hen transcribe the call, work in your own copy magic, and chop hours off the creative cycle.

Create an Information Product

Use the conference line to interview an expert in a particular field. Or ask someone to interview you about your speciality. You can even hold an entire teleseminar since many of these services can handle nearly 100 callers.

When it’s done, you can now edit that recording, add an intro, put some music at the beginning and end

Does your hand suffer from writer’s cramp every time you take notes in a meeting or interview a client? Give yourself a break and just record the meeting instead. This way you can stay focused on the conversation, instead of frantically taking notes and worrying about what you’re missing.

It’s easy to do this when you’re meeting in person. Just bring a little tape recorder and set it on the table. Since they’re all digital now, you can easily transfer the audio file to your computer at a later time. Reporters do this all the time and it works for them. But what about when you’re conducting an interview or holding a client meeting over the phone? How do you record that?

For a lot of us, this has been a problem. The technology required to record a call can be complex, expensive, or just plain confusing. First, you have to get the phone to record the call, then you need to get the call into your computer.

I’m a gadget geek, and even that is a little over my head. But now there are several great solutions to this problem and the best part is they are completely free to use. The only expense is the minimal long-distance charges everyone has to pay to get on the line. (That’s how these companies make their money.) But with cell phones and flat- rate long-distance plans, this isn’t much of an issue anymore.

OK, great tip and all. But what does any of this have to do with marketing? Turns out, quite a bit. Here are just a few ideas for using these services in your business.

Shorten the Creative Cycle

For starters, the first step in writing a good sales letter or promo copy is to interview the person who knows the product best—whether it’s a developer, member of the sales team, or the owner of the company. Ask the right questions, and they’ll practically write the copy for you (which is actually a secret within a secret!). Then transcribe the call, work in your own copy magic, and chop hours off the creative cycle.

Create an Information Product

Use the conference line to interview an expert in a particular field. Or ask someone to interview you about your speciality. You can even hold an entire teleseminar since many of these services can handle nearly 100 callers.

When it’s done, you can now edit that recording, add an intro, put some music at the beginning and end

e to your computer at a later time. Reporters do this all the time and it works for them. But what about when you’re conducting an interview or holding a client meeting over the phone? How do you record that?

For a lot of us, this has been a problem. The technology required to record a call can be complex, expensive, or just plain confusing. First, you have to get the phone to record the call, then you need to get the call into your computer.

I’m a gadget geek, and even that is a little over my head. But now there are several great solutions to this problem and the best part is they are completely free to use. The only expense is the minimal long-distance charges everyone has to pay to get on the line. (That’s how these companies make their money.) But with cell phones and flat- rate long-distance plans, this isn’t much of an issue anymore.

OK, great tip and all. But what does any of this have to do with marketing? Turns out, quite a bit. Here are just a few ideas for using these services in your business.

Shorten the Creative Cycle

For starters, the first step in writing a good sales letter or promo copy is to interview the person who knows the product best—whether it’s a developer, member of the sales team, or the owner of the company. Ask the right questions, and they’ll practically write the copy for you (which is actually a secret within a secret!). Then transcribe the call, work in your own copy magic, and chop hours off the creative cycle.

Create an Information Product

Use the conference line to interview an expert in a particular field. Or ask someone to interview you about your speciality. You can even hold an entire teleseminar since many of these services can handle nearly 100 callers.

When it’s done, you can now edit that recording, add an intro, put some music at the beginning and end

geek, and even that is a little over my head. But now there are several great solutions to this problem and the best part is they are completely free to use. The only expense is the minimal long-distance charges everyone has to pay to get on the line. (That’s how these companies make their money.) But with cell phones and flat- rate long-distance plans, this isn’t much of an issue anymore.

OK, great tip and all. But what does any of this have to do with marketing? Turns out, quite a bit. Here are just a few ideas for using these services in your business.

Shorten the Creative Cycle

For starters, the first step in writing a good sales letter or promo copy is to interview the person who knows the product best—whether it’s a developer, member of the sales team, or the owner of the company. Ask the right questions, and they’ll practically write the copy for you (which is actually a secret within a secret!). Then transcribe the call, work in your own copy magic, and chop hours off the creative cycle.

Create an Information Product

Use the conference line to interview an expert in a particular field. Or ask someone to interview you about your speciality. You can even hold an entire teleseminar since many of these services can handle nearly 100 callers.

When it’s done, you can now edit that recording, add an intro, put some music at the beginning and end

Turns out, quite a bit. Here are just a few ideas for using these services in your business.

Shorten the Creative Cycle

For starters, the first step in writing a good sales letter or promo copy is to interview the person who knows the product best—whether it’s a developer, member of the sales team, or the owner of the company. Ask the right questions, and they’ll practically write the copy for you (which is actually a secret within a secret!). Then transcribe the call, work in your own copy magic, and chop hours off the creative cycle.

Create an Information Product

Use the conference line to interview an expert in a particular field. Or ask someone to interview you about your speciality. You can even hold an entire teleseminar since many of these services can handle nearly 100 callers.

When it’s done, you can now edit that recording, add an intro, put some music at the beginning and end

hen transcribe the call, work in your own copy magic, and chop hours off the creative cycle.

Create an Information Product

Use the conference line to interview an expert in a particular field. Or ask someone to interview you about your speciality. You can even hold an entire teleseminar since many of these services can handle nearly 100 callers.

When it’s done, you can now edit that recording, add an intro, put some music at the beginning and end, and you have your own information product. Give it away as a bonus, send it out to prospects and clients—or better yet, sell it and make some money.

Keep Others in the Loop

If some people can’t make the call, simply record it and send the file over to them. They can listen to it on their own time—at the computer, in the car, or even on a run—and you don’t have to spend your own valuable time getting them all caught up on what they missed.

Podcast the Information

Got a series of informative calls you want to get out to the masses? Create a podcast in iTunes and let anyone who finds it subscribe to your series. (Of course, you’ll want to take some marketing measures to make sure that people find it!)

Distribute Your Ideas

Instead of making a bunch of calls or leaving multiple voicemails with the same message, just record your message once and email the link or audio file to everyone who needs to hear it. (This is often referred to as an audio postcard.) It’s easier than writing everything down in an email. Plus, you’ll save a ton of time--and you get to skip all the small talk during every call.

These are just a few ways that recording calls can boost your marketing efforts and save you lots of time. Get creative and start using the technology to your own advantage. Just make sure that everyone on the call knows that it’s being recorded, even if it’s just for you own notetaking purposes.

(c) 2007 by Cory Fossum. All rights reserved.