“Content is king.” We’ve all heard it before, and It’s true. Even to this day, content continues to be the lifeblood of B2B marketing. And if you were to crown a king of content, there’s no question that it would be video.
With platforms like YouTube and TikTok dominating the attention of audiences, there’s a huge opportunity for podcasters and businesses to repurpose their audio content into a video series. Even more so now that we are officially in 2024.
If you’re still not convinced, here’s some food for thought – Starting in April 2024, Google is officially sunsetting its podcast App Google Podcasts and will be fully investing in its YouTube Podcast platform on YouTube Music. Within the last year, the platform finally allowed podcasters the ability to publish to YouTube via the RSS feed, integrating it into the overall podcast distribution network. Once this was rolled out, YouTube Music instantly became one of the leading podcast player apps in the industry.
Now that content creators like us have YouTube at our fingertips, here are 4 reasons why you should consider creating a video podcast alongside your audio podcast.
1. Expand Your Reach
Maybe I’m a little biased here, but it’s hard to imagine someone who doesn’t love a good podcast. And while there are almost 500 million people tuning into podcasts worldwide, the reality is that podcasts aren’t the number one choice of content consumption for everyone in the world. Some folks are more visual and will prefer video content over audio-only.
Platforms like YouTube have a huge, invested user base who tune in regularly to watch their favorite YouTube content. If your podcast is audio-only, you’ll be missing out on a huge segment of your potential audience.
That said, in order to capture the attention of regular YouTube users, you’ll need to be strategic about the format of your content. For example, you could repurpose your audio-only episode into a video file with a static logo background. And While this is a quick and easy solution, at the end of the day, it won’t attract the audience you’re looking for. Remember, they are visual and want to watch something that is going to keep them engaged. It’s competitively crucial to provide a full video version of your episode featuring all participants on screen.
When done right, you’ll start exposing your podcast to a previously untapped audience who otherwise may never have tuned in. Expand your listener base with video and engage a larger audience by delivering the visual content they desire.
2. Maximize Your Investment
Let’s be real, creating and maintaining a podcast requires a lot of time, effort, and resources. You’ll want to make the most of that big investment you’re making! Creating a video podcast might sound like a whole new investment, including taking time and resources for a video shoot, but this actually isn’t the case.
We have always been big on content repurposing and this is no different. Most folks are recording their podcasts via Zoom, or virtual recording platforms like Riverside.fm or Zencastr. These platforms can be configured to record video alongside the audio you’re already recording simultaneously. Some of them are already recording this video anyway by default, why let this content go to waste!
You can then publish both the video and audio versions of your episode, expanding your reach by leveraging a wider audience. At the end of the day, you can maximize your return on investment without having to start from scratch!
3. Strengthen Social Media Content
The immense popularity of Instagram, X, Facebook and TikTok has made video content indispensable for reaching a broader audience and gaining exposure.
And while competition for attention on social media platforms is fierce, you can always leverage “Videograms” to pique the interest social scrollers and entice them to watch the full episode. These 15- to 30-second highlight clips are pulled from your video episodes and incorporate animated trasncriptions. Because social feeds are muted by default, these transcriptions allow people to consume the content even when their feed is muted. The goal is to captivate their interest and lead them to the full YouTube conversation or audio-only podcast. And while you can do this with audio-only with a static logo background, using the actual video feed of you and your guests have a much higher chance of capturing the attention of those avid social scrollers.
With this approach, we can leverage the power of social media to engage and drive more people towards the enriching conversations of your content.
4. Reap the SEO Benefits
I’m sure you know by now that YouTube has long been reigning as one of the top global search engines. By publishing your content on YouTube, your show is now exponentially more likely to surface when your target audience search for relevant keywords tied to your content. Just make sure you’re optimizing your video descriptions, titles and tags when publishing.
Additionally, embedding videos on your website can significantly boost SEO performance for your webpages. Not to mention it offers your visitors a richer experience, which not only increases visitor engagement, but also extends their stay duration. As a result, Google recognizes the quality of your website and ranks it higher.
Furthermore, embedding videos on-site instead of direct links to YouTube or other platforms will retain viewer traffic on your website rather than losing them to external platforms. This allows you to own your audience’s user experience and direct them through the funnel the way you prefer.
Conclusion
When thinking about adding a video component to your podcast, the opportunities are huge. It’s an incredible tool, allowing you to expand your reach and maximize your investment, as well as drive traffic from social media and search. There’s no question that video content offers a plethora of advantages. Embracing the power of video can take your podcast to new heights, engaging a larger audience and driving more traffic.
So why wait? Start creating those video episodes and see the benefits for yourself!
