Earlier this week, I discussed ways you can use audio for your business and hinted at the types of audio you can use. In this post I’ll talk about what types of audio can be used for business.

The Two Basic Types: Educational vs. Promotional
Regardless of the format your audio recording follows, it will either be educational … providing information for the listener … or promotional … advocating for your product or service. In some cases, your audio may be both, as in event pre-calls which share a tidbit of information from the forthcoming event and then promoting the event.

And now on to the formats … the types of information that can be recorded on audio for your business:

Quick Messages
These are short audio files lasting a few seconds to a a minute or so. These audio files can be recorded as welcome message for a web page or content for an audio postcard.

Seminars, Lectures and Workshops
These are longer audio recordings of formal presentations proving information on a specific topic. Sometimes the recording is done over the phone, as with a teleseminar, and sometimes from a stage.

Audio Articles
I mentioned this one before. It’s kind of like a very short audio book. Instead of recording a full length book, the audio is just of a single article. Usually these follow this outline:

• Title of article
• By line
• Body of article
• Call to action

The call to action is the equivalent of the resource box in traditional article marketing.

Audio Press Releases
Similar to an audio article, only more promotional. Some press release distribution channels will let you upload audio files. The audio press release is just one piece of the new “Web 2.0 press release.”

Sample Clips
You can create snippets of longer programs that you are selling and post them to the sale page. This gives people a taste of what they will be buying and can increase sales conversions.

Interviews and Panel Discussions
You can record interviews with other experts and either give or sell the recording. Interviews are great because they not only take the burden of coming up with fresh content off your shoulders, but they can position you as an expert who has access to other experts.

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