The first thing that any semi savvy entrepreneur must do before starting a business is take a look at the competition. A physical business, like a neighborhood restaurants, may find that it can dominate the market fairly easy if there are few other choices, or if it offers a different type of food than what can already be found nearby. For an online company, the story is quite different. Take for example online candle stores, a simple search in Google returns 12,700,000 hits for “online candle store.” It should be fairly obvious that this does not mean there are that many online candle stores, but the likelihood that there are thousands, and even tens of thousands, of competitors in this space is fairly high. If not immediately scared off by the prospects of competing in this arena, a marketer must consider the options for setting itself apart from the competition.

Perhaps one of the best ways to rise above one’s competitors is to offer a new service in an established market. On very rare occasions, and available to only the most astute entrepreneurs, an opportunity presents itself to be the first, and thus the only, marketer using a promotional method to sell a product. One recent shining example of this is the company Timeless Candles. This company scored a first when it started a podcast and got it launched in to iTunes. The store had not even opened for business when it first began broadcasting as a way of attracting and educating customers. That move got it noticed by Paul Colligan who will feature the story in his soon to be published book “The Business Podcast Bible.” In a blog posting Colligan wrote, “The angle that the Timeless Candles people are taking is an interesting one – building buzz for the site from the Podcast. Imagine hearing 9 episodes of something before you can even possibly visit the sales site.” He shows his enthusiasm by finishing the post writing, “Personally, I think it’s brilliant.”

The Webmaster at Timeless Candles has also written in a blog about the company’s use of the podcast as a marketing tool, and he makes it clear that at its best the podcast is more than just another commercial, “Although the end-game is obviously to have people buy candles from us, the podcast is really about creating a closer relationship with our… customers.” He goes on to write, “… if the content is of value to them, they’ll not only stick with us for 9 episodes (and beyond), but Timeless Candles Podcast will become something they look forward to each week.”

The interesting lesson from a web site promotion perspective is how a company can take a newer, but existing technology, and use it to create a buzz for their product or service. This buzz will then lead to visitors and more links and ultimately greater search engine position.