The blog post is to content marketing what the classic Navy Peacoat is to a winter wardrobe. It’s almost always appropriate, dresses up or down with ease, and stands the test of time. It works for tall people or short people, and if you take good care of it, it will serve you well for years.
“No one will suspect that I’m actually a stack of six koalas and a mask.”
That’s not to say that video content is a fad. Videos are here to stay too, and they’re great in numerous applications. But when it comes to content marketing, you’re going to get a faster, longer-lasting return on investment with blog posts when compared to videos. Here’s why.
1. Either Way, You’re Hiring a Writer
Unless you have someone on your staff who is willing to take on the extra work and commitment of writing regular blog posts, and who can do it well, you’re going to be hiring a writer, probably through a blog writing service or a freelancing site. If you’re making a video, you’re going to be hiring a writer too. The script for a video that’s going to have a strong ROI isn’t something that can just be slapped together.
The difference is, with a video, you’ll also need to acquire camera and lighting equipment, determine the best location to shoot (and reserve the space if necessary), hire a videographer, and engage post-production workers. With blog posts, the path can be as simple as writer to editor to blog. Boom, you’re done.
2. Blog Posts Age Better Than Video
We’ve all gone on YouTube to look at “ancient” videos from the 1990s, 1980s, and earlier. Maybe it’s to relive a program or commercial we remember from growing up, or maybe we simply want to make fun of the hair and fashions. We think we can make videos that stand outside of time, but no matter how hard we try, they’re going to look dated in a few years.
By contrast, you can go back and read a newspaper article by a respected journalist from decades ago without the same sense of, “Why did we think shoulder pads were a good idea?” Sure, blog posts are often topical, but as long as your writer avoids peppering them with that moment’s most annoying slang terms, they will age gracefully and continue to inform people as long as people care about the topic.
3. Blog Posts Are More Easily Searchable
Suppose you want the answer to some obscure question, like, “How do the lyrics to the second verse of ‘Danny Boy’ go?” Are you going to watch a video and listen through till the second verse, then write them down? Maybe, but more likely you’re going to find the lyrics in text form where you can simply copy and paste them.
Likewise, if you can’t remember whether a recipe calls for heavy cream or half-and-half, you’re not going to watch a half-hour cooking video to find out. You’re going to go to a recipe blog and then use ctrl-F to search for “cream” because it will only take a second or two. When people are in a hurry to find out information (and face it: they almost always are), searching a blog post is faster than searching for the exact moment in a video that contains the same information.
4. Making a Top Quality Video Is Harder Than You Think
“I hope I don’t drop it this time.”
Indeed, everyone has access to video cameras in some form or other, and everyone is used to either taking video or being recorded. And uploading video is a piece of cake. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to create a professional quality video. Trying to DIY video content is usually a bad idea, because it’s probably going to be lit wrong, edited clumsily, and will have the general “found footage” feel of The Blair Witch Project. You need good equipment – which, granted, is more reasonably priced than it used to be – as well as a good script, and polished, articulate people to deliver it.
Furthermore, post-production isn’t nearly as simple as stringing together phone clips of your cat into a comprehensive video. In other words, when video isn’t done with absolute professionalism end-to-end, the result can be dismal. This is not to say blogging shouldn’t be done with absolute professionalism end-to-end. It absolutely should be. But the “ends” are closer together with blogging than they are with video production.
5. You Can’t Beat Blog Posts for Cost-Effectiveness
A couple of minutes of video cost more than people think it will. Even a short DIY video can cost $1,000 to make, and that’s if you’re willing to DIY the storyboard, script, lighting, recording, and editing.
By contrast, you can spend well under $100 and get a top quality blog post written and edited by professionals, complete with images and relevant links, and in many cases you can have the finished product posted right to your blog and promoted as part of the service. Turnaround time is quicker, and high-quality blog posts stand up splendidly over time.
Let us prove it to you. Just create an account to get three free content ideas, fleshed out, with potential references and recommended keywords. Blog posts are what we do, and it’s our job to make your blog the go-to destination for building your brand and making you stand apart from your competition.