Most people may still think that the primary reason to get into podcasting is to get enough listeners in order to monetize the show through selling advertising.
While the numbers in the infographic below indicate that serious advertising dollars are beginning to be invested into podcasting and why it’s becoming more attractive to advertisers, there is another valid idea to consider when deciding points to consider when deciding about your content marketing than just advertising, which will likely take time to build your audience before advertising is a significant revenue stream.
Both a podcast and/or a blog could be a part of your content marketing strategy.
I like to think of content marketing as sweat equity marketing. Unlike the financial investing in pay-per-click advertisement, online, radio, or mailers, this investment of your time is a way for businesses to create valuable and practical content that they give away through blogging, podcasting, social media, and other channels.
This does a couple of things:
1. Establishes you and your brand as a trusted authority and,
2. Gives you credibility as a thought leader on the topics you’ve worked so hard to master.
THREE questions to answer to decide between a blog or a podcast
1. Where is your audience?
How do you find out if blogging or podcasting is the right tool to reach your audience. Here are a couple of tips.
- Ask your existing customers
- Clearly identify your ideal customers and do research on their demographics
Use this info to compare the demographics of podcast listeners in the infographic below.
Also consider that Michael Wolf, chief analyst of NextMarket Insights, said that podcasting is less “crowded” channel in comparison to blogging and comes with a more “engaged” audience compared to the typical blog reader.
The trend is currently moving toward podcasting like it was with blog posts in the past becoming a practical and effective channel for content marketers with something valueable to say to their audience.
2. Do you communicate better through writing or speaking?
Play to your strengths? Are you better and more consistent as a writer? Are you a more effective communicator as a speaker? Would you benefit from the accountability you could gain by starting a podcast and having a co-host?
3. Calculating the Return on Investment
Let’s say you’re a life-coach and you know that your average customer pays $1000 in the lifecycle of doing business with you. How much would it be worth to you to acquire new customers through content marketing?
Here is something I’ve learned from starting my own podcast with my friend Josh Manning, not only are we consistently doing content marketing for each of our respective businesses, but we get meetings with people by booking them as guests that we may through more traditional approaches, have difficulty getting. Although our podcast was not created to sell our services, it has fostered relationships and that has lead to business.
Infographic by: MusicOomph.com