For the Stephanie Kase brand, we currently offer a podcast and a YouTube channel. After running both together for a few months now, I thought it would be a great time to break down the differences between the two and why we have both. I’m also going to share our strategy and the reason that we offer both for our audiences. So, let’s talk about a podcast vs. YouTube and why we have both!

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!

Our History with the podcast and YouTube Channel

We had the YouTube channel first and that started back in 2018. It’s insane to think that we’re coming up on our 5^th year with it now. That channel is pretty well established, and we had about 50,000 subscribers before we started the podcast. Around the time I was preparing for the twins to arrive, I began thinking about starting a podcast. But the girls arrived early and my plans got a bit delayed while we cared for them in the NICU. We wound up starting the podcast in July 2022 – just last year.

Up until that point, my YouTube channel featured my long-form content each week and it helped me establish my place as a social media and business educator. The YouTube channel helped me reach people outside my audience and I really saw a lot of growth in the fall of 2021. Around then, I was really trying to figure out what my business was going to look like because I stopped taking photography clients.

But, I was building an audience who was excited about what I was doing. And I realized that I wanted to connect with them more, which is why I wanted to start a podcast. I wanted a chance to talk with them about general business education and go deeper with them. I knew from the get-go that this wasn’t going to be a strong email list builder or anything for me but it was really about the connection and serving the people who are within our community already. So, that was my strategy going into it.

Separate Channels, Separate Content

For the rest of 2022 and most of 2023 so far, our podcast and YouTube episodes were pretty separate. We didn’t overlap content – except for the holidays. Then in July and August, we’ve decided to test out how it goes to record video episodes from the podcasts – so the content is the same. We do one separate video for YouTube each month – maybe a visual tutorial or something similar, and one separate podcast episode – which is a great time to bring on guests.

I do want to mention that to get these episodes out each week, I do rely on y team on the backend. I’m not doing this all myself. My main role is to come up with and record the episode ideas. I use my Content Calendar to plan out the videos and episodes as well as the outlines and then our team uses our Trello boards to collaborate on the rest of the steps.

Why Did We Merge the Content?

When we started using both the podcast and the YouTube channel, YouTube was doing a great job of reaching a cold audience to help us build more. The podcast was also doing a great job – not as many viewers or listeners as our YouTube channel, but it was helpful for nurturing our audience. But, we decided to merge the content to see if it would work. So far, it seems to be.

The first thing that sparked this idea was that I began to break down the time I was spending on the business. I wrote down everything I do, and literally tracked the time using Toggle. You can see what you spend your time doing every day.  I found I was doing A LOT for two different pieces of content – different outlines, filing separately, all of that. And I realized I’d rather put more effort into one great outline every week than split my time and attention between two different ones. At that point, I also wanted our YouTube channel to pivot more to general business topics – not just social media education.

I also began to realize that I wanted my YouTube audience to have more of what my podcast has, too. I wanted to create more of a community where people felt connected to me. So, why wouldn’t I put what I was already doing in video format?  I know the community won’t be the same as the podcast – I get people DMing me and giving me feedback that I don’t get there, but it was important for me to build that community and expand our topics. Combining the topics had a few purpose, but ultimately it feels more sustainable for me, too.

My Tips for Starting a Podcast vs. YouTube Channel

With all of that in mind, I wanted to share some thoughts if you’re thinking about starting a podcast or YouTube channel. Let’s start with YouTube. YouTube and podcasts are both great options for long-form content. They’re both evergreen, meaning they’ll last for a long time and people can find them then binge more of your episodes. But, they serve different purposes.

When To Use YouTube

YouTube does a great job of reaching a cold audience (people who don’t know who you are). It’s also a search engine owned by Google, which means that you have a chance to be found there, too. YouTube content is very search driven, which means people can find you just by the terms you use. Using YouTube helps us gain over 4500 email subscribers a month and it’s a very strategic way to build our email list. Between our YouTube channel and blog, we get most of our traffic from Google!

When to Start a Podcast

If you do a podcast, I highly recommend blogging. Otherwise, it doesn’t feel worth it unless you have a really big audience. Podcasting is a way to serve your audience really well but unless you’re very strategic or constantly using guests, it’s going to be hard to get into a new audience with that. Podcasting is definitely about connecting with your current audience. I’ve heard of other podcasters, like Jasmine Star, who shared how hard they worked to reach a cold audience with their podcast and they just couldn’t do it. So, that was something that worried me and it’s why I’ve just looked at as a great community builder. A podcast is also easier – you just a need a good mic. It doesn’t matter how you setup or what you look like.

Basically, if you need to build a new side of your business, scale your products or marketing or get in front of new people, YouTube is the way to go.  There’s so may great ways to show up on YouTube, even with half a year left. It can definitely change your business with the right strategy and focus! I hope this helps you break down starting a podcast vs. YouTube channel for your business, too.

Other Resources

If you’re interested in my strategy around YouTube videos – more information about picking topics, filming and more – make sure to check out My Formula to Making Money on YouTube. This freebie will help you understand how I’m turning these videos into money in the bank! 

Listening to the podcast? If you have ideas about what to talk about next, please send in your requests! I really do want to know what you want to hear about in future episodes. Email me at [email protected] with your questions!! I can’t wait to hear from you!