Now, I know what you’re going to say. There are benefits to blogging, which podcasting can’t achieve. Blogging is easier and quicker to do, it has better SEO benefits, and is more easily shareable. No argument there.
In fact, a company shouldn’t necessarily disregard blogs, newsletters, videos or any other form of content. All have their place and are valuable if done well. A podcast, simply, offers other advantages that blogging alone can’t achieve. And so, we’ve outlined those 10 advantages that a podcast has over a blog.
1. It amplifies your brand’s unique voice.
It’s difficult to get an understanding of a brand’s personality from what’s typed on a screen. You can get a vague sense perhaps, but a podcast – with its rhythm, pace and tone – allows you to amplify your brand’s personality.
A great example is Thank God It’s Monday – a branded podcast for e-commerce company, Shopify. It’s aimed at entrepreneurs – who might consider selling their products in Shopify’s platform – who have a get-up-and-go attitude. It interviews high-profile, high-powered business people, like Seth Godin and serial startup entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk. It wraps its podcast around pop culture, fast-paced stories, with a down-to-earth and witty charm, reflecting the brand’s personality.
2. It allows you to connect on a more personal level.
You’re talking directly to your audience. People are immediately getting a sense of who you are because, surely, you are being who you are.
“When you’re listening to a podcast, you’ve got somebody’s voice in your ear,” says Sarah Mitchell, Director of Content Strategy at Lush Digital Media. “It can be quite a personal way to communicate. What I found is your audience really feel like they have a relationship with you – they start to understand things about your personality.”
3. It provides more valuable evergreen content
“Podcasting is a great way to build a library of evergreen content that can be accessed or repurposed in future,” says digital marketing expert, Bec Kempster. She believes it’s a more valuable and trustworthy way of presenting information than blogging. “You’re often interviewing people in podcasts getting expert opinions which are often credible when you’re listening to them as opposed to rating something on a blog.”
A great example is Modern Babies, a branded podcast for fertility clinic, Genea. It’s sits on its website and is available on iTunes and where all good podcasts are accessed. The podcast aims to explain the process of fertility treatment through interviews with clinicians, which builds that credibility and trust for those who are looking to conceive.
4. It saves time
One thing we are increasingly caring more about is time. It’s a cliché, but who really ever has enough time these days?
For consumers of content, sitting down and concentrating on a blog takes too much time, when they could be doing something else. Which leads naturally to Point 5…
5. You can multitask
Podcasts, more than any other media, allow people to listen while doing something else. What about that 10-minute walk from the station to the office? You can’t watch a video or read a blog while walking, but you can listen to a podcast. You can learn while you’re walking. Companies that understand the power of audio will have a huge advantage over those who don’t get it.
Listen to Gary Vaynerchuck‘s brilliant, two-minute talk on why audio matters for business.
6. Podcasts are perfect for long-form content
Young people are spending less time reading long-form articles or blogs. In fact, 41% of millennials have no patience for content that is too long. If done well, podcasts can explore issues on a deeper level, content which otherwise would not hold the attention of a consumer of a blog article.
The average weekly commute in Australia is 4.4 hours a week, or 26 minutes per journey. Forty-four percent of weekly podcast listeners consume 5 hours a week of podcasts. It’s not hard to imagine that many of them are listening to podcasts during their commute time. For many, a 20-minute or so podcast would be an ideal length for those commuting to or from work.
7. It helps build your network
Inviting guests on to your podcast gives you an excuse to have conversations with people within your industry. It allows you to talk to leaders in your field who otherwise might not care to share their wisdom with you. Furthermore, it shows to the market that you have a strong network in that area of expertise.
8. It helps you communicate better
At first, it can be daunting for a lot of people to talk in front of an open mic. How am I going to sound? Why did I say what I said in such a convoluted way? By regularly contributing to a podcast and listening back to hear yourself speak, you build confidence in oral communication. It’s an important skill to have – to speak clearly, succinctly and off-the-cuff.
Practice makes perfect, and as storytelling becomes a strategic imperative for business, it’s more important for business leaders to learn how to use the most effective of tools for storytelling.
9. You can repurpose your audio content
You can easily repurpose your audio content into blogs. By using a Rev or Sonix, you can get a relatively cheap translation of your audio file, which you can then edit into blogs, newsletters and e-books.
Admittedly, you could repurpose a blog into a podcast, but that would entail someone recording a reading of the blog – arguably not as engaging as an interview!
10. Smart speakers can play a podcast, but can’t play a blog
Currently, we are staring down the barrel of consumer boom in smart speakers. A report by Canalys predicts that the purchase of smart speakers in 2018 will double 2017’s numbers. As more people get used to having one—or more – in their homes, the familiarity allows more listening of audio content. With a simple command, a smart speaker can play the latest episode of a selected podcast. You can’t do that with a blog piece…including this one!
