we engage sound engineers to guarantee broadcast quality.
The editing process is key. This is where the sound design is added (music, sound effects and narration). It’s the part where the episode is constructed. It’s also where things are ‘tidied up’, so alongside the music, links, introductions and outros, the edit will improve the overall sound quality.
Uploading and disseminating the podcast
This stage ensures that the podcast is available on the most popular podcast browsers and podcast apps, with subscribers being automatically notified when a new episode is available. Making a podcast available on channels like Spotify, iTunes/Apple Podcasts and Google Podcast is key. Enabling your content to be readily available where your audience will already be accessing their content enhances the growth of your brand awareness. All these platforms make it easy for your listeners to subscribe and follow you and your content for as long as you continue to create podcasts for them.
Occasionally our clients only want to share the content with their own internal audience, in which case the ‘podcast’ can be provided as an audio file to be shared from an intranet, or password protected online space. Sharing on a podcast platform, or via internal channels is important but we can ensure you grow the number of people listening by helping you promote your content via social media. High quality, ‘home grown’ content is always the thing an organisation’s audience engages with the most. Sharing relevant third-party content is helpful, posting snippets of internal news can be interesting, but overall, audiences respond best to content that is closely aligned with the organisation that is posting it. Podcasts are an excellent source of repeating and engaging home-grown content.
The final piece about dissemination and sharing is to ensure that a “feed” or “podcast player” is also embedded on your website. Some listeners will want to engage via a subscription on Spotify, iTunes/Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. Others will prefer to listen from your site, especially if relevant links to other content, news and offers are easy to access. We can show you how to do this and how to direct people to these pages. This will increase traffic to your site AND will increase your search engine ranking with Google leading to greater “discovery” of your organisation and your offer and services.
From concept creation to full dissemination, we provide full support to ensure high quality and audience growth.
Reporting
Finally, our podcasting services also include full reporting of outcomes. It can be frustrating to spend a great deal of time producing and sharing content but then never to know the effect. We’ll provide you with regular reports of how well your content has worked on social media and how many “listens” and “downloads” for each episode. We can help you understand which topics and themes work best and which formats are preferred. As with all effective communications content creation, observing, learning and adapting are key.
We’ll provide a report of the number of listens, subscriptions, likes and shares of the podcast itself and the related social media activity. This will grow exponentially over time as ‘old’ episodes will also attract listeners as more people are aware and engage with the podcast.
Our service doesn’t end with production, we partner you to ensure your success with your audience.
Video production & animation services
As an award-winning video production company, we take great pride in our team of highly experienced video production specialists. Our team is comprised of skilled producers, directors, copywriters, camera operators, editors, and graphic designers, who work collaboratively to create stunning video content that engages and captivates audiences.
We understand that the ultimate goal of video production is to drive traffic to your website, increase engagement, and generate leads. That's why we focus on developing compelling narratives, visually striking imagery, and high-quality production values that resonate with your target audience. Our aim is to bring eyes (and clicks) to your company, product, or service.
Video Production
- TV & cinema ads
- Aerial video
- Brand promotion
- Case study video
- Social media marketing
- Documentary
- Behind the scenes
- Testimonial video
- Training video
Animation Production
- Explainer video
- Character animation
- Motion graphics
Live Events
- Conference filming
- Conference highlights
- Live-streaming
Education Sector
- HE marketing
- Student recruitment
- Research films
- Campus activity
Other Services
- Video activation
- Podcasting
- TVC clearing
- Photography
- Camera operator hire
- Editing services
- Script writing
- Voice over
- Video accessibility
- Translation services
Translation services
If your video content is for a multi-national audience, Slate and Mortar Video Production Company offer a full translation voice-over and subtitling service, meaning your project can reach its widest possible audience. Included within this is a full transcription of the original audio, which can then be utilised for any further translations.
All copy is proof-read and signed off by a native speaker before it is recorded, to ensure there is no mis-interpretation of the original text.
If you would like to discuss how your project can be adapted to reach a wider audience get in touch.
Voice over
If you’re looking for a voice-over to introduce your product to a wider multi-national audience, Slate and Mortar provide a range of voice over artists who will ensure you get broadcast quality results every time.
We’ll work with you to choose the right artist to suit your needs; including unique accents and multilingual artists… or if you want to roll your sleeves up and get involved yourself, Slate and Mortar can even provide on-site mobile voice-over recording, meaning that we can record you or your team member at a location of your choosing.
If you would like to speak to us about our voice-over services, please get in touch.
Script writing
Slate and Mortar produce scripts for a huge range of creative products, from promotional films, corporate videos, sport’s documentaries, live-events, animations and even full podcast series.
We have in-house copywriters and scriptwriters as well as a network of talented specialist journalists to cover every subject. We understand how tricky it can be to create a script, so our writer will be with you from the very start; they’ll do preliminary research, conduct telephone interviews to dig deeper into the subject area and develop an outline that they’ll then use to develop a script tailored specifically to your target audience… meaning that your messages hit home every time.
So if you need a script that’s light on technical jargon, or just want a script that will inject a bit of humour into your explainer video, get in touch today.
Editing services
Telling a story that will capture your audience's attention is key to any successful video project, and at Slate and Mortar we understand how important it is to do this in a unique, engaging and contemporary manner.
The edit process is where the story takes shape; where the audience is hooked and where powerful messages can be shared.
And we think it’s also the most fun part of the production process! Slate and Mortar has Apple accredited in-house editors on staff who have vast experience of producing dynamic, engaging edits for TV, cinema and online commercials.
From talking head commercial videos, through to award-winning documentaries; Slate and Mortar’s editors can work independently or with you, on-site to cater to all your editorial needs. We’ve even been known to turn around fully realised edits within 24hours! We utilise the latest editing software and pride ourselves on keeping up-to-date with the latest developments in editing practise.
All our edits are professionally mastered with full colour-correction, colour grade and audio dubbing, and as part of our package, we always include up to six short social media edits suitable for publishing on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or TikTok. So if you need an onsite or offsite editor, we’d love to hear from you.
We’d love to hear from you
Or just want to chat through a video idea you may have…
Get in touch today.