4 Ways To Create A Video Podcast (And Why You Should Try It)

Why do all the top podcasts publish videos to YouTube? Because YouTube has 2 billion logged-in users (and growing), which makes it a powerful place to grow your audience.

In fact, 43% of monthly podcast listener say they’ve enjoyed podcast content on YouTube in the last year, which means you probably have potential fans browsing YouTube for content like yours right now. All you have to do is turn your regular podcast into a video podcast.

Fortunately, you are already doing most of the work. With a few small additions to your workflow, you can create engaging video podcast episodes that appeal to people who prefer video content.

What Is A Video Podcast?

A video podcast is simply a podcast with a video element. The video element could be as simple or as complex as you like, but it often consists of a single static image or a video recording of the podcast hosts and guests.

Why You Should Start A Video Podcast

Before we explain how to create a video podcast, let’s cover why you should bother.

People love looking at faces

Humans are visual creatures. 30% of our brain is devoted to our eyes. And we particularly love faces. Infants begin to prefer looking at faces as soon as 24 hours after birth. That effect gets stronger as we get older because of the wealth of information we get from faces. According to some psychologists, facial features provide more data than spoken language.

This means you can create more value for your audience and help them make deeper connections with your content by adding faces via video.

Video opens you to a wider audience

As much as we like podcasts, there are plenty of people who prefer to consume video content. This should come as no surprise, YouTube is the second largest social media platform. By adding a video element to your podcast, you gain access to a massive audience of potential fans.

Source: Oberlo

That’s exactly what happened to Andrea Raquelle, producer and content provider for the “Hey Frase” podcast. “Without video, we hit a plateau; we could not go past 10,000 [downloads],” she said. “When we started doing video recordings, we saw the best growth. It took two months to get to 35,000 [downloads]. We noticed other influencers and podcasters in the space [with big download numbers]. We can’t even compete with that if we don’t have video.”

Video is far more social

Ever notice that all the videos on social media are set to autoplay, but without sound? That’s because social media platforms are optimized for video, but not audio. The audio is mute by default.

Adding video to your podcast makes it a bit more engaging for social media users when they come across it in their feed. Yes, you can post audio clips to social media, but they aren’t immediately engaging like videos.

You’re already doing most of the work

In terms of time and labor, there’s not much difference between creating a podcast and creating a video podcast. You can add a video element with just a few extra steps and minor expenses.

4 Ways To Record A Video Podcast

There are four ways to record a video podcast. Choose the format that’s right for you, your team, and your show.

1. Static image recording

This is the easiest method of recording a video podcast. All you do is convert your podcast audio file to a video file and add a static background image to “play” as the user listens.

This American Life uses a simple title card for all of their video podcasts.

Equipment needed: All you need is video editing software to add the static image and audio file together.

Example shows: Stuff You Should Know and Kickass News.

Pros: This method is fast and easy. If you host your podcast with Castos, we offer a free YouTube republishing service that automatically turns each of your episodes into a video with a sta...