Internet marketers have a new crush on video and many podcasters are starting to feel pressured to create video content. But do you really need to add video?
Start with audio
It's both my recommendation and my assumption for the rest of this episode that you start your 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 addition to 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 watch videos instead of listening to videos.
Thus, please consider all of the following through the premise of producing real video.
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 plus a 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 interesting and worth watching instead of merely hearing.
After that, hosting the video costs more. Someone has 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 watch a podcast through shampoo in my eyes!
Video can actually be “lazy” in a good way
While high-quality video 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!
