Do I Blog Or Should I Podcast To Build My Brand?
People have been creating blogs and podcasts for a number of years. In recent years, the number of people listening to and downloading podcasts has grown significantly. But it’s just a matter of popularity or trend, it’s about demographics. Podcast listeners are simply more likely to listen to advertising and make a purchase based on a podcaster’s recommendation (or well-placed ad).
As an online marketer – and if you own any business, that’s what you should consider yourself to be – podcasting holds substantial benefits over blogging these days. Blogs are still valuable tools to consistently (albeit it slowly) grow your organic search reach and boost your website’s page authority on Google and Bing. But podcasts allow you to grow your brand and authority quickly while developing beneficial relationships with your listeners.
Of course, in a perfect world where time is abundant, it would be best for you to operate a blog and a podcast. But most people don’t have the time to devote to growing both successfully.
Podcasting will allow you to develop trust with your audience much faster.
A blog can feel very impersonal sometimes, but a podcast always creates a feeling of closeness and intimacy. With a podcast, the listener is hearing a real person give their opinions on a subject, and this will always create a better connection than a blog post will. Everyone wants to feel a strong connection, and podcasts do that better than blogs will ever be able to do.
Blogs can (and should) be very targeted and focused when it comes to content. The same goes for podcasts, but podcasts provide a level of personalization that even the most well written blog can’t deliver. On a podcast, you can host Q&As with your audience by asking for questions on social media. These facilitate a new range of engagement with your listeners that no blog can duplicate.
People can do other things while consuming your podcast.
You can be anywhere and doing anything and still listen to a podcast. If you’re driving your car, then you can listen to a podcast. You can take your smartphone to the gym and workout while listening to your favorite podcasts. This means your audience has total control and flexibility to work your content into their lifestyle anyway they need. A listener can download your podcast, add it to his or her phone and click play whenever they like – no internet connection required.
You can let your personality really shine through which people love.
There are ways that you can give away elements of your personality using a blog, but there’s nothing like using your own voice to connect with people. It doesn’t matter how passionate you are about a subject – you may well be the most passionate expert in your field on the topic.
That doesn’t matter in a blog post.
But on a podcast, the listeners will hear the passion and excitement for the material in your voice. They’ll witness each time your voice elevates or slows based on what you’re discussing and how you feel about it. They can pick up your emotions through your voice, just as they would with any individual, they’re speaking with right in front of them.
Be yourself and act as you always would on your podcast. When writing, a reader needs two books written by the author to get a sense of that person. On a podcast, you can give them a sense of who you are and your personal style within minutes.
You can easily turn your podcasts into other types of content.
Once you’ve created a podcast, you can easily convert it into other media types. This means your one single podcast can become a dozen lead magnets, shareable social media content or even entire courses you can sell online. In short, podcasts are extremely flexible.
For example, you can use a transcription service of your podcast to create text based content. You may package the transcript of a podcast episode into any number of things, including:
- eBook
- 10-day email series using an autoresponder
- Lead magnet
- Product bonus
- 5 blog articles
- Workbook
- Checklist bundle
Even though your podcasts are audio files, you can even convert them into video files and publish them on YouTube to extend your reach and build your audience.
Podcasts are easy to create and surprisingly easy to market.
Like the best blog posts, the best podcasts require organization and planning. But often it can take a lot less time and effort to create a high value podcast than it does a lengthy and detailed blog post.
Long form blog content requires hours of work, research, fact-checking, writing, editing and rewriting. And that doesn’t include the time and effort that goes into finding or creating the best imagery to integrate into your blog post.
You can plan and record even a lengthy podcast in much less time.
Interviewing experts as guests on your podcast is a lot easier.
You can easily expand your podcasting network by interviewing experts in your niche.
All you need to do is to prepare and agree on a list of questions, and then schedule a call using Skype or Zoom. You record the conversation, do a quick edit and once over and post it online for the entire world to enjoy.
Similarly, to write up a full interview as a blog article can take days and often requires many emails, back and forth with the interviewee.
