Business owners looking to establish their online presence have several tough decisions to make when it comes to marketing. One of these is whether to start a blog or a podcast to enhance their content.
Podcasts and blogs have both been used successfully to launch new businesses. As you’ll find out in this article, the question you should ask isn’t whether a podcast or a blog is better — it’s which medium is better specifically for you and your business.
Defining podcast vs. blog
First, let’s clarify what these two media are:
- A podcast is a digital audio file made available for download on the internet. Example: The Joe Rogan Experience.
- A blog is an educational, informative, or entertaining website where new pieces of content — blog posts — are regularly published. Example: Matt Mullenweg’s personal blog.
Podcasting pros and cons
Some advantages to podcasting include the following:
- It’s a newer medium: the first podcast was created in 2004 (versus the first blog in 1994).
- It showcases your personality and establishes a deep connection with your audience.
- It’s popular with younger audiences: 70 percent of listeners are 18 to 54 years old, according to Edison Research.
- The number of podcast listeners is growing, from 18 percent of the U.S. population in 2008 to 44 percent in 2018, Edison Research reports.
On the other hand, the challenges to podcasting include:
- It’s more technically complicated and expensive to create than blog posts (Entrepreneur Magazine details 10 tools you’ll need to start podcasting).
- It’s more of a time commitment (expert podcaster Daniel Lewis says a one-hour podcast takes five hours to produce).
Blogging pros and cons
Some advantages to blogging include the following:
- It’s less of a time commitment (Orbit Media says the average blog post takes three-and-half hours to write).
- Blogs require less technical expertise and fewer tools to create than a podcast.
- Because it’s text-based, it may offer more robust search engine optimization (SEO) benefits for your website.
- Blogs take less time for your target audience to consume, typically three to 10 minutes compared to 30 minutes or more for a podcast.
- Nearly 47 percent of internet users 18-29 years old read blogs at least once every four weeks.
Some challenges in blogging include:
- You’ll need to have good writing skills or develop them.
- You may need to learn a new publishing platform to start blogging.
Podcast vs. blog: Which is right for you?
Every business is different — and so is every business owner. In trying to determine whether a podcast or a blog is the best choice to help establish your business’s online presence, ask yourself the following questions:
- What are your innate talents and personality traits? Are you shy? Are you a good writer? Do you prefer to think through things and write them out rather than talking? If so, a blog is a better match. Do you have the “gift of gab”? Do you struggle at sitting down to write? If so, a podcast is a better match.
- Who is your target demographic? Are you trying to become a daily resource for light, funny, or thought-provoking content that your audience can consume on the go during their busy schedules? If so, then a podcast is ideal. If you’re providing detailed instructions and educational information that requires heightened attention, plus extra visual aids (pictures, infographics, videos, etc.), then a blog is a more apt choice.
Getting started
Your choice doesn’t have to be either-or. You can also choose to have both a podcast and a blog.
In fact, you can cross-pollinate your marketing efforts across all your marketing channels (blog, podcast, social media, website, etc.) to bring in new fans and customers from each channel. Just be aware of the investment of time, money, and resources required to blog and podcast well.
Regardless of which medium you choose, the right website platform can be critically important to your success. WordPress.com has powerful tools for both blogging and podcasting built into its plugin-enabled plans, as well as advanced plugins for paid accounts. And yes, you can also have a podcast and blog on the same WordPress.com website.
To see how you can upload and distribute your podcasts, read this article on podcasting on WordPress.com. To find out how to create your own WordPress.com blog in just a few minutes, click here.
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