Content marketers face a perilous task: reaching more people, more often, on more platforms than ever before. What began with a frenzy of blog content moved into social media and beyond, and many marketing teams kept their strategies siloed, with unrelated posts flowing into each channel. As demand continued to build, many content marketers focused on quantity to keep up with search engine algorithms, leaving behind the needs and desires of their audience.

To address those issues and align teams, marketing leaders are going to shift over the next year, embracing the chance to be the connective tissue between brand and audience. But to make those connections, marketers must renew their focus on the audience. That focus will lead to richer, more relevant, creative content, but not at the breakneck pace that’s characterized the last 15 years of content marketing. A move to higher-quality work amplified across channels will present a real return on effort.

Marketing Technology News: MarTech Interview with Francis McMahon, EVP, Canon Solutions America

Many marketers found that value in podcasts. Businesses leveraged the power of great conversations with experts as a way to build out an amplified marketing strategy, using those conversations to create content on every platform., with podcast transcripts as the basis for a series of blog posts or newsletters, and audio clips of the best moments used as dynamic social media and email campaigns. Adopting an approach that amplified a single piece of stellar content gave time back to marketers and served the audience with valuable, engaging information.

Podcasts are growing — so is video

But the world of marketing doesn’t stand still, and the demand for video is growing. What does that mean for the future of podcasts? Should you abandon them in pursuit of success with video? According to Gartner, streaming rates have gone up for both audio and video during the pandemic. Your audience wants options — why not give them what they want? That’s where video podcasting comes in.

Video has the power to establish trust and closeness between your business and its audience. It puts a human face to your marketing in the same way that podcasts added an authentic voice to your content. Video carries the same intimacy and human connection that podcasts bring to so many listeners’ lives, with the added advantage of increasing the impact and reach of that content. While video is effective, its production can be time-consuming, requiring a new suite of tools and leaving marketers in the uncomfortable position of sacrificing quality for quantity. When you make videos, you probably upload them to YouTube, but that’s where the video process ends, leaving a wealth of content untapped.

Adding video increases the reach of your content

Video podcasting offers a single solution to generating written, audio and video content, sharing a unified message and reaching more people where they already prefer to get their information. Blogs helped reach your audience where they read. Podcasts reach them where they listen. You probably have some video content, but it’s laborious to produce, so it’s not as frequent as you’d like. Incorporating video into your podcasts can work for your team by providing the same great content — expert interviews on topics that speak to your audience — but offering more flexibility on how to consume that content. That flexibility gives your audience the agency to choose when they want to listen or watch. Stretching the same quality content across video and audio platforms makes your message more searchable in more places, prioritizing the needs of your audience.

The benefits aren’t just for the audience, though. Content marketers can use video podcasting at the center of their amplified marketing strategy. Housing the material for your content in one place makes it easier to keep the whole marketing team on the same page, repurpose content across platforms and measure the reach of your work. A strategy focused on audio and video is the most efficient way for content marketers to reimagine their role — from constant content creation to innovative, creative content. They can spend their time developing a relationship with their audience, not churning out posts hoping that something catches someone’s attention.

Quality is still key

Start by having a great video conversation about something that excites your audience, with someone who has the knowledge and perspective you’re seeking. That video is the starting point for a podcast episode and shorter video and audio clips. You can use the clips in social media and email campaigns and craft blog posts from the video transcript, highlighting the best nuggets. A focus on video podcasting takes the frustration out of creating video because you begin with a wealth of content. Add to that a system that tracks all aspects of your marketing, and you can easily repurpose one conversation into a dozen shorter videos that offer insights to your audience and invite them to watch more, listen more and read more. Think of this amplified marketing approach as an ecosystem, where each element fits into the other, feeding a variety of content streams.

Podcasts aren’t going away — listeners are at an all-time high — but the future of podcasting is shifting. Sometimes audio is better without video. But other times, it’s nice to have both. Adding video to your podcast ensures everyone gets what they want, and marketers can focus on quality.

Marketing Technology News: MarTech Interview with Melton Littlepage, Chief Marketing Officer at Outreach