Gary Vaynerchuk is going all in on audio. Or voice, depending on how you label it.
You might think that it’s a step backwards.
After all, in the early 1900s there was radio. It grew to dominate much of people’s attention. That was until TV came along.
On the surface it can seem that video is better than audio. And it certainly is in many ways. And we’re consuming more video than ever before.
But we’re also consuming more text and audio than ever before.
The thing with audio, according to Gary V., is that while consuming it you can do something else.
You can drive and listen.
You can brush your teeth and listen.
You can cook and listen.
You can’t do that while reading or watching.
I’m a believer. Just in my own life I’ve drastically increased the amount of audio I listen to in podcast form than the amount of video I’ve consumed.
And I’m not the only one.
But audio is about more than just podcasting…
Audio For Websites
Think about your business website.
Right now, and for the last 20 years, you would write content, people would visit the site and read that content.
Pretty straightforward.
I don’t think that will go anywhere.
Then a few years ago many websites started adding video. The aim was to help people better understand what the site was offering.
And that makes a lot of sense. You can usually communicate better the more senses you use and video covers more of the senses. You can show people things instead of just telling them via text.
But now think of how people live today… They’re busier than ever before. They’re multitasking all the time.
Audio on websites makes sense.
Someone might be interested in what you offer, but they may be busy and doing something else…like driving.
They can’t read your website while driving. But they can listen to an audio recording telling them about your business.
It’s not that this technology hasn’t been around. It’s been around for many years. But we’re just now getting to the point where people are comfortable with audio. That’s why podcasting is getting so popular.
And it’s why other areas of audio will likely follow the same pattern.
Do we retain 100% of the information we listen to while we’re reading?
Probably not, but we can retain enough. We can learn enough about something to determine if we should investigate more.
Audio can be the gateway to people reading more in depth or watching your video.
If you only have text and video they may never have the time to dive into it.
And I’m talking about all content on your website:
- Home page
- Services, products page
- About page
- Contact page
- Blog posts
- etc.
It all can be offered in audio form. People visit your site. They see a little “play” button. They listen then or they download it and save it for later.
Other Uses
Audio texts, voice memos, etc.
Final Thoughts
You’ve probably already started consuming more audio than ever. Just about everybody has. We’re at the point where we’re comfortable with audio. The reason is that we can do multiple things at once. That saves us time and time is the ultimate commodity.
We’re seeing it with entertainment and education, which come in the form of podcasts. We’ll see more audio text messaging with voice memos. You shouldn’t text and drive, but you can listen to a text and drive.
There’s no reason audio won’t work on your website.
