Should You Start a Blog or YouTube Channel for Your Small Business?

Blog vs. YouTube – which is best? The guide below breaks down all the pros, cons, and considerations you need to know.

A great content marketing plan can include all kinds of different content. Two of the biggest types are blog posts and YouTube videos.

Both types of content are great at growing your brand and reaching new customers. Yet, both types of content require a lot of time and effort. As a small business, you don’t always have the energy to invest in both areas.

So, blog vs. YouTube channel – which one is best for your business?

We’ll break this down in our guide below by comparing the pros and cons of each platform. We’ll also cover what kind of businesses each type of content is best suited for.

Should You Start a Blog or YouTube Channel: Short Answer

Blog vs. YouTube channel – which one is best?

Unfortunately, there’s no clear answer here.

Choose to focus on a blog if you want to enhance your SEO and send more organic traffic to your website. There are many other advantages to blogging, but this is the main one.

Choose to focus on YouTube if you want to create engaging video content for your niche. YouTube could help you reach a massive audience of potential customers if you create good videos.

The best option depends on your customer journey and what kind of content you’re better at creating.

Whether it’s a video or a blog post, your goal is to create content that offers the most value to your audience. This will end up being the most effective for your brand.

Why Start a Blog for Your Business?

Loads of businesses have blogs for many great reasons.

Trying to decide whether blogging vs. YouTube should take up more of your time? Here are some reasons why starting a blog is a good idea.

1. Blogs Improve Your SEO

The main reason why businesses choose to run a blog is to send more traffic to their website.

Blogs are amazing for increasing your SEO potential. When properly optimized, they make your business a lot more visible.

Not only this, but you can use your blog to attract highly targeted traffic. This means more people visit your website with the potential to become customers. You can do this by targeting each blog post with a specific target keyword.

You can also publish blog content that covers the different stages of the buyers’ journey.

This helps you provide content that matches your prospect’s questions and interests at each stage. Getting this right improves the customer journey.

Most people go straight to Google for any questions they have. You can get your brand at the top of all the relevant search results by utilizing SEO best practices. This can have a major benefit for your business.

2. You Enjoy Writing

When comparing blogging vs. YouTube, you have to know whether you can create good blog content. Your blog will only be worthwhile if your content is of high quality.

To do this, you need to be able to write informative, valuable blog posts.

You can always hire copywriters to create blog content for you, so this doesn’t have to be a major deciding factor. But, ensure you’re prepared to consistently create high-quality blog content. This is necessary for blogging success.

3. You Want to Achieve a Great ROI

Starting a blog doesn’t have to cost you anything. In fact, you can start blogging for free from your website right now.

If you use YouTube, you’ll need to invest in things like a camera, editing software, lights, and more. But with a blog, all you have to do is spend time creating and publishing blog posts.

Sure, this takes time and effort. You may want to invest money into things like SEO software or a content writer. Still, running a blog is generally much cheaper than starting a YouTube channel.

And if you win at SEO, this means you can attract a lot of high-value traffic to your site without spending a cent. Now that’s a pretty impressive ROI.

4. You Want More Control Over Your Content

One of the great things about starting a blog is that you own the content. It’s on your website, and you can control exactly what happens to it.

If you rely on YouTube, then you have to do whatever YouTube decides to do with its platform. This could result in less control over your content.

5. Blogs are More Versatile

Starting a blog is a far more versatile solution than starting a YouTube channel. You can do a lot with blog content beyond long-form articles. This includes publishing images and infographics, videos, short articles, long-form content, and more.

With YouTube videos, you only have one content format – video.

This could be restricting, as people need to be in the right environment to watch video content.

There are also loads of different types of content your blog can publish. This could include educational guides, entertaining articles, how-tos, informative articles, and more.

With YouTube, many people only use the channel for entertainment.

6. It’s an Easier Fit into Buying Journeys

Sure, everyone watches YouTube videos. But, not everyone will access YouTube videos in the buying journey.

The buying journey will look different depending on your target audience. Yet, it’s generally easier to incorporate blog content into this journey.

7. Blogs are Easier to Create

There is a lot of skill involved in creating great blog content. But, publishing something on your blog takes less technical knowledge than creating a video.

Blog content is also more accessible for different types of businesses.

Not every business can find the right YouTube video ideas. And if you work remotely or have a dispersed team, it may be difficult to film quality content.

With a blog, you can create and publish content no matter where you are and what you do. It’s a far more efficient way for any kind of business to access content marketing.

Why Start a YouTube Channel?

There are many benefits to starting a blog. But, with over 2 billion global users, YouTube is a massive platform that offers loads of potential for growing your brand.

Here are some of the main reasons why starting a YouTube channel is a good idea.

1. Video is King

Video content has taken over the internet, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

People are more likely to engage with video content than with written content. Videos are also more shareable on social media. This makes video a powerful tool for building your brand.

