Does Your Podcast NEED Video?
Listen to the full episode here:Internet marketers have a new crush on video and many podcasters are starting to feel pressured to create video content. But do you really needto add video?
Start with audio
It's both my recommendation and my assumption for the rest of this episode that you startyour podcast with only audio. Listen to my past episode, “Should Your Podcast be Audio, or Video?” to learn more about why I recommend this.
In other words, consider video only as something in additionto audio you already publish.
Think real video first, fake video last
“Fake video” is when the “video” is really only audio. It might have a static image or even an animated waveform or embedded captions, but it's still only audio. I've done a previous episode about the problems with fake video, and I plan to create a follow-up at some point.
Consider, for example, that even though YouTube has a (fake) “podcasts” section, you still can't upload an audio file or submit your podcast RSS feed (regardless of media format).
All the positive metrics are many times higher for real video than for fake video. Even in some misreported studies, surveyed people confirmed that they prefer to watchvideos instead of listening to videos.
Thus, please consider all of the following through the premise of producing realvideo.
Video costs more
It takes more time to prepare, more expensive gear, and more time and resources to produce even halfway decent video. With audio-only, you need only a microphone, a way to record it, and a quiet space. With video, you need that plusa camera and lighting. Also, you might need a completely different microphone that works better for video, and a completely different editing app for editing the video. Then, you need extra stuff to make the video actually interestingand worth watchinginstead of merely hearing.
After that, hosting the video costs more.Someonehas to pay for that bandwidth! So either you pay for it with money, or you and your audience pay for it with ads.
Consuming video also costs more. People can't watch videos in as many places as they can listen to audio. Consider driving, mowing the yard, operating heavy machinery, working a job, and more. Audio can be easily consumed in all these places, but video can't or shouldn't be. I actually recently got some IPX7 waterproof earbuds so I can listen to podcasts in the shower—but there's no way I'm putting my iPhone or iPad in the shower to watcha podcast through shampoo in my eyes!
Video canactually be “lazy” in a good way
While high-qualityvideo requires a good microphone, good lighting, and a good camera, I've observed that people are much more forgiving of some lower-quality production in video.
For example, look how many people simply record with their smartphone in selfie mode and how few people complain about the non-studio sound or look.
But this comes with a huge caveat! Listen to my recent episode debunking the myth “It's not hurting their podcast!” Just because it's workingdoesn't mean it should go without improvement! Consider if those selfie-style videos actually used a better microphone. Wouldn't you appreciate being able to hear the person better?
Nonetheless, I think some of the forgiveness for sub-par quality is because video gives far more context to communicate the message: facial expressions, body language, imagery, lower thirds and other enhancements, and even simply seeingthe words spoken instead of only hearing them.
So please don't think that adding video to your workflow means going all-out on a video studio! It couldsimply be selfie-style video from your smartphone (just pleasedon't let the video record horizontally flipped backward!)
Video can be in more places
While the podcast ecosystem is mostlyaudio (although video podcasts have existed from the beginning and were actually quite popular before YouTube), publishing video offers even moreopportunities to get your message out.
Just like audio podcasting allows your content to be places written content can't be, video allows your content to be places that audio can't be (or doesn't work well), like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and more.
Video also tends to be more shareable. I think a huge part of this is because of how easy social networks actually make it to share videos. For example, dropping a YouTube link on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mastodon, and other places will automatically display a preview and even embed the video so it can be played right therewithout leaving whatever context the audience is in at that moment. But the same platforms have not made it so easy for audio. So the sharing experienceis superior with video.
I think the consumptionexperience with shared video is also easier. This is not only because of that easy embedding, but also because somevideo can be enjoyed without actually hearing anything! This could be because the words appear in the video, or even simply because “a pict