OMR Tech Stack: These Are the Tools and Software We Use for Podcasts and in Marketing

1. How the production of podcasts works
2. One link and the recording starts
3. The backbone of marketing
4. Push it to the browser
5. These are some of the tools OMR uses

For a few weeks now, we have been regularly asking exciting digital companies about their tech stacks, i.e. the list of technology services used for everyday business. Because we are also occasionally asked for such a list, it's now our turn. With which tools do we record podcasts for our own and external productions? Where do we host the formats? And with which software do we actually send newsletters? You can read the answers here.

In our series Tech Stack companies from the digital sector reveal which tools they use and why they have chosen these particular software solutions.

What quickly became clear when we first started thinking about the OMR Tech Stack: we use a lot of tools and software solutions. Many teams work on different products; logically, the education team uses completely different services than, for example, the Podstars for the production of currently 65 different podcast formats. And it is also logical that we at OMR use many very common and well-known tools to communicate and work together and across projects.

For example, there's Slack, the tool that is certainly used most frequently on a daily basis. Internal emails are quite rare. Or Google Drive, which is hardly dispensable and probably has added the most value in the past. And of course, many basics like Google Analytics, Google Ads, Facebook Business, Asana and many more are used consistently. But because these services are already known (and used) by everyone, we limit ourselves to a small selection of software used by two teams: Podstars and Marketing.

How the production of podcasts works

Constantin Buer

Since we just started with our own podcast in November 2015, a lot has changed. The Podstars are now on the road as their own company, producing 65 different formats with more than 30 employees - and using correspondingly more professional tools than in the early days. "Our hosting platform of choice today is Podigee", explains Constantin Buer, one of the managing directors. Several factors played an important role in the decision. "Of course, technical reliability is key. We didn't have a single minute of downtime in the approximately three years we've been using Podigee", Constantin continues.

The contact to the German-speaking support also works smoothly. "This is not available elsewhere in this form. In general, it is a very personal relationship. For example, there are no basic packages, but very individual solutions are offered." Other, rather technical advantages that Podigee offers and which become increasingly relevant with a larger amount of productions are customizable landing pages and web players as well as an API interface and the "passthrough" to Spotify. "This allows content to be directly released on Spotify as well. So dynamic ad insertion is also easily possible."

One link and the recording starts

Before it gets to hosting, of course, the recording has to take place first. And since Corona, this has been mostly remote; but with the right tool, even this is no problem. "For this we always use Cleanfeed. It is absolutely reliable and offers high transmission rates in the quite cheap premium version", Constantin explains. "The podcast guest doesn't have to install anything. We just send a link and the tool opens in the browser. The recording runs over us." The interface is extremely intuitive and basically impossible to misunderstand.

The requirement for a good recording, regardless of the software, is of course always a good microphone, which in the best case can be connected to the laptop or computer via USB. "You could also Zoom premium use. Or Zencastr, but this is a bit less stable. A alternative - and always recommended as a backup - is of course also that guests record their own audio track and upload it afterwards."

And what about software programs for editing the recorded podcast episodes, so-called DAW (short for "Digital Audio Workstation")? "Our production team uses a few tools, depending on the specific use case", Constantin explains. Among other software, Adobe Audition, Ableton Live, Cubase Pro 12, Reason, FL Studio, Logic Pro and Pro Tools are regularly used.

The backbone of marketing

The best way to address a target group is where they are already on the move and consuming content. In our case, unsurprisingly, these are the large social media platforms that probably every publisher uses: Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram; often we plan posts with Hootsuite in advance. To not be dependent on traditionally declining organic reach, many pieces of content get a little ad budget, with the help of the respective ad managers of the platforms.

Isabelle Gardt

The most important channel overall is probably the newsletter. E-Mail-Marketing-Tool sometimes Mailchimp is still used, but ActiveCampaign has established itself as the main tool. "With it, it's pretty easy to segment subscribers and create audiences. With the amount of different content for sometimes very different target groups, this is very relevant for us", explains Isabelle Gardt, managing director at OMR. Also, individual landing pages for the individual products can easily be created via "drag and drop"; forms created with Active Campaign can be integrated into websites without much effort. Even more important for Isabelle, however, are two other, fundamental factors: "The reporting is just good and shows what you really want to know about the performance of newsletters. And with numerous different automation options, you can really save time. The features compared to other E-Mail-Marketing-Tools are unbelievably large."

Push it to the browser

Compared to newsletters, push notifications in the browser are a considerably smaller, but still interesting channel to bring content to the target group. "Today, a lot of websites have integrated corresponding tools", says Isabelle. "We just wanted to try it out at the end of 2017 and have been using it ever since. We use the solution from Accengage, which was bought by Airship at the beginning of 2019." The "first-mover advantage" and correspondingly strong conversions no longer exist due to the widespread use of push notification tools, but for the relatively low effort of writing the short messages, it can still be a helpful lever.

The software that has become indispensable for Isa and her team doesn't directly have to do with marketing, but as a "data hub" it can contribute to various topics: Airtable. "With it, you can capture and display all kinds of data, such as photos and pdf files, from which APIs can then be created for landing pages, for example", Isabelle explains. "We've already automated quite a few manual and complicated processes that previously even caused us tech effort.

Speaking of automations: when Jens Bohse, a colleague from business development and currently working on OMR Reviews, discovered the exchange about tools at Slack, he simply wrote: "Then we definitely have to mention Zapier briefly." Some campaigns for OMR Reviews are currently working mainly thanks to the software. "Zapier is a no-code tool. So you can automate processes completely without programming knowledge", Jens explains. "But the biggest added value is that it can be linked with all other common tools - for example also with ActiveCampaign for our newsletters." Every day, often simply time-consuming tasks can thus be automated and personnel effort minimized.

These are some of the tools OMR uses

You actively use tools and software? Then rate the respective providers on our OMR-Reviews platform - as a reward there is a ten Euro Amazon voucher for each qualified review.