Inform, engage, and entertain — that’s what magazines do, and that’s what a newer medium known as a podcast does as well.
Patrick Combs, president and CEO of Walnut Media, said podcasting is an excellent tool for business leaders because they can tell their full story.
“I tell people that podcasting allows them to tell a deeper story in a format that is convenient for the consumer,” Combs said. “In traditional marketing, it’s usually short format — television, radio, digital are all short form. At a seminar or speech, it’s hard to push stop and rewind. With podcasting, experts are allowed to go a bit deeper with content, and the consumer is allowed hit pause, and listen again.”
Successful podcasts are a part of marketing strategy, and the hosts and creators of those podcasts are dialing into their core audience, whether that’s chiropractic customers or magazine readers.
“They need to understand consumers of their podcast and talk to their audience,” Combs said. “They need to understand the distribution models and streams. You need to have a strategy to promote your podcast. Strategy is going to be a little different for everyone.”
Combs also said that podcasters should think about the size of the city before starting a show.
“We find podcasts are mostly consumed in the car. And so 20-minute podcasts are good, because you can go anywhere in this city in about 20 minutes.”
Omaha Publications recently began The Omaha Magazine Podcast. The show is based on the company’s core values of creativity, integrity, respect, and passion and community.
Publisher Todd Lemke said creating the show was important to him as it is a great way for Omaha’s community publication to continue connecting with others.
“We started it as an additional community connection with the people who make Omaha special,” Lemke said. “I like that it allows people to not only hear, but see, influential interviews.”
Lemke chose Gil Cohen, Omaha Publications Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing to host the podcast.
“What I’ve worked on doing scheduling guests has been trying to find people who represent all facets of Omaha, from South Omaha to North Omaha, from politics to arts to education,” Cohen said. There was no roadmap for this, so I’ve tried to get people who have community ties, who have insight as to the city — Heath Mello, Mayor Jean Stothert. (With the business people) we’re asking what’s the business climate. That way, if someone might see these podcasts from outside Omaha, they might think ‘hey, I want to know more about that city.’”
Cohen has talked with several guests about the business-minded topics related to Omaha. “With the Mayor, we talked about the city recently being named Forbes’ No. One city to move to. Itzel Lopez, we talked about what does the economic, post-pandemic development look like in South Omaha? I’ll have LaVonya Goodwin on to talk about North Omaha. People want to know what’s going on.”
One of the first guests on the podcast was real estate mogul and entrepreneur Van Deeb, who discussed entrepreneurial success. It was a guest appearance he was happy to provide.
“I’m a big fan of Omaha Magazine, so I said I’d be thrilled to join the podcast,” said Deeb, who who has hosted his own podcast for the past five years. Deeb’s show discusses everything from work culture to sales strategies to “The Power of a Handwritten Note.” He thought the Omaha Magazine Podcast, specifically, was a great way for business and community leaders to connect with Omaha Magazine’s audience.
“Gil…did a fantastic job, I was very impressed,” Deeb said. “With the reach that Omaha Magazine has, they’ll have an instant audience, and I think it’s be a great added value for subscribers to listen to the podcast.”
Combs, who was also one of the first guests on the show, said podcasting is a great new way for people to consume media.
“A lot of people think it’s a competitor of radio, but it’s just another form of consumption,” Combs said. “Instead of listening to the radio in their car, people are listening to a podcast. It’s a pretty powerful form of consumption.”
Visit omahamagazine.com/the-omaha-magazine-podcast for all episodes of this show.
This article originally appeared in the October/November 2024 issue of B2B Magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
