5 Reasons to Film Your Podcast
Andrew Scarano | Creative Producer
Now is the perfect time to level up your podcast production by filming your podcasts. This can be filmed in a studio or at your own home office through video production.
It's no secret that podcasting has exploded in the last decade. Well before Joe Rogan became the King of Podcasts, the trend has been on the up since podcasting began to catch on in the mid-2010's. Yes, it's safe to say podcasting is now a flooded market, which is all the more reason to film your podcast to help you be heard above the noise. Or should we say, seen amongst the crowd.
There are many benefits to filming your podcast. In this post, we will discuss five of them.
Film your podcast
People like to see the face behind the voice.
There is a reason people like to watch Joe Rogan's podcasts as well as listen. We want to see the faces if we can; The body language, subtle reactions, and any nefarious activity going on, like the now infamous time Elon Musk was on Joe Rogan’s podcast which now has 24M views.
In our chemical makeup, when you put your face on camera, people are more likely to pay attention. And your podcast engagement goes up when more people are paying attention. And the more people become familiar with not only your voice, but also your face, they will be more likely to tune in for more. This is known as the Mere-exposure effect, whereby people develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them. AKA, the Familiarity Principle.
The Mere-exposure effect is why we like to watch the same person deliver the news every night. It's also why we are constantly bombarded with advertisements by big businesses to keep their brand front of mind.
You can apply the same principle with your video podcast. By filming your podcast and making it available in video format, you allow your fans to become familiar with your face. As a result, they may choose to tune back into you instead of some other faceless podcast. You provide another reason for your audience to choose your podcast over the mountain of other content they see every day.
2. Be discovered and gain more fans on YouTube
Youtube is now the second most popular search engine in the world, with 2.3 billion people on YouTube every month! Roughly 30% of everyone who uses the Internet. As mentioned earlier, podcasts are growing in popularity, but YouTube has been a behemoth for some time now.
As such, it makes sense to put your podcast up on YouTube. In fact, it could rocket your podcasts audience growth to the moon. Remember, YouTube is a search engine, which means that you can optimise your podcast to be searched for and found. Yes, you can SEO for YouTube too. After all, it is owned by Google.
Remember the cliché, it won’t happen overnight, but it will happen. The key to growing any audience is committing to your community, by filming your podcast you can repurpose your episode into highlights that can help fulfil that desire to keep your audience’s attention with new snacks of content to view.
3. Enhance your brand
By filming your podcast you can improve your brand positioning through a number of ways.
Firstly, just by showing your face, reactions and behaviour showcases more of your personality than only your voice would. As your personality is part of your personal brand, this better helps you also define your podcast which flows into your business brand.
One of my clients, Lara Nercessian, whom I have worked with since her first ever video podcast she did interviewing Elena Cardone, said,
“Creating video content for my award-winning podcast, Boss in Heels has enabled me to elevate my show and take it to new heights. Through consistently sharing video content I have been able to connect with my audience in a more meaningful way, create greater impact and drive new business.” Lara Nercessian – Boss in Heels podcast
Using video also increases the production value of your podcast, which, in turn, enhances your brand. Moreover, using a visual medium enables you to make use of the screen by displaying your brand logo, social handles, website URL's, or any other signature items.
4. Social media loves video
It would help if you marketed your podcast to grow. Social media marketing is one of the best ways to do this with the lowest barrier to entry. Additionally, social media is suited for video, not audio. Think about it: how often do you listen to an audio grab on your feed instead of watching a video? What's more, audio can be muted on every video post, and that's where the podcast video captions come in handy.
Now, let's say you want to promote a new or upcoming episode. By filming your podcast, you'll have footage you can cut into short, sharable teaser trailers. Furthermore, you could also include behind-the-scenes content to create variety in your marketing. By simply having more options you can increase interest and engagement.
Richie Harkham, who hosts the Return on Resilience podcast, recently told me, “When I post an audiogram the engagement is quite low but when I post a video highlight from my podcast I see the difference, it leads to comments, likes and shares. When I posted a video highlight from my Eddie Jaku podcast on my Instagram, my speaking manager called to say a client saw it, loved it and wanted to book me for a speaking engagement,” Richie Harkham.
Another trend on the up is live streaming. Doing a video show allows for live recording. As most prominent social media video platforms now make it easy to livestream, you can create a sense of inclusion as your audience are with you in the moment. This could become the future of podcasting. It means you need to be on point, yet with the risk of being vulnerable in front of camera, also comes the return of your audience connecting with you on a deeper tangible level.
5. It's not as time-consuming and expensive as you think
Well, it doesn't have to be. Truth is, you can get away with a pretty decent podcast video with just a few pieces of equipment. First, you want to ensure the audio is of good quality. If you’ve read this far I’m going to assume you already have a good microphone setup and if you don’t have one you need one.
To start filming yourself I’m a big believer in using what you have available to you. You can use your smart phone, laptop webcam or if you happen to have a DLSR camera lying around the house, dust it off and hit record!
All you need now is an editor specialising in video podcasts. You can save your editor time, and in return save you money, by providing time references of your favourite highlights then your editor can cut up multiple clips for you to distribute across your social media channels.
And there you will have it, a professional video podcast to promote on YouTube and use as part of your podcasting marketing strategy.
In an upcoming INSIGHT I will share tips for cameras, audio equipment and lighting.
Podcast film production service
If you are currently producing a podcast and are interested in filming an episode, please reach out. This is what we do best. Work can be done remotely, and we can walk you through from setup to delivery, with a few essential and inexpensive pieces of equipment. Find out how today.