YouTube vs Blogs
Every business owner wants their digital marketing to maximise growth with minimum effort. But not every business owner knows the best way to target their audience.
When it comes to publishing content, some industries may specifically prefer a visual rather than written approach, arguing that ‘video is the way of the future’. While others would rather write their own article and publish it on their own terms, valuing the fact that it cannot be removed or altered by a third party such as Google or Youtube.
As a business owner, when it comes to choosing an approach, it’s best to find where your customers are and how they would better receive your information. Once you’ve figured out what is best for your product/service and consumer, it’s time to analyse the effectiveness and profitability of your approach.
Let’s talk through the benefits of YouTube and blogs.
The main difference between vlogging and blogging is the fact that blogs are posted to your own domain (website), while videos are uploaded to and hosted by a streaming platform like YouTube.
A clear benefit of blogs is that you can obtain organic traffic to your site with written content on a regular basis. You also have the ability to access and edit your articles at any point to keep them timely and relevant. In comparison, once a video is recorded and posted, it cannot be edited, and will remain there and unchanged unless you take it down and start from scratch.
Since it launched in 2005, YouTube has grown to have 2 billion monthly users. It is particularly relevant in an increasingly technological age, where communication largely takes place through screens. Posting videos to YouTube can certainly lead to a great deal of exposure. If your offering is unique, and you utilise keywords and algorithms, it is possible to rise in the viewing ranks and be viewed enmasse. In contrast, your own website is unlikely to be as highly ranked on Google as YouTube, so self-published content may take some time to reach your target audience. But even though ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’, it certainly did not devalue the written word, and you shouldn’t discount blogging based on YouTube’s popularity.
The first step in choosing which approach is best for you using SEO research. This will show you what your competitors and similar businesses are doing. If you notice that there are many YouTube creators or an established channel dedicated to the same sort of ideas that you have for your business, then it will be difficult to compete. Similarly, if you notice that there is an exceptional number of articles written on the topics and issues that you plan to write on, it might be a good idea to take another approach or at least consider running videos together with these articles. This is especially true if you aren’t highly ranked on Google.
Once you’ve figured out what your competitors are doing, it’s time to tap into your target market. Most brands like cosmetics, clothing, food and beverages (FAB) are likely to benefit more from YouTube and video logs due to the visual appeal needed to entice customers. Other industries, such as professional services, health organisations and government industries may benefit more from written content, as factual information can be read through and analysed by your audience. Knowing that SEO runs in accordance with a ranking system, it may be worth taking a different approach and branching out to a different source to rank higher than your competitors.
Once you’ve decided whether YouTube or blogs (or maybe you’re going to pursue both) are a better fit for your businesses marketing strategy, it’s time to review how you’re tracking and ensuring that you are in fact, utilising the right resources. Google Analytics can clearly show you the organic traffic to your site, how many viewers are reading your blogs, and in what way they are finding them. YouTube also provides analytics, progress charts on your ranking and grading, as well as your reach and audience data. With each decision, you can easily and confidently decide which platform is working more successfully for your business.
There is no right or wrong answer for which approach will work best – it really depends on your niche, target market and competitors.
YouTube and blogs can potentially work alongside each other to ‘cover-all-bases’, to grow your website traffic or to grow your business through streaming platforms.
Whatever decision you make for your business will inevitably be a step in the right direction.
