My YouTube Podcast: How it's Going After 12 Months | Ep 48

Is a YouTube podcast worth it? After 12 months of running my video podcast, I'm sharing my honest review! I'm diving deep into whether podcasting on YouTube grew my business or was a time suck. I'll reveal my surprising results, discussing audio vs. video performance, ROI, and what I learned. Find out if a YouTube podcast is right for YOU! Plus, I'm sharing how I use video podcasts for content and leads.

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Transcript

82000 views here on YouTube versus 2600 downloads on audio platforms. That's the reality. After running my podcast for the last 12 months here as a video podcast on YouTube and as an audio only podcast hosted on Buzzsprout and then distributed to all of the podcast delivery apps. Now, if you're anything like me, if you're a solo business owner, content creator, you hear those numbers and you think, okay, obviously YouTube is the clear winner here. But we're just talking surface level stats. Did the podcast, whether YouTube or audio version or both actually contribute to the growth of my business, the growth of my audience? Or was adding a podcast to my existing channel a complete time sucking distraction? I am gonna break it down for you here on episode 48 of Video Brand Infusion. And if you're new here, my name is Meredith. I'm here to help you infuse the best video marketing strategies into your business so that you can become the go-to person in your niche and grow your audience with YouTube. But one year ago, almost to the day I started the Video Brand Infusion podcast. And like I already mentioned, and like you probably already know, this is a YouTube podcast, as they call it. So I have a podcast tab on my YouTube channel, and this is a regular YouTube video that is simply uploaded and I put it in that podcast playlist so that it shows up as a podcast. And I take the audio version of this video and I upload it to Buzzsprout, which is a very popular, very well known and really great podcast hosting platform, but it's audio. So that's how this podcast goes out to Apple and Spotify and Overcast and all of the other ways that you can listen to podcasts via an RSS feed. I was always kind of anti podcasts on YouTube, because in my mind I was like, I don't watch podcasts. But you know, content platforms have evolved. Social media has evolved quite a bit, and when YouTube decided we're gonna add a podcast tab, we're gonna let people create a podcast on YouTube, I was intrigued because I was curious what exactly is up YouTube's sleeve here? Because they clearly are trying to compete with a traditional podcast like you would have with say, Buzzsprout, for example. So Video Brand Infusion as a podcast really was an experiment from day one, and it was a couple of different experiments wrapped in one. I wanted to learn more about video podcasting and I wanted to see where YouTube was going to go with this. So I wanted to be a participant in that. And personally as a YouTube creator, like I've been here for about 10 years, most of my content has generally been how to videos to tutorials, video editing, how to set up your camera, that kind of thing. And they're very how to heavy, and I like creating how to videos. But I thought, you know, what would be even easier is if all I had to do was talk to a camera. And a lot of the topics that I wanted to talk about and a lot of the questions that I was getting from clients, customers, audience, like outside of my YouTube channel, were like topics that really aren't necessarily how to or tutorial driven. They're just like. I wanna hear what you have to say about this. So I thought podcast platform is the perfect place to do that. And as a video marketing person, of course, I'm gonna put that on YouTube. And honestly launching a video podcast. An audio podcast like all in one on day one brought up some big questions like, is a YouTube view the same as an audio listen or a podcast download. Do people really want to watch, and maybe you're not watching the video, maybe you're just listening to the video, but as a YouTube creator, my question was are people really going to just watch a video where I'm just sitting here talking to a camera? One of the biggest questions I had is how is an audio only podcast going to, you know, essentially grow itself? Like how is it going to be discovered? And, uh, the answer to that has been, I think, um. It really doesn't grow itself. It's really just probably mostly getting discovered because I'm here on YouTube talking about the fact that this is a podcast, and some people are like, oh, I would like to have this in my podcast player, so they go subscribe to me there. I've had several people tell me that that is the case, which might answer why I've had 2600 downloads of the audio podcast that those are my stats from Buzzsprout and 82000 views of the podcast videos on YouTube. And those are the stats directly from YouTube. But those are only surface level stats. And you know, I'm here to grow my business, not just grow my channel. I hope you are here on YouTube or listening to the podcast if you're here to grow your business, not just grow your YouTube channel. There are other metrics at play and if I were to, you know, say make a strategic decision based on just those surface level stats. Then I'd be completely cutting off some good stuff that's happening with just having an audio only podcast. By the way, if you like this Video Brand Infusion podcast and you're worried that this was maybe like only a one year experiment, I'll break the news to you now. It's not just a one year experiment. I am going to keep going with it because I like the amount of effort that I put in and the payoff that I get back in terms of engagement. So let's talk about that because one of the most frustrating parts of an audio only show is the lack of engagement in terms of comments or messages or even emails, there's almost no built in community or communication with audio only podcasting. I know that Spotify recently introduced comments or something like that. My