Podcasting vs Blogging: Which Strategy is Best For You?
Publishing helpful, compelling content as part of your marketing strategy is an ideal way to increase your exposure and potentially drive more traffic to your website. Podcast marketing and blogging can both be effective communication styles for reaching your target audience in their separate ways. It entirely depends on your goals, your market, your particular skillset – written or verbal talents – and the resources you have at your disposal. With so much chatter about the effectiveness of podcasting and blogging in business, it begs the question – which strategy is best for you?
In this article, we highlight the main benefits for each form of content, with the goal of helping you make a decision on the strategy that best matches your needs. The review is approached from a neutral point of view with no intention to encourage you to choose one method over another.
✴ What Do The Statistics Say?
Below are 2 interesting facts about podcast marketing and blogs that will be used as a point of reference as you read through this post:
There are over 600 million blogs and approximately 700,000 podcasts online.
About 48% of millennials (and younger) are more likely to listen to audio content, as opposed to roughly 25% of generation X (and older).
Accurately interpreting these statistics all comes down to a matter of perspective. The fact that there are significantly more blogs in the world compared to podcasts for example, can be looked at from completely different angles.
Related: Understanding Podcast Analytics
✴ The Argument For Podcast Marketing
A lower number of podcasts can mean that your chances of being heard above all the noise on the Internet are increased as a result of the reduced level of competition.
Likewise, if your main audience is generation Z and millennials based in the United States, then it might be a good idea to incorporate some audio content into your communications planning. This is because research indicates that podcast growth is popping among the younger age groups in that specific market. The numbers don’t lie, and it would therefore be a big missed opportunity if you didn’t.
✴ Podcasts Put Your Brand’s Unique Identity On Full Display
It is a lot easier to get the feel of a brand’s personality through podcast marketing as opposed to a blog. If you’ve ever texted something that wasn’t quite received in its intended context, you know what we’re talking about. Emojis along with other common cues can sometimes help to make written content clearer. This still falls way short of doing your message the same justice that verbal communication would though.
With podcasts, you can encapsulate different rhythms, voice tones, speech tempo and place extra emphasis on important points. Articulating your content in this manner brings out your brand’s unique identity, helping you to connect with your listeners on a higher level than you would with blogs. The closer you are to your customers, the more likely they are to choose you when the time to make a buying decision arrives.
✴ The Benefits Of Blogging
Harkening back to the 2 interesting facts we referred to earlier – there is a reason why so many blogs exist online. At least one of those reasons is because blogging provides a measurable strategic advantage to a business’s online marketing efforts when carried out successfully.
If for example you own a book club and your audience clearly indicates that they prefer reading over other forms of media. Creating a blog for your business in this case, will be an absolute no-brainer!
Related: How to Turn Your Interests Into a Podcast
✴ Blogging Helps To Boost Your Ranking In Search Results
There aren’t many better ways to improve your search engine optimization (SEO) than with blog posts. Through consistent articles that provide fresh, relevant and engaging content for your audience you, will start to climb up the rankings for specific search terms in your niche. The higher you show up in search results the better because your position in Google has a direct impact on the amount of traffic your website receives organically.
If your main goal is to gain the benefits of SEO, then implementing a regular blogging schedule in the first instance is the way to go. With 63,000 searches taking place on Google every single second, you want to make it’s as easy as possible for any potential customers to find your business’ products or services. For that reason, blogging rather than podcasting is the vehicle that will help you get to where you want to be most efficiently.
✴ Podcast Marketing Vs Blogging – Let Your Audience Decide The Winner
As can be seen, both podcasting and blogging can add value to a business’s marketing strategy. The first step is to really understand your audience. Once you have a firm grasp on the motivations behind their preferences and buying decisions you will be in a better position to create and deliver high-quality content in a way that will resonate with them the most.
If you have the capability to do both podcasting and blogging at a high level, then more power to you! For those of us who are just starting out, it might be a better idea to work towards becoming great at one element first before diving into the next one. That old saying “Jack of all trades, master of none” can be applied here. Rather be excellent at one communication style than be average at best in several different areas.
Listen to your customers. They will tell you candidly, whether podcast marketing or blogging is actually the best strategy for your business.
Stop thinking and start building your podcast! Here’s a checklist to help you launch in 30 days.
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