Businesses, brands, & influencers invest a lot of time and money in content marketing campaigns. The content creation industry as a whole is a competitive marketing environment. This is because content marketing, whether it be audio or visual, is a mission-critical growth approach for most organizations. After all, it is one of the most successful ways to increase audience engagement, enhance your brand awareness, and drive sales.
So which one should you put your time and energy into? What do podcasts and blogs have in common and how are they different? One thing is for sure. Both blogs and podcasts are effective branding and marketing tools. Blogs are certainly well-established in the content marketing space, whereas podcasts are sort of the newcomers on the block generating a lot of buzz in the industry.
If you’re on the fence regarding what type of content to create to grow your influence or brand presence, this post is for you. Below we’re discussing everything A-Z regarding blogs & podcasts. Specifically, what podcasts and blogs have in common and how they differ. Here we go!
What Do Podcasts And Blogs Have In Common
First, let’s make one thing clear. Content marketing, no matter what form you produce it in, is crucial because it allows you to directly address your audience’s inquiries. Both blogs and podcasts are effective content marketing tools. You can create customer trust and loyalty, increase conversions, engage with consumers, and generate leads via content marketing. Audiences demand high-quality, consistent content from their favorite influencers and companies in today’s world.
Community relationships are nurtured, knowledge is validated, brand loyalty is deepened, search is captured, and leads are generated with blogs and podcasts. However, each instrument has advantages and disadvantages, and you’ve undoubtedly wondered which will provide the best return on investment for your influence, brand, and company.
Both Increase Brand Awareness
Blogs are an excellent social media tool and one of the most successful ways to raise brand awareness, gain new consumers, and build a powerhouse brand. Blogs are a long-form communication method with audiences and still an excellent way to get started with creating content. However, it might be difficult to get your message across with just words. Especially if you’re an influencer and your personality is a part of your brand. It takes writing skill to adequately portray your personality through writing. It’s not so easy to write the way you talk! Plus, you have to consider that the person reading might not emphasize the same words or punctuation the way you would.
Podcasts, on the other hand, are one of the best ways to let your personality shine. Your voice and communication style is delivered in its true form, audio. With their tone and rhythm podcasts, are an excellent method to get your message across and raise brand awareness.
Podcasts & Blogs Can Be Consumed On-The-Go
Podcasts and blogs are both mobile, which means that consumers can read blogs or listen to podcasts while on the go. However, podcasts are more practical for consuming on the go or while multitasking because they just require you to listen. Listeners can tune in to podcasts while driving, doing the dishes, working out, or going for a walk.
On the other hand, reading a blog post while walking, driving, or doing the dishes is not possible. Podcasts capitalize on the magic of audio giving listeners the ability to multitask. This frees up more time in the listener’s life. We all know that anything selling time in today’s busy world is a major win, giving podcasting an advantage over blogging.
Both Are Easy To Distribute Digitally
When you become a seasoned content creator, you’ll start to realize how content that can be easily repurposed and shared makes your life a whole lot easier. Both podcasts and blogs are easy to repurpose for other platforms. You basically take the original content and simply repurpose it to be delivered in another method for promotional purposes. Or you can even slightly alter the content to provide a different type of value.
For example, you can publish full transcripts of your podcast episodes on your blog. Turning your podcasts into blog posts. Transcribing your podcasts also improves SEO, strengthens communications strategy, and increases the possibility of backlinks. Or you can pull audio clips and share snippets of an episode on social media. Turning your podcast into social content plus marketing for the episode.
Blogs on the other hand, are also very easy to share. You can simply share the links, repost the photos on social media, via email marketing etc. Both podcasts and blogs can be promoted through Pinterest, email marketing, and on each other. A non-listener, for example, may learn about your podcast episode after seeing its audio clip shared on social media. They could also watch a video clip that is related to the episode. The idea is to cut information from your episodes into bite-sized promotional content to grab attention and increase visibility.
Podcast & Blogs Strengthen Your SEO Game
Both blogs and podcasts create SEO benefits for your brand, influence, and business. When you create quality content, audio or blog content, you can target keywords and pop up in search results.
For both podcasts and blog posts, make sure to add a ton of value, answer the most common and important questions related to the topic, create strong titles, and promote the content on other platforms for SEO. Your ultimate goal in search engine optimization is to establish your audio or blog content as a high quality, relevant answer for your target audiences’ questions.
