Is video content better than written content?

Everyone, and I mean everyone, is a content marketer. Someone who creates and posts information online to drive someone else to think, do or buy something. 

Content Marketing stretches from a company’s website to an individual’s FaceBook and LinkedIn page (…and Instagram and Pintrest and TicTok and SnapChat and eHarmony and YouTube and WhatsApp and WeChat and Twitter and Reddit and Quora, …). 

Everyone is trying to convince someone that they are the one to hear, see or follow. 

How do you stand out from the crowd? How do you cut through the gazillion new pieces of content everyone is uploading every day? What platform do you use? What format do you use? Video, or written content? Which is better? 

With a gazillion new pieces of content everyone is uploading every day, how do you stand out? 

Even when I take my Video Production hat off, Video is a fantastic method. People prefer to watch something over reading something. While you’re waiting for your morning coffee, you’re more likely to hear someone saying, “I saw last night that…”, rather than, “I read last night that…”. 

The why is easy…with a condition. It’s the well-structured combination of sight and sound that captivates the viewer. A good video can cross cultures. It can convey emotion without words, even explain a concept without words. But you can’t expect to achieve it by aiming any old camera-phone and hitting the record button. Let’s say you’ve nailed the quality. If it’s too long or posted with annoying click-bait, auto-ads and popups then you lose the impact and then the viewer. 

Despite this, is video now the only show in town? 

Not always. It’s horses for courses. 

A short video can’t convey the detail or complexity you need to communicate. 

If your aim is to achieve thought leadership, written content is your best approach. 

And if you want to rank online, the algorithms don’t listen to videos - yet. Algorithms read the written word. 

But this places us in a paradoxical situation. 

Video doesn’t have the power of the written word, especially if you want to become a thought leader. But people are reading less and less (…simply Google it to read more!). 

That same written word is vital in driving our new tech to make us discoverable. But it’s the same new tech that is driving down the amount we read. We’re scrolling and watching more than reading. Again, Google it to read more. 

Where will this end? 

Video is everywhere. Everyone is watching more and more of it. 

It’s great for me. It’s my life. My livelihood. My passion. 

But it’s crowding out reading. 

We can’t afford for the written word to go unread. 

It drives too much. 

It drives the new tech that is driving the uptake in video. 

It drives our position as thought leaders. 

It drives our discoverability online. 

We need to find a balance. 

Video content and written content complement each other. 

One can reinforce the other. 

Video gives the content dynamism, emotion and cuts across cultural boundaries. 

Writing gives the content depth through detail, and video content’s discoverability. 

Everyone’s a content marketer. 

Video content is the YIN to the written content’s YANG. 

They need each other.