How to promote audio-only podcasts with short-form video clips

What I want to discuss with you is how you can promote audio-only clips.

It's pretty amazing how many people are wanting to start a podcast still in 2023. And I don't knock it, I'm not one of these people who are like, everybody's starting a podcast. Now I'm happy that it's bringing more attention to viewership and listenership to the genre.

Now, I secretly root for people who are doing audio-only shows because my first two shows were primarily audio-only, and they were able to land me an internship, my dream internship, a dream full-time gig, and a lot of other things for years and years after I did those shows.

And so nowadays it can be disheartening when everybody makes it seem like video is the only way. And it seems like podcasts can exist without having a video format as well.

In some ways, the fact that podcasts can exist without video. You could argue that's true.

You have a massive opportunity when you do start incorporating some form of video, even if you don't publish the whole thing, but you just save the Zoom video version for clips or something like that.

Now I get a lot of clients who have audio-only shows as well. And I got somebody who ordered five clips/episode and gave us 50 episodes to work on. And so this was a really big project. And I was like, “Wow, are you sure you want this many clips without adding any more video or giving me any B roll?”

So I thought to myself, how are we going to create variety amongst the 250 clips that I have to create for this client?

I also work on an audio-only show for another client who gives me some artwork and provides some things for me to work with as well.

They typically get three clips per episode.

The challenge becomes how do you make this audio-only thing visually appealing? Because chances are you've seen the audio waveform things that when you talk, it kind of goes up like an EKG, or you've seen the transcriptions that are simply transcribing the audio and their subtitles that you can read, what that clip is about.

I would say that's level one of sharing an audio-only podcast, but level two, once you are ready to step things up a bit and you're doing primarily audio-only, you need some variety.

Create design template

So the way that I've created this for my clients is over their first, second, and third batches of clips. What we do is create a different design template for each batch.

So we've got after three to five batches, three to five different styles, and Canva backgrounds and maybe, you know, animated moving backgrounds and things that make it look at least a little bit different while still staying on brand and using the colors and fonts and all that stuff that the client wants.

Now there are two specific formats in designing these:

Using actual high-quality photos and headshots of yourself and your guest

Number one is using actual high-quality photos and headshots of yourself and your guest. So if you're doing a podcast where you have two speakers, for example, if you can find a high-quality headshot that can come up on the screen when that speaker is talking, and then when it switches to speaker two, you have their headshot pop up.

Nowadays, what you can do is even animate a lot of these images. Especially with the new open AI software Dali.

You can insert an image, or you can animate it.

There are a lot of apps that do this now as well. So you can get very creative with your images and photos.

If you have a lot of still images, which is why I recommend if you're doing an audio-only podcast, figure out a way where you can book a photographer and spend a day or two getting a bunch of different headshots and photos and different clothing and things like that. So you have a lot of variety later on.

Using some art forms and designs

Now, the second way to do this, you'll commonly find is using some form of art, just like there is podcast cover art. Sometimes you take that album cover, you put it on and you slap some, you know, subtitles and that way form on there as well. But I recommend coming up with different images if possible.

So now you might be working with a bit of a designer or you'd be designing some of these yourself in Canva.

Like I mentioned. You can come up with a lot of different backgrounds and design static images or moving images. And you can design that very quickly, relatively in Canva.

After I've designed a couple of different templates in Canva.

And once they're all approved by my client, they love the look and the feel of it all.

Now we've got some variety. Let's say batch five of something they send, I'm going to use, one different design for three of the clips that were asked, or maybe I have five at this point, so I can use five different designs because you want to envision what this is going to look like where you're posting it.

So are you posting this on Instagram as reels? Are you posting it as a story? Cause there is a difference in what you can get away with on different platforms.

If you are using just static images on YouTube, it's level one of just getting there. But it's not visually entertaining or appealing.

And the people who are on YouTube are pretty used to having something that's constantly hitting them and entertaining them in some way.

So the content has to be good first of all. And then second of all, it has to hold attention if you're not putting any bells and whistles on it.

Adding B-roll

So it becomes very important to add a B roll as well if you can.

So B roll is while somebody is talking putting up a picture or video an image, something that describes what they're talking about.

It does take a little bit more time for you to create a clip that is, you know, 60 seconds full of B roll.

There's no actual video of you. It's just stock images and videos and things like that to\ describe what you're talking about.

Think like a goalcast video or something. Where it's very motivational and inspirational and you're like, wow, something's changing every three seconds. That is a little bit harder to edit.

It takes a little bit more time, but I will say what it does is it holds people's attention. It is a very high-quality video when you're using just audio only.

It already shows inherently, wow, this took a lot of effort to put together.

So I do think you have an advantage if you are an audio-only podcast where you can use video to promote your show and make clips.

You just have to get a little bit strategic about how you're going to be doing this. What actual variables can you add to your videos that make them a little bit more visually appealing?

Maybe it's emojis. Adding emojis in with the subtitles. That alone can be a bit of a different pop.

And at the end of the day, what we're trying to do is disrupt patterns.

So this is why for all 250 clips that the client ordered, I'm not just using one design and layout and background because although that might be consistent and be like, oh, okay, yeah, this is for that show. It would not disrupt the pattern whatsoever, which means the viewer is less likely to keep watching.

So I hope this was useful in helping you come up with your strategy. If you have an audio-only podcast and you're figuring out, how do I promote this? How do I get eyes and ears on different parts of this show? Because the truth is you have gold in that longer episode and most people don't hear that.

So how do you take it to where people already are, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube?

And how do you use a lot of the distribution tools that they have available in video format to promote these clips?

Over time, what you can do is level up your clips and figure out more and more templates to kind of expand the variety.

Creating your personal B-roll

And if you were taking the role of using B roll, something I recommend looking into is creating your B roll. So you film yourself. Do a bunch of things that are relevant to that one-minute video that you might be filming. If you're talking about writing and you're talking to an author who's giving you writing tips, okay, that 40 seconds, could you film yourself maybe taking a sticky paper or something like that and then just ripping it up and throwing it away, do some different stuff that would be you actually in the frame, even if your face isn't in it, where you could use this as footage to enhance the quality of all that audio.

So if you try this out, make sure to drop a comment. Let me know how it goes for you.

If you have any questions or want to hand this off and have me or my team do it for you, hit up hi@podmahal.com.

And I would love to hear from you.