For most entrepreneurs, but especially service-based and ‘expert’ businesses, it is essential that you are creating free valuable content online that people can easily access. Creating high-value content should be a central part of your content strategy for a number of reasons.

 

1. It will help to position you as an authority and thought leader within your field.
2. It will help increase the ‘know, like and trust’ factor amongst your audience
3. It will act as a lead generation tool

 

Now historically a business owner would have been encourage to have a blog as a way to frequently publish high-value content. However, now you have the option of the written word (blog), the spoken word (podcast) or video (YouTube).

Often people will ask me which platform they should create content for and unless it is someone I am working with it is hard to give a quick answer because no one platform is the best (I know that is frustrating to hear). The truth is all platforms have pros and cons and below I share my thoughts and will give you some things to consider to help you choose what is right for your business.

 

BLOG

Pros:

• Blogs can be, and should be, hosted on your own website. This means you are totally in control.
• Blogs, when used correctly, can be extremely SEO friendly. This will help improve the ranking of your website and act as an organic lead generation tool for your business.
• Part of your website so no additional hosting costs

Cons:

• As the attention span of people decreases it means people are reading blogs less and less. It is likely that people will scan what you write.
• It is on your own platform, which you are responsible for driving traffic

 

PODCAST

Pros

• People can listen whilst they are doing other activities such as commuting, exercising and cleaning. This means they are likely to listen to a longer time than they would read a blog or watch a video.
• Traditionally podcasts episodes are numbered so it is easy to refer to specific episodes in other episodes as well as in talks, comments, emails etc.

Cons

• People often listen to a podcast and do something else at the same time so you don’t get their full attention.
• You will have to pay for separate hosting

 

YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Pros

• People go to YouTube specifically to get help. If you provide a solution they are likely to watch your whole video.
• Youtube is highly searchable (in fact it is the second largest search engine). Once you have posted a video it will be searchable 24/7. So you can be generating new leads whilst you sleep.
• Free to host your videos.

 

Cons

• You don’t own the platform. YouTube can change the rules whenever it wants or even cancel your account
• Creating videos can be time-consuming and/or costly

 

THINGS TO CONSIDER

When it comes to choosing the right platform you need to consider the three things: your business, your audience and your strengths/weaknesses.

Your business – What is the best way to market your services and products?

Your audience – Are they reading blogs, listening to podcast or watching videos? Are they time rich or poor? Do they prefer to learn by reading, listening or watching?

You – Are you a writer or a talker? Are you confident in front of the camera?

 

CONCLUSION

As you will have seen there are pros and cons to each platform so there is no need to worry about making the ‘right’ choice as there really isn’t one. However, by considering the pros and cons and also working your way through the things to consider, I am sure you can make an informed decision about what would be the right format for your high-value content.

If in doubt I would recommend you start with a blog and then add a podcast or YouTube channel in the future. If you are using WordPress or Squarespace it is fairly easy to start blogging without any additional equipment or editing skills required (maybe just editing your picture).

And remember it doesn’t have to be forever! If you start something and hate it you can stop and if you love one and want to build in others in the future that is also fine.

 

Did you find this post helpful? I would love to know in the comments below how you currently create high-value content or how you intend to in the future.

And if you would like 1:1 support to help you decide on your high-value platform and then create a strategic content and distribution plan then check out how you can work with me here.