podcast is on Spotify. I hope I don't have comments there because if I do, I don't know about them. And my listens from Spotify are pretty small compared to Apple, and then of course compared to views on YouTube. But I just like genuinely, I don't know how people create an audio only show and not get some kind of engagement back to kind of like fuel their own creator dopamine and keep the momentum to keep going. I think back when I first started my YouTube channel, I was just kind of uploading videos because YouTube was the place that you upload videos and I wasn't anticipating comments. I didn't know. About the like button. You know, I, I didn't even realize, oh, the people come here and they hit subscribe. Like I didn't really know what was going on there. So when I would get an email that I had a comment, I was like, oh my gosh, like a real human being watched this video and they have something to add, or they have a question, or, you know, whatever it is. Having that interaction was hugely motivating for me as a content creator and I genuinely don't know how you can do it with audio only and not have that kind of interaction. Maybe you have interaction in other ways. Maybe people DM you, maybe they email you, maybe you have a Facebook group community, something somewhere. I'm not totally sure, but I will say that Buzzsprout back in maybe about a year ago, they created this fan mail feature, so in the show notes of a podcast episode, so if you're listening to this in Apple Podcasts, you're not gonna see this because I removed it and I'll explain why they created this fan mail feature, which in theory. It's fantastic. It's literally just a link and if a listener clicks that link, it opens up and they can send you a text through their text app, and that's wonderful. What a great way for people to interact with your show. But the person receiving that message cannot see who it's from and they can't respond to it. It's very one sided. And I think the problem there for me is that the person leaving the message may not realize that it's one sided. So I have messages in there from people that I can't respond to, and I have no way of telling them I can't respond to this. Shoot me an email. It feels really awkward to me. So I shut the fan mail feature off. So that's why if you're looking for it, you're not gonna find it. You know, shoot me an email, send me an Instagram DM or something, you know, like eventually I'll get it. Or better yet, come to the YouTube channel and leave a comment on the video where the content is. Like that to me just makes a whole lot more sense. And by the way, since June when I put the fan mail on the podcast, I have had roughly 11 fan mails versus over 300 comments on the YouTube videos for the podcast episodes. Now, I do think it's easy to kind of hear these stats and say, well, of course Meredith, you had an audience on YouTube, so if you're going to put your video podcast on that channel. Where there are already people who watch your videos, of course you're gonna have more views, of course you're gonna have more engagement like that just makes sense versus starting the audio podcast from nowhere. Where's the audience? There's nobody there. It's a brand new space and I can see that it's sort of comparing apples to oranges there. But that's the point. People are already on YouTube. Even if you have a brand new channel and nobody knows that it exists, there's still people. Billions of them. YouTube just recently announced a stat that they have 1 billion active monthly podcast listeners. Staggering. But anyway, there are billions of people on YouTube already, and it is inherently a search and discovery platform. So when you show up with a podcast, then you're putting yourself in the middle of a platform with billions of people who are there to discover new content that's the point of creating the content is for it to be consumed, for it to be discovered, for people to find it and watch it or listen to it, and then do something from that. Either download your freebie, work with you, subscribe so they hear more from you, or just to be a part of your community. And if they can't find you because you've hidden your podcast away in an RSS feed somewhere, then how do you expect to be discovered? So, I know I'm comparing apples to oranges. I already had an audience here. Yes, obviously. But that's the point I had an audience here because there are billions of people on YouTube, but we are still kind of just scratching the surface of those vanity metrics. How does this shake out for actual business growth? Because I have digital products, a membership courses, and on top of the free content that I create for strangers on the internet. In order for me to stay in business, I have to generate revenue somehow. So the content I create is both for you, for my community, for my audience, but also to attract the right people who might wanna work with me in some way. So if this video podcast didn't do that, then yeah, it would be a colossal waste of time. So did the 82000 views and 2600 episode downloads actually contribute to leads and or revenue in the business. To be totally honest with you, I probably wouldn't still be making podcast episodes if that weren't happening. So let's talk about leads in sales. Have I had viewers or listeners who listened to or watched a podcast episode and then immediately signed up for my core offer or any of my offers, direct attribution is tricky, but as part of my podcast experiment, I created a specific offer that is only tied to the podcast, so could be audio listens, could be video watches, but it's tied specifically and only to the podcast. And that offer generated 18 sales of that particular program, which came out to be roughly about $10000 over the last year. Now that's in a hands off YouTube funnel, DIY course. Nothing for me to necessarily fulfill on everything already exists and the YouTube funnel is already in place. And of course I've had viewers and listeners who join Video Brand Academy, which is my membership and you know, done my 90 days to one K bootcamp and things like