When you record podcasts, just make sure to include keywords in your title and episode description. Your episode will most likely naturally include keywords through your conversation. Linking your podcast to your podcast or brand website is also a great way to boost your site’s SEO.
Audiences Widely Use Both
The great thing about podcasts and blogs is that audiences are comfortable with both platforms. According to this source, over 24% of the US population listens to podcasts at least once per week. And over 55% say they’ve listened to a podcast. Blogs on the other hand are a staple for Internet users. Over 77% of internet users worldwide say they read blogs. So no matter which form of content creation you choose, you can have success.
Content marketing experts might argue that one is better than the other, however at the end of the day it really just depends on which platform feels best for you. We or course, love a good audio experience. However, you’re reading this on our blog! In a perfect world you’d tackle both.
They Both Should Contain A Call To Action
Both blogs and podcasts are great for converting a community into sales. So both should definitely include some sort of call to action. In order to create a successful call to action, consider your goals. Are you trying to sell a product? Grow your community? Whatever your goals are, the call to action should line up.
For your podcast, increasing subscribers is an important goal. So a great call to action for people listening is to ask people to subscribe. Or maybe you ask them to review your podcast if your goal is to raise your rankings on the “best of” podcast lists.
For your blog, maybe your goal is to gain newsletter subscribers. So a great call to action is to include an ask to subscribe to your newsletter somewhere in the blog article. Or if you want people to sign up for your course you can create a call to action for that.
Both Help You Channel Your Authentic Voice
Authenticity is super important in the content creation game. Your audience is intuitive. Everyone is different, so choosing the platform that helps you portray your authentic voice is really the most important thing. If you’re more comfortable being vulnerable while writing, blogs might be your best bet. Or if you’re more comfortable simply having a real conversation or talking, go with podcasting. Either way, both podcasting and blogs can be a channel for you to deliver your authentic message.
If you’re looking for tips on authentic communication, Lauryn Evarts is both a blogger and a podcaster with an authentic voice who scaled her brand using incredibly unique revenue streams. She talks about building an empire out of blogging HERE.
Blogs & Podcasts Complement Each Other Well
Most podcast episodes are 30 to 60 minutes long, giving you plenty of time to introduce various themes and tips. In many circumstances, you’ll have numerous hosts or guests simply conversing. You can cover a lot of ground in a conversation. However you might skip over the nitty gritty details. This is why blogs and podcasts can seriously compliment each other. Anything you go over in your podcast can then be turned into a more detailed, list or resource style blog post. It would be tedious to have your guests regurgitate a list of tools and why they use them. However, it is an excellent topic for a follow-up blog post to an episode.
On the flip side, while blog posts are more targeted, a conversation can often be more inspiring, insightful, and well rounded. So if you have blog posts on specific topics, link to your podcast episodes in your blog posts so your readers can experience a more well rounded, wholesome conversation on the things they’re interested in.
Low Barriers To Entry
The great thing about blogging and podcasting is that they can both be bootstrapped. You don’t need permission to share your opinions. You can create your own website, record your own show, and use free social media tools to distribute your content. Of course, as you grow your audience you might want to start investing in more high level tools to improve your show or content. But to get started, you don’t need much.
There are tons of free blogging platforms and templates out there if you want to bootstrap your blog. For podcasting, here is a complete list of things you need to start a podcast. You’ll find that list incredibly useful if you’re just starting out. Keep in mind, nothing is perfect at its launch. So don’t be afraid of the bootstrap model. Once you start gaining an audience and earning an income, you can spend money on improving your vibe.
Endless Variety
Both blogging and podcasting formats have the advantage of providing an infinite amount of content style and diversity. Any subject a person is interested in can typically be accessed in podcast or blog format. There is something for everyone, including popular culture, news, fashion blogging, cooking, politics, mom blogs, beauty, the list goes on and on. So no matter what niche you’re into, know that both podcasting and blogging are great options for you as a creator.
Which do you prefer? Blogging or podcasting?
After reading this post we hope you understand the similarities of blogging and podcasting. They are both great options for content creators looking to grow their audience and influence. If you’re interested in either, we would love to know whether you prefer podcasting or blogging. Also if you’re a content consumer, which do you like better? Do you prefer audio content or text content? Leave a comment below and let us know what your vibe is!
