Successfully marketing a business requires fairly a little bit of content. That being stated, you don’t all the time have time to create the assorted sorts of content you have to be creating. Whereas diversifying your content technique with as many various kinds of codecs as you possibly can deal with is normally the best way to go (extra on that later), there are times whenever you may find your self making an attempt to determine which route to pool your resources in direction of.
Each blogs and podcasts are conversion-driven content strategies which can be value your time and energy. On the running a blog front, companies who produce blogs see a mean of 67% extra leads than companies who don’t. In the meantime, the quantity of month-to-month podcast listeners has grown 54% in simply the previous three years, suggesting a ton of potential for grabbing the ear of potential prospects.
There are clearly large advantages to those content methods, however how do you determine which is healthier to think about in your business? We’re breaking down the advantages and potential pitfalls of each, in addition to why you most likely need to contemplate tackling each for content marketing success.
Running a blog
Running a blog is a mainstay technique. Most manufacturers have been prioritizing running a blog for years, whereas some have discovered it tough to stay to an editorial calendar. Should you find your self questioning if running a blog actually is all it’s cracked as much as be, it’s time to dive into the advantages in addition to issues to bear in mind.
Advantages of Running a blog
1. It could actually enhance website positioning
Accomplished proper, running a blog is superior for website positioning, which suggests larger rankings on search results pages and extra site visitors to your web site (about 55% extra, to be precise). Nevertheless, there’s a way to this insanity, so you need to be certain to prioritize website positioning all through the content creation course of.
2. It could actually enhance ROI
In 2019, entrepreneurs who prioritized running a blog noticed a 13X larger ROI than those that didn’t. Why? Properly, whenever you create blog content, you’re primarily fueling your email marketing. You’re offering leads with high-quality, informative articles that reply their questions and deal with their ache factors. And whenever you try this, you’re constructing belief and shortening the lead cycle.
3. It may be more practical than ads
Standalone ads have their place, however 70% of shoppers say they’d moderately find out about an organization by articles than ads. Paid ads are great at grabbing the eye of latest leads and catching them the place they’re already engaged (social media platforms or different on-line websites that promote advert house). Nevertheless, they don’t do a lot to teach leads on a need they’ve or a query they’ve answered. That’s the place running a blog is available in.
Issues to Hold in Thoughts About Running a blog
1. High quality takes time
Writing is tough work, and the typical put up takes practically 4 hours to provide. It’s a must to take into accounts all of the levels of the content creation course of: ideation, analysis, writing, enhancing, optimizing for website positioning and including the proper backlinks, one other spherical of edits, then distribution.
2. There’s steep competitors
It’s positively attainable to succeed along with your blogs, however you’ll have a variety of competitors in doing so. There are greater than 600 million lively blogs on the net, and if you happen to’re late to the running a blog sport, your opponents most likely already have you ever beat.
3. It’s not nearly textual content
The simplest blogs right this moment include photographs, statistics, and contributor quotes along with phrase copy. So whereas it’s great to create constant written content, it’s essential to even be incorporating visible content, data, and enter from business influencers into your running a blog technique.
Podcasting
Podcasting has exploded up to now couple of years. They’re a great technique to get your model in front of a brand new audience and interact in a brand new method. In contrast to running a blog, podcasting isn’t essentially a pillar of any marketing plan, however that doesn’t imply there isn’t tons of worth from having one.
Advantages of Podcasting
1. It’s a rising medium
Podcasting isn’t as widespread as running a blog with businesses, however with 37% of Individuals listening to podcasts each month, there’s a giant probability to make a mark. Getting concerned with one thing whereas it’s nonetheless rising means you will have extra time to construct a strong audience and faucet right into a much less saturated market.
2. The format is optimal for training
Should you’re seeking to share tons of perception, private expertise and turn out to be a thought chief in your house, podcasting is a great format to think about. This sort of agenda could be amplified by guest appearances or by internet hosting your personal podcast. The previous can be ideal for tapping into third-party credibility and a bigger audience.
3. It’s “smart” tech-driven
Tons of individuals now personal sensible audio system like Amazon Alexa and Google Residence, each of that are ideal for podcast consumption. With podcasts being accessible on totally different platforms, it makes your model extra accessible to the lots.
Issues to Hold in Thoughts About Podcasting
1. It’s not fast
This isn’t a quick-win sort of deal. Podcasts take a variety of time to plan, produce, and edit, and it may additionally take time to realize a following. Like running a blog, you need to have consistency, endurance, and technique to drive these efforts in direction of success.
2. It’s not CTA primarily based
You’ll be able to actually finish your podcast with a verbal CTA or a promotion of some type, however you’ll clearly miss out on having a clickable button. As a substitute of driving digital interplay, your podcast is extra about engagement and model consciousness. So, if you happen to’re hoping to make use of a podcast to promo a brand new product, that may actually occur, however it will not be as impactful as you hope.
3. It’s not intuitive
You’ll have so much to study earlier than you possibly can publish your first podcast — actually greater than you need to study to create a blog put up. It’s important to do your analysis and see what sort of tools you’ll need to ensure a transparent, high-quality sound. This might imply renting out house and investing in costly tools. You’ll additionally need to be certain no matter community you be a part of is smart in your podcast focus and model.
Why Not Simply Do Each?
They could differ in format, however blogs and podcasts each share a number of the identical primary parts, together with the need to hone in in your goal audience and to create well-researched, unique content. It could appear intimidating to get the ball rolling with only one, not to mention each, however these elemental overlaps imply that a variety of the work is comparatively the identical — you possibly can even flip your blog analysis right into a podcast on the identical subject and vice versa.
Doing each running a blog and podcasting additionally helps fill within the gaps that one or the opposite could depart behind. For instance, you might have variations inside your audience of who’s extra prone to have interaction with one medium over the opposite (males, as an illustration, are barely extra tuned in to podcast listening than ladies).
Finally it’s as much as you to determine what you will have the bandwidth for and what makes essentially the most sense in your audience and your aims. And because of the expansion in digital marketing tools, it’s simpler than you could be pondering to get began with both format — and no, you gained’t need a level in radio to start publishing podcasts.
Assess your marketing objectives and your price range when figuring out the place your resources ought to be funneled, and all the time maintain an in depth eye in your data analytics to see how your varied efforts are performing.