that. But it's hard to kind of know, like did, was that, a direct result from the podcast or just the YouTube channel or everything all in one, or were they on my list for a while? If we're talking about leads I'm gonna have to add up a couple of numbers here, but it looks like it comes out to be around 500 leads that I can attribute directly to the podcast, but again, it's hard to. Track directly, right? Because did someone find me on YouTube first and then they found the podcast, or did they find me because of the podcast and then they watched more of my videos and then they got on my list that way? I mean, I have a bunch more freebies and lead magnets that get way more subscribers than that, but they're not necessarily tied directly to the podcast. So the conclusion to all of this. In my opinion is yes, it's worth the ROI. And there's a couple reasons, not just because of leads and sales, but there's a couple of reasons why the ROI that I get from the podcast is actually huge for myself and for the business. But is it worth doing video and audio? I say yes. I say it is worth, and it depends how you're looking at it. If you're, if you're like, I have an audio podcast, I'm thinking about doing video, yes. YouTube is a search and discovery platform a hundred percent. Turn on your webcam when you create your podcast episode and throw that stuff on YouTube. You have nothing to lose by putting your content on YouTube, and you have almost nothing to gain by sticking with audio only platforms. But if you are somebody who has a YouTube channel and you make what some might consider traditional YouTube videos, should you start a podcast or should you like turn that into a podcast? I think if you have audio friendly content like we're, you know, I'm just talking to the camera. I don't really have to put much on screen. I think I may have had one or two episodes where I had some visual kind of stuff on the screen, and then even as I was editing it, I was like, what are you doing? This is a podcast. What's wrong with you? I had to like turn the YouTuber part of my brain off and just create audio friendly content. And so I think if you create content like that, then absolutely. I think it's worth the extra, like literally it's just a couple of clicks to put your content into the podcast sphere? Is that a word? Put it onto Buzzsprout. I recommend Buzzsprout. They have a great community. They're a great host. They're very forward thinking, except when it comes to video, they're kinda anti video, but that's okay. They're audio people and they wanna stay in business. So Buzzsprout is great. I think I pay like $12 a month or something to host on Buzzsprout, and then those episodes can be distributed to all of the other podcast players automatically. And I just recently started using Buzzsprout's magic mastering. So all I have to do is upload my video, my mp4 video, same video now that goes onto YouTube. Just upload it to Buzzsprout, it will turn it into an mp3, and do some magic mastering. Make it sound delightful for audio. And if it sounded like I am, you know, poo-pooing the mere 2600 downloads the way that I see that is, and I know this because some people have told me, I am so happy that I get to listen to your content in a podcast player. They want to listen to it in a car or in their earbuds while they're doing whatever around the house, going for a walk or whatever. They want the content there, and they've told me they appreciate having it there. So for me, $12 a month is a small price to pay to keep that kind of connection. With the audience to kind of offer that extra medium to keep that connection with the audience that prefers that medium. So in my opinion, of course, I think it is worth it to do both. I will continue doing both. And not to be super dramatic, but there have been times where this podcast has kind of saved my butt a little bit, meaning. When I haven't had time to record a regular YouTube video, a regular tutorial, I've been able to sit here and just record something for the camera. I'm not saying I just turn my camera on and start spewing whatever comes outta my mouth. I have things planned out, but it's so much easier and so much less effort for editing when all it is is me talking to the camera. And so there have been several months in a row where all I have published is the podcast. I continue to be surprised and honestly, like delighted by how well, from a strategy standpoint, from a YouTube metric standpoint, how well the video podcast episodes actually do. I kind of assumed that if I only posted these podcast episodes, my channel would sort of tank, and it hasn't done that. I think one of the reasons is because they're long, so they're generating lots of good watch time, and from what I'm hearing in the comments and emails and from clients and customers, you guys really like it, so I'm gonna keep doing it. It's paying off for me both in leads in sales fulfillment on my end. I love hearing from you and it's a low lift way to create content for the channel. And also because I think it's a low barrier to entry way for other people to get started on YouTube. So if I can show up as an example of a video podcast that's working on YouTube, I'm happy to be a positive example, a positive role model for you. And when you have a great strategy behind creating your low barrier to entry, low lift video podcast episodes, you are likely to get views on your videos almost right away, even if you have a super small or brand new channel. That is why I put my Niche Clarity worksheets and Spider web planner inside of the YouTube Roadmap Planner that is currently available inside Video Brand Academy. It's a completely downloadable, fillable Google Doc that you can just add to your own Google Doc account. Start planning your channel and following the lessons inside of VBA to launch your channel. And you can even do the 90 days to one K YouTube subscribers bootcamp as well. So I'll put a link to Video Brand Academy down and the description below this video or in the podcast show notes for those of you listening. And I'll see you next time.