Podcast or Webinar: Choose the Format that works best for your business

Podcast or Webinar

What is a Podcast or a Webinar?

At a time when digital content has gained more prominence, it is essential to capitalize on them as soon as possible. However, when we analyse the different types of content relevant to  date some questions arise that need to be clarified, namely: what will be most beneficial – creating a podcast or a webinar to present your brand or product to potential customers and interested parties? The truth is that both can help your business achieve its goals and attract new consumers.

But between the two, what is the format that can really help communicate the message in the best way? The similarities between a Webinar and Podcast are several. However, there are types of content that fulfill totally different functions and, therefore, it is crucial that before making the final decision, several relevant issues should be considered.

Before proceeding to choose the most suitable format for your organization’s goals, it is important to demystify these concepts and its vantages/ disadvantages for those who will implement them.

What is a Podcast?

Podcasts are a type of content that has been gaining prestige, even before the start of the pandemic. More and more, it’s been companies that are investing in this tool because, in addition to being practical, it is also relatively simple to create and has a positive impact on its listeners. In Portugal more than 2.2 million people listen to podcasts regularly. This is due, above all, to the possibility of being able to be heard anywhere, depending on the availability and willingness of each one. They are only in audio format, recorded before the broadcast, so that listeners have access whenever they wish. These files should be relatively small – we recommend between 5 to 15 minutes. In this sense, companies should even consider betting on this type of content, since it is yet another innovative way to reach their target audience.

Benefits

  • Interest: in Portugal more than 2.2 million people listen to podcasts regularly and this number only tends to increase;
  • Without physical and temporal barriers: as previously mentioned, to listen to a podcast it is not necessary to be in a certain place at a certain time. This freedom is undoubtedly one of the podcasts’ strongest points;
  • Timeless: a podcast does not end the moment it is released; it remains to be heard over time. This allows for constant lead generation;
  • Equipment: a podcast does not need technologically advanced and sophisticated equipment. The basic equipment needed is a microphone and a recording program to build your podcast;

Disadvantages

  • Target: unlike webinars, podcasts are unable to specifically target the audience;
  • Audience attention: the lack of interaction between host and audience, the lack of captivating visual elements and the fact that the audience is free to do other tasks while listening to the podcast can contribute to less attention to the content – making it less effective.

What is a Webinar?

Along with podcasts, webinars have also seen a huge increase in terms of creation and use. They are also known as web seminars or webcasts and are conducted online, and usually include audio presentation as well as a visual one (a PowerPoint presentation or a product demo, for example).

Participants, in turn, can follow the event in real time and ask their questions or can download the session later. These are currently a great platform to generate leads and captivate potential costumers and can also be reused for other content such as e-books, related articles on blogs and posts for companies’ social networks. A webinar usually lasts 45 minutes and allows an additional 15 minutes for questions and answers.

On the other hand, in view of the pandemic scenario, this initiative made it possible to avoid the cancellation of events, thus moving them to the digital panorama, allowing many companies to maintain the date and time that were already foreseen, changing only the format in which the presentation would occur.

Advantages

  • Ease of recalling touched points: as the content s visual it ends up being fresher in people’s memory;
  • Real-time interaction: Through Q&A for voluntary participation by participants, the webinar offers real-time interaction between audience and host;
  • Organization: webinars are very simple and can be pre-recorded and launched on a specific day and time. This allows for much simpler and more practical planning and organization for those who create them;
  • Participants: on average, a Webinar can retain 40 to 50% of subscribers. It is a good value that tends to grow depending on the current topic.

Disadvantages

  • Preparation: although they are simple to plan and organize, the preparation of all the material that will be exposed can be time consuming;
  • Little time flexibility: when it is a live webinar, people cannot move on to the topic they really wanted to see, and this can lead to their withdrawal.

After understanding the concept of each platform, it is important to understand how we can use each tool to choose the one that best fits your goals.

You can use podcasts to:

  • Have a panel of different guests in each episode to discuss various topics relevant to your organization;
  • Have one-on-one interviews with different guests. This model is a good way to attract interviewees ‘fans’ to your podcast;
  • Have a solo program where you share your vision, opinion or experiences with as important current topic or products;
  • Create a story, through storytelling. Guide listeners through a narrative, real or fictional and use each episode to add different parts of it.

And the webinar? You can use it to:

  • Give a proof of concept of your product or service remotely;
  • Interact directly with participants, helping them with their needs;
  • Make the organization known, inviting experts on an interesting and relevant topic for the webinar;
  • Generate leads. Webinars that focus on topics relevant to the business have the capacity to generate between 500 to 1000 leads.

Identify the organization’s specific needs

After clarifying each of the concepts and understanding how they can be used, it is time to analyse which is the best choice for the organization and which way we want to go when investing in one of these tools. In this sense, in a first phase, it is important to analyse what are the real needs of the organization. That is, why do we want to create these types of content and what do we really want to achieve with it? What audience do we want to reach? In fact, it is essential that this analysis be developed, since it allows us to begin to outline what will be the ideal path for the communication of the organization.

If we go first to the creation of the content without thinking about what really makes sense for the organization, we may be betting on a format that is not ideal and, consequently, will not reach the goals we have established.

That said, there are several types of content that exist, as well as formats, but not all are the most suitable for a communication strategy. Thus, the first step to be taken is to understand and determine what the objective is with the creation of this type of content, regardless of the format that mat be decided.

Identify the theme

The time has come when it is essential to define what subject we want to communicate, as the decision on which platform we should use depends on the message we want to spread. Will our audience need visual support to understand the topic of the message? If so and if what you are going to communicate is complex information, which needs good visuals to be understood or if you want to present a new product, then the webinar is the best option, as it can help to better clarify the message you want to convey.

If you don’t need any visual support and the message to send is simple, the podcast may be the right choice. Its biggest advantage is the lack of restriction to the place to listen, that is, a podcast can be heard anywhere while doing other tasks. This can bring another problem such as the lack of attention on the part o the listener, but even so, it is one of the most attractive points for those looking for it.

Metrics for evaluating the success of the platform

Metrics for post-launch analysis of a podcast or webinar vary. Most webinars ask the audience to fill out a form with certain personal details when registering. With this data it is very easy to analyse who this audience is and build approaches to make them costumers later. Unlike podcast, who need to ask the audience to provide this data to understand who their listeners are.

Regardless of the format chosen, content is the highest priority. Given this context, it is essential that the message is well delineated, as well as its presentation since the way you tell your story is as important as the platform on which it is shared.

To learn more about podcast, see our Podcasts Guidebook, which is a part of the BloomCast Content Series. It is a document developed by BloomCast Consulting with the aim of providing useful and easily actionable information to define the communication line that should be used in creating podcasts. In it you can find the best practices for creating a podcast as well as some statistics and facts relevant to the format.

Looking for more information to create amazing webinars or podcasts? Contact us! And find out how we can help innovate your communication.