In our last post, we spoke about recording remote video podcasts for your business that will help you grow and sustain your brand. Now, we are going to see the strategies that can be used when creating your video podcasts. If you are like most people, starting a video podcast may be something that you've never really done before, and you might be finding it difficult to get innovative ideas for your video content.
We are going to be breaking this down into two simple sections:
First of all, it's always important to understand what the goal of your podcast is. When we talk about the goal, we like to think of it in very simple terms, it's either you have a brand awareness goal or a business development goal and the difference between those two is simple but quite powerful. You also have to think about the genre and type of show that you want to have.
The reason why it's so important for you to understand what goal you're after is that your goal will give you a direction that can directly dictate where you're going or rather what topics and guests you're going to be having on your show.
Brand awareness may apply to you if you are just starting with a new brand. If you have a new product or service, you're probably still trying to get your name out there as a company or as a brand and you would be looking to find the right video podcast that could do that for your business.
To put it simply, if you're going for a brand awareness goal, you may naturally start to decide on very popular topics as well as guests that are pretty well known in your industry. Your guests do not necessarily have to be celebrities, but they could be thought leaders, experts, or influencers that your audience might recognize. It would also help if your guests had their network of followers so they could share the content they created with you to their followers or connections since they would ideally have some influence in the industry.
Business development applies to you if you have an existing brand with a list of target accounts that you're looking to build a relationship with. It could be that you are working in marketing and doing this in collaboration with sales. In this case, that would mean looking at a list of your target customers or accounts and reverse engineering that to find a way in which you can have a collaboration with them. So this would be your first outreach but it wouldn't be like the usual cold outreach but rather an invitation to come onto your show which of course changes the dynamic completely because you would be the one giving them something as opposed to taking from them.
Asides from the fact that they could all benefit from your services or products, you also need to find another thing that will help you stand out and get them onto your shows and some simple examples of that could be things like their experiences, interests, or passion.
So just keep in mind that when it comes to brand awareness, you want to choose popular topics and guests while for business development, you want to go with something that would resonate with all of the target accounts that you're hoping to do business with.
When it comes to Genre, you typically want to ask yourself questions like-
Is this going to be a laid-back or formal show?
Could it be a combination of both?
You could think of doing the latter especially if you are in a fun industry and you're purposely trying to do something formal that could be interesting.
You could also do something ironic or bold with your show. The possibilities are endless really. What you should notice is that all these genres are pretty fun or entertaining so to speak and you must keep that in mind when you are looking at the video podcast for your business because you want to make sure that it's something that will be engaging for people and the easiest way to do that is to start with a genre that your target audience can relate with.
If you want to go with the fun genre, you could make sure that your audience knows that it is meant to be a laid-back show, you know, somewhere where people can speak freely and make jokes. And then if you want to go with the bold approach, you could also make it clear that your show isn’t one that will shy from addressing the elephant in the room in your industry.
When you are creating a remote video podcast for your business, you have to keep in mind that there are so many different show types at your disposal.
You could go for the normal classic talk show format which is just a one-on-one conversation with a guest.
Or you could opt for panel discussions where you may have two or three people dialed in for a conversation and you could carefully select these people beforehand so you can have different viewpoints which would make the conversation more dynamic.
You could also create a reaction podcast show where you and the guest(s) would be reacting to any current news events that happened, specifically in your industry.
Once you have all these figured out, you already have the makings of a good strategy that can get the ball rolling. Of course, you can only plan so much before you actually realize what works for you, and even though launching your show out to the public can be scary, you will only get better with time because you will be taking notes of the feedback of the people that are interacting with the show.
For producing remote video podcasts, we need to keep a couple of things in mind. The first is making sure that it is as easy and friction-free as possible for you to produce as well as for other guests. In an ideal world, we would have DSLR cameras in the homes of both the host and the guest but of course, not everybody has access to that. And even though some people would have cameras, they might not exactly want to go through the process of setting it up.
This is why we have two very simple options for producing a remote video podcast. Using Zoom or using your Smartphone.
You might think Zoom would be a very obvious choice but you would be surprised at how many people find it difficult to maintain eye-level contact with the camera and even though it might seem like such a small thing, it does make a huge difference when you're recording. So, always remember to look straight into the webcam so that you can have good content to edit from when you are done with a Zoom video podcast.
The other option to producing remote video podcasts is to use smartphones. This involves having a smartphone and using the selfie camera to record by propping it up against your laptop screen to face you when you are on a video call with a guest for your podcast show. This way, you will have a live video feed and your guest could do the same thing so you can have two camera feeds to edit. This would work especially if you have a video editing background or access to a video editor who can turn it into a high-quality video podcast which is quite better when compared to the built-in webcam.
In terms of audio, you could get a microphone but again, not everybody has access to that. So, if you or your guests do not have that, then something else that you could use are headsets, especially those that come with built-in microphones. Another way to get good audio is to use your smartphone once again but this time, you would specifically be using the sound recorder application to get a recording of you and your guest during the podcast show.
Planning a remote video podcast isn’t the easiest thing to do but there are ways to start that will not have you breaking the bank. Some of these materials are quite simple to use, completely free and can even be found on your phone or in your home. So, make sure that you take advantage of this guide and you will have no problem setting up a strategy and production plan for your remote video podcast show, even if you are going to be doing it for the first time!