In a content-saturated world where people have grown accustomed to instant gratification, it pays to consider spreading your marketing messages through as many mediums as possible.
It’s becoming increasingly more common for businesses to employ – or at least consider employing – comprehensive content marketing strategies. They can be effective in meeting society’s expectation for abundant content, creating regular value in exchange for hard-earned trust and brand loyalty.
Many blogs, YouTube channels and podcasts are run by businesses doing just that. If the content is genuinely useful to their audience, and that audience is regularly engaging with it, they’ve earned themselves an invaluable marketing avenue where no competitors may enter.
But for the small to medium business with a smaller marketing budget, what options are there? You can go with written content, but what if your audience prefer watching to reading? You can go with a YouTube channel, but will the results justify the cost of constantly producing videos?
The answer may lie in podcasting.
Unlike a blog or a YouTube channel, a podcast can be run by one or two people. Many of the top rated podcasts in the world function as such. Editing the audio for a podcast is simple enough and doesn’t require sophisticated software. Also, a decent microphone will last forever.
And as for the content itself, many great podcasts are just improvised conversations with subject matter experts edited down to the best 20 minutes or so. The exposure serves the subject matter expert, the conversation serves your audience and the podcast serves you. Everybody wins. The interviewee will likely share the podcast with their own audience as well.
Podcasts can be listened to whilst driving or on public transport. They can be consumed while cooking, showering, or doing the dishes. Because they can be consumed in environments with less distractions, podcasts are a desirable and effective option for many businesses.
But does all that make podcasting a better option than blogging or making videos?
For starters, there are SEO considerations. A strong blog can generate organic search traffic that may be more beneficial, measurable and tangible than what a podcast can offer in terms of brand trust.
And if your audience happens to be made of readers, then a podcast might not appeal to them at all. Why sit there and listen to content when you could read it three times as fast? Some audiences will feel this way, others won’t.
Like any high-stakes decision that requires analysis and consideration, it helps to speak to the experts about it. There’s no need to tackle entire media strategies on your own when there are agencies created specifically to advise on them.
If you’re looking to get into content marketing today, but don’t know where to start, try our free media audit. We’ll take a look at your marketing funnel for free – and help you figure out ways to improve your business and take it to the next level.