86% of marketing professionals report using video as a marketing tool. 78% of these marketers feel the video has helped them directly increase sales.

Clearly, video is worth the investment.

2. Reach a Wider Audience

YouTube has over 2 billion monthly active users. It’s the second-largest search engine after Google.

Creating a YouTube channel gives you access to this massive audience. So, there’s a lot of room to reach people who may not have found you otherwise. With the right content and optimization, you can reach a massive audience.

There are also loads of different niches on YouTube. Any business can find a relevant niche for their videos and access their target audience.

3. Creates a Personal Connection

Video creates a personal connection with your audience in a way that written content does not.

You can build trust and credibility much faster by showing your face and personality. This personal connection can be invaluable for building a loyal following and growing your brand.

If you want to promote the people or services behind your business, then starting a YouTube channel is one of the best solutions.

4. Show Off Your Products or Services

Video is an excellent way to showcase your products or services in action.

You could demonstrate how to use your product or show off its features. Whatever the case, video allows you to give your audience a more immersive experience. This can help you build trust with potential customers and increase sales.

Sure, you can write about your products on a blog and add images. But product videos are a lot more compelling and engaging.

5. Monetization Opportunities

YouTube offers several ways to monetize your channel. This includes ads, sponsorships, and merchandise sales.

While it’s not easy to make a full-time income from YouTube alone, it can be a great source of extra income for your small business.

6. It’s Also Good For SEO

Google owns YouTube, and YouTube videos appear in Google search results. This means well-optimized videos can still help you boost your organic search traffic.

In fact, 86% of marketers have said that video has helped them increase website traffic. So, blog content alone isn’t everything for a great SEO strategy.

7. Learn About Your Audience

YouTube provides valuable insights into your audience, including demographics, interests, and behavior.

By analyzing this data, you can better understand your audience and create content that resonates with them. This can help you grow your channel and your business faster.

8. It’s Fun

Creating a YouTube channel can be a lot of fun!

It’s a creative outlet where you can express yourself and share your passion with the world.

Blogging doesn’t give you as much room to be entertaining and share your personality. YouTube videos are ideal for this.

So if your brand wants to show off its fun side, choosing to focus on a YouTube channel can be a smart bet.

Blog vs. YouTube Channel: Which One is Best?

Now that we’ve discussed the main benefits of each platform, it’s time to determine which would be best for your business.

Both platforms have their advantages. Here are some key factors to consider when deciding which one is best for your small business.

Who is Your Target Audience?

Focusing on a marketing channel only makes sense if it aligns with your target audience and their online behavior.

Before choosing between a blog or YouTube channel, make sure that you know which one your target audience would prefer.

You can follow our detailed guide to understanding your target audience for more insights on this.

What Does Your Marketing Journey Look Like?

Understand where your video or blog content will fit into your customer journey to know which will be more relevant.

For example, blog posts are ideal top-of-funnel forms of content. They’re great for generating interest and discoverability.

Videos can be powerful when embedded on a landing page to build trust. They’re also great for offering deeper insights to your existing customers or leads.

Understand how and when consumers will engage with your content. Then figure out which format makes the most sense for the journey customers take.

What Are Your Marketing Goals?

Of course, you have to know what you want to achieve with your content. Establish clear marketing goals, then choose a content format that best aligns with these goals.

Want to sell products? YouTube might be best. Want to generate more traffic to your website? A blog might be best.

Remember the end goal, then establish which tactics help you achieve that most effectively.

Can You Create Quality Content?

The best content format for your business is the one that lets you create the best quality content. This will engage your audience better and help you achieve better results.

Don’t focus on a channel if you don’t have the skills or resources to consistently produce high-quality content.

Focus On Both Platforms Through Content Repurposing

Of course, you don’t only have to choose one platform.

If you create both a blog and YouTube videos, you’ll be able to access a much larger audience and gain better growth opportunities. There’s always the option of focusing on both.

If you’re strapped for time, repurposing your blog content into a YouTube video script is a good strategy.

For example, here’s a blog post we published:

And here’s a YouTube video we created on the same topic:

Repurposing content like this is a smart way to make the most of both platforms without putting in extra time and effort. If you already have a solid content output on one platform, consider repurposing it to help you reach even more people.

Conclusion

Whether you start a blog or a YouTube channel for your small business depends on your goals, your audience, and the type of content you want to create.

If you’re looking to create content that’s easily searchable on Google, a blog may be the best option.

If you want to create highly engaging, entertaining, or inspiring video content, start a YouTube channel.

Ultimately, deciding which platform is best for your small business depends on what your audience will engage best with. Why not try out both platforms and see which generates the best results?

Want help creating a content marketing strategy for your business? Get in touch with our marketing experts, and we can help set you up with the marketing tools and expertise you need to reach more customers.