Podcasts Aren’t Just the New Blog—They’re Better

By Mike Pastore

Right now, as you’re reading this piece, there is a team of content marketers and strategists planning a piece of content they think you’re going to love. They’re convinced this piece of content is going to send you in search of more information. Maybe you’ll even fill out a form or chat with a bot.

They’re giving it one last read in WordPress. They’re pressing Publish. They just know you’re going to love it.

And you? You’re gone. You got in the car to go home.

We all have personal preferences about the content we consume. And those preferences go beyond our basic likes and dislikes. They include where we are and which devices we’re using when we find a piece of content.

Five minutes ago, you were at your desk looking at a computer screen. That’s a great place to consume a blog post. Your mobile device usually provides a good blog post experience, too. But not in your car (because, laws), and that’s where you are.

If only those content strategists had a content format that delivered the full experience at your desk, in your car, and in your house. It could be equally effective on your PC, your phone, and on your smart speaker at home. It would allow you to consume it while you do other things because, let’s face it, most of us aren’t paid to consume content. And those of us who are paid to consume content still have other things we need to do.

Enter the podcast

If your business regularly publishes blog posts to entertain, inform, and share ideas with its audience, then investing in podcast creation is well worth the time and effort. In addition to podcasts’ portability across devices and locations, podcasts create stronger connections with audiences for a number of reasons, including:

Multitaskers love podcasts

Do you know what you call a person who says they don’t multitask? A liar. We’re all trying to do multiple things at once, and a passive content format like a podcast is more than up to the ... task (sorry).

More points of view

The vast majority of blog posts feature the thoughts of one or maybe two contributors. Podcasts provide an opportunity to bring people together, including employees, customers, and partners. Let’s hear those good ideas and strongly held opinions.

Authentic conversations

What’s missing from too many of the content pieces created by marketing organizations today is authenticity. When you put people on a podcast and get them talking, there’s no telling where it’s going to go. That might scare some marketing leaders, but audiences crave authenticity.

I recently recorded a podcast with a marketer who wrote children’s books to help kids overcome the social anxiety that he struggled with as a child. When the episode was running long, that was the natural place to cut it. I didn’t. It was just too authentic.

More articles from AllBusiness.com:

• 10 Things You Need to Know About Social Media Marketing Right Now
• How to Produce a Podcast: Fundamentals of Developing and Launching Your Own Successful Show
• How to Use Thought Leadership Content to Grow Your Business
• 10 Business Podcasts Every Entrepreneur Should Be Tuning In To
• 6 Tips for Creating Social Media Videos That People Can’t Help But Click On

Don’t scrap the blog just yet

Before you go and delete your blog in favor of podcasts, let’s take a minute to recognize the two formats are better together. Remember, you want variety in your content formats to help reach your audience on their terms. But it’s a good idea to put podcasts first and foremost in your content strategy and build off the audio piece.

Leading your content strategy with a podcast doesn’t mean putting yourself out of the blog business. You can create blog posts from your podcast content. For example, each of my podcast episodes has a blog post with a short description, an episode guide, and an embedded player.

Blogs still have tremendous SEO value, but they present fewer opportunities to create content in other formats. Ideas presented on your podcast can generate future episodes or other content types. Your podcast is a great place to find soundbites and snippets to share on social media, for example.

There are fewer barriers to entry to podcasting than ever before. Quality microphones are relatively affordable. Audio editing software is sometimes included on your device. If it’s not, open source audio editor Audacity will fit your needs. With hybrid work environments here to stay at many companies, finding a quiet place—either at home or in the office—is easier than ever.

Meet your audience on their terms

Today’s audiences have more content to choose from than ever before. When you limit your content to formats that struggle to provide a quality experience in certain places or on certain devices, you make it easy for people to bypass your content and choose to engage with someone else’s message.

Businesses need to think about how they are going to meet their audience on their terms, and podcasts are an easy, effective way to do just that.

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