Episodic Expansion: How to Optimize B2B Experiences by Expanding Your Podcast to Full-On Video

Podcasts have been having their 15 minutes of fame for nearly a decade now. For marketers, we’ve seen podcasts go from off the radar, to a wide open new channel, to an established, even crowded, medium. It’s true that it’s harder to build a subscriber base now than it was at the beginning of the B2B podcast boom. That doesn’t mean podcasts aren’t a valuable channel, however — just that it takes strategy and time to realize their full potential. No, the proliferation of podcasts means that you should be repurposing your podcast content for other channels. This content can help drive traffic to the podcast, raise awareness of your brand’s thought leadership, and even become superstar content in its own right. Here’s how to turn your superstar podcast content into video marketing.

Turn Your B2B Podcast into Video Marketing

Video is the preferred type of content for virtually every social media site. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter all have algorithms that grant video content more visibility. So the first step in repurposing your podcast is…

1 — Start Capturing Video

Most B2B podcasts are interview-style, featuring a conversation between two or three participants. Turning this kind of content into video is simple with a recording platform like Riverside or Zencastr. These programs can record high-quality video and audio at the same time, and will produce separate files for audio-only and audio + video.  To make sure your guests look as good as they sound, make sure they:

• Set the camera at a flattering angle
• Have a blank background behind them — and no virtual backgrounds
• Have a source of light in front of their face, not behind their head (a cheap ring light is a good way to get the right illumination)
• Wear solid colors, without distracting patterns

We always send a briefing to guests prior to recording, including the above information. That way, everyone knows what to expect going in. We’ve also found it helpful to send a webcam with a built-in ring light to each guest — that way, you can still get high-quality video even if they’re rocking a 15-year-old laptop.

2 — Turn Raw Footage into Video Episodes

For an interview podcast, you’ll only have to do minimal editing to produce the video. A simple video editing program (like iMovie) will let you cut out the non-relevant bits and add intro/outro clips. Make sure to add captions for accessibility, too! If you have the time and resources, you can spice up the video with b-roll (also known as stock footage). A few clips that illustrate what the speaker is talking about will work wonders for adding visual interest. You can upload your video podcast to your brand’s YouTube channel, or use a platform like Libsyn to syndicate it.

3 — Atomize the Video 

You could post entire episodes of your video podcast to social media — but the algorithm would choke on them. LinkedIn recommends 1-minute maximum for a video post, for example.  Better to focus on the most compelling takeaways. Let’s say you have three killer soundbites from the recording. You could create a short video for each, adding visual interest. For example, add slides with quotes from the audio, b-roll, or a combination of both.  You can post these clips natively to LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. The goal is to spark engagement with the video on social itself — not necessarily to drive traffic to the podcast. They can be great thought leadership content in their own right.

4 — Organize for the Future

When you’re regularly producing video content, it’s crucial to have it properly tagged and organized. You can repurpose the content for years to come — provided your future marketing team can find what it needs. As you build your library, make sure to organize as you go to avoid a massive headache down the road. Platforms like our client Brightcove make it easier to both organize your collection and make it easily accessible across the organization.

5 — Cast Your Pods Even Further

As podcast recording platforms have gotten more sophisticated, it’s now simple to add video recording to your interview sessions. This raw footage can become a launching ground for your content, taking it to more channels and reaching more people than it would in audio-only form. Does podcasting work for B2B? Check out the story of SAP’s Tech Unknown podcast.

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