These podcasts all have a digest format, mentioning the news item and then going “Inside Baseball” to give the hosts’ views on what it means. This list may seem heavily slanted to social media, but that’s because it is the fastest-changing area within marketing right now – it is almost indistinguishable from the industry as a whole these days.
Whether or not you agree that these shows belong on such a list, I invite you to check out these topical podcasts.
This Old Marketing Podcast
Format: Regular Hosts Robert Rose, Joe Pulizzi
Joe is the Founder of the Content Marketing Institute and Robert is its Chief Strategy Officer. Their podcast focuses on digital trends they see among B2B and B2C brands, mostly critiquing how those brands squander chances of engaging their audience. Clearly they are biased towards using content, but they get their points across in a witty, lighthearted way. These two have earned their place as commentators; each of them spent time in media companies and agencies before teaming up to lead the Content Marketing Institute. In addition, they are both bestselling authors who make their points so articulately, it’s really enjoyable just listening to them talk.
The Beancast
Format: Rotating panel, moderated by Host Bob Knorpp
This venerable podcast has logged close to 350 episodes. The panel talks about current developments in branding, advertising, content creation and marketing strategy. At the end of each week they highlight campaigns that missed the mark and the top ones get inducted into the ‘AdFail5’ Hall of Shame. What I like about the podcast is how deep the panelists get in their discussions, the same way Mitch Joel does in his podcast, Six Pixels of Separation.
Marketing Over Coffee, John Wall, Christopher Penn
Format: Regular Hosts, occasional interviews
John and Chris have recorded a mind-boggling number of shows together, these two Bostonians started this long-running series before podcasting was popular. They meet in the early morning at a coffee shop and record their thoughts on almost every digital marketing trend under the sun, including analytics, social networks and interesting marketing campaigns from any and all verticals. This podcast made a loyal listener out of me 4 years ago and having the pleasure of meeting both Chris and John has reinforced my affinity for their show.
Social Pros podcast, Jay Baer, usually joined by Jeffrey Rohrs
Format: Regular Hosts, some digest shows and some interview shows
Together, they cover social advertising and social media uses (content marketing, customer service, etc). What I like about the podcast is that Jay Baer has been in this space long enough that he is immune to bright object syndrome. His focus is on social media tactics with proven track records. Each episode features the guest being asked ‘If you could have a skype chat with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?’ – their answers add a nice dose or personality to the show.
Bearded marketers, Rob Reynard, Corey Trent
Format: Regular Hosts
Rob and Corey each have had jobs in the conversion optimization, ecommerce and SEO space. Though they now work for themselves, they have teamed up for nearly 100 episodes to make this podcast. It covers all of these topics, devoting time regularly to search engine updates.
They have a casual style to match their location (Florida), each of them has a mixed drink on-hand which they dub their ‘pick’ of the week. I like how they don’t take themselves too seriously – as far as I can tell, the show has zero commercial content. The hosts seem to be doing the show simply because they like talking about marketing…and producing a podcast with their own personal twists.
The Marketing Companion Mark Schaefer, Tom Webster
Format: Regular Hosts
These guys are both industry insiders; Mark heads Shaefer Marketing Solutions and teaches at Rutgers University; Tom is a VP at Edison Research. While discussions span all areas of marketing, they frequently come back to topics like marketing research, mobile, social influence and digital tactics that are on the rise or on the way out. I respect the strategic view they take on events in marketing, and value their differences of opinion they bring to the table.
So that’s the list and the last in this series of top podcasts focuses on those that keep marketers current on this fast-changing industry. If you want to discover even more audio content, I urge you to visit Jay Baer’s Marketing Podcasts, which catalogues many many shows devoted to the field. This database was the inspiration for my Top Podcasts series.