Creating a video podcast requires more than just hitting record on your webcam. There’s a lot of software involved in putting together a professional show.
But let’s say you’re leading a small marketing team. Maybe you’re the only person in marketing or maybe you have a team of fewer than ten people. How do you determine what video podcast software to use?
Well, good news. I actually get this question all of the time — “What software should I use to edit my podcast?”
So, I thought I’d not only focus on video podcast editing but also provide some thoughts on all the different types of software needed to produce a video podcast.
In this article, I’ll break down the best video podcast software to use for your company’s podcast (especially if you’re working with a small internal team). I’ll cover everything from recording and editing to hosting and distribution.
What software is required to produce a video podcast?
- Project management
- Pre-production
- Production
- Post-production
- Distribution
- Storage
How do you choose the right video podcast software for your company?
There are a lot of different types of software you can use to get a video podcast produced. And a lot of “experts” will tell you it doesn’t matter which set of tools you pick…you just have to get started.
But I believe it does matter. When you have a small marketing team in place, you have to make some decisions based upon the skills you have internally and how you plan to work as a team.
Here are some questions to consider when you go to build your tech stack for a video podcast.
What tools are you using already?
Before you go off and buy a bunch of different subscriptions, do a quick audit to see what your team is already using to produce content. Break down software across a lot of different categories including research, writing, graphic design, video editing, social posting, and more.
For example, if you’re already using a tool for recording, like Zoom, that can be a great place to start for your video podcasts.
And what about live events? If you’re already using a tool like Streamyard for live streaming, then it’s an easy transition to use for podcast recording.
If you do a thorough analysis of the tools you have, then you might already check a lot of the boxes needed for video podcasting.
What resources do you have in-house?
When you launch a big content marketing initiative like a podcast, you have to determine how it’ll get produced. And based on my experience working with small marketing teams at tech companies, it’s almost always a balance of in-house and external resources.
So before you pick out specific video editing software or recording software, review the skill sets you have internally. Do you have a video editor on your team? Are they already comfortable using Adobe Creative Cloud to get creative projects done?
What about design? Is your team already using Figma for a majority of design projects? Don’t switch to Illustrator if your team already produces content consistently with Figma.
What is your level of collaboration?
To produce video podcasts consistently, you need to determine how much collaboration will be needed within your team and with external resources.
Do you have a unicorn designer/writer/editor? Or, will you need multiple people to pitch in and get the job done?
And do you need to get external resources involved on the same project? Do you need a writer to access a transcript? Do you need someone to add motion graphics after the video editing is done? After you record a podcast, how will you get the source video files to your editor?
Before you pinpoint the software you need, outline your team’s video podcast workflow and the level of collaboration required.
What’re the best video podcast software options for a small, scrappy marketing team?
Before I focused on video podcasts, I owned an agency that produced television commercials, short-form documentaries, and other corporate video projects (I sold my first video agency). And there’s one thing I’ve noticed, the software available to get the job done has changed dramatically in the last decade.
Five years ago, it was hard to work on video projects remotely. Because the file sizes for video are so large, it didn’t make sense to upload raw video files to the cloud. It simply took too long. So editors used local hard drives and synced with the cloud intermittently (after certain milestones or when the project was done).
But internet speeds have increased. And teams can access large video files from anywhere in the world. It’s also possible to collaborate on the same video project with a team member who’s across the country.
We also now have amazing remote video podcasting platforms that are cost-efficient for small teams. These tools allow you to record separate audio and video files for each participant involved with a video podcast.
If I had to build a video podcast tech stack from scratch, I wouldn’t start with the same tools I started with several years ago. And in this section, I outline what I believe is the best video podcast software for a small, scrappy marketing team.
Project management software for managing a video podcast
When working on a small marketing team, you need a way to manage tasks. Video podcasts have a lot of moving parts so you need a way to map out your workflow, establish due dates and monitor the workflow. And the best way to do that is with a project management tool.
There are a lot of great options out there. I’ve tried Asana, Monday, activeCollab, and Trello. And I even built a custom PM tool using Quickbase (formerly an Inuit company).
But my personal favorite is ClickUp. I’ve used it for several years to manage projects big and small. And I’ve found that it’s easy to use and extremely helpful for keeping everyone on the same page.
Here are the big reasons I recommend ClickUp to manage a video podcast:
- ClickUp has a lot of native integrations and you can use Zapier to connect it to just about anything you can imagine.
- With spaces, folders, lists, and tasks…your team can shape ClickUp based on the way you work. You don’t really have to change your business process to fit the software.
- ClickUp offers 20 free guests for every paid member. So if you collaborate with external vendors or freelancers, it’s very cost effective to give them a view into your workflow.
- ClickUp provides custom fields at the list, folder, or space level to give you more flexibility.
- Does your team prefer to view tasks in a list or in Kanban view? ClickUp offers different custom views so your team can manage their personal workload according to their personal preferences.
Software to use for researching and planning a video podcast episode
Researching & preparing for a podcast episode recording session is important. When you organize your thoughts before conducting an interview, you’re able to guide the conversation more effectively.
But how do you collect research and document your approach before your start recording?
In my opinion, you don’t need a fancy platform to get this done. I recommend Notion to collect research and Google Docs to prepare outlines & scripts.
The reason I like Notion for research is because it gives you flexibility to embed tweets, videos and other assets. And you can create a database to organize your thoughts according to specific data attributes.
And Google Docs is just super simple for a small team. If your company has GSuite, there’s really no reason to use something else for building a script and crafting interview questions.
Remote recording platforms to capture video podcasts
Many video podcasts are recorded remotely. And your team needs a tool to capture remote recordings.
But do you just fallback on Zoom or do you use software specifically for recording video podcasts?
To get the best audio and video quality possible, I recommend using Riverside or Squadcast. This allows you to capture a separate track (audio and video) for each participant and gives you the most flexibility in post-production. These platforms also capture a local recording for each participant so you get the highest quality possible.
At this point, we use Riverside for our Recorded Content podcast. But we have several customers using Squadcast as well. Based on my experience, Squadcast seems to have a bigger commitment to audio quality. And in my opinion, Riverside is more committed to capturing high quality video content.
Design and editing software to produce a video podcast
I thought about separating design and editing software into two different categories. But for simplicity, I wanted to discuss them together.
When it comes to design, I strongly believe it’s about what your team is familiar with already. At Motion, we use Figma for a majority of our design projects. If something is more complex, we lean on Photoshop and Illustrator.
For editing purposes, there are quite a few audio editing tools available. But when your team decides to produce a video podcast, you want to avoid editing an audio and video episode separately.
At Motion, we put Descript at the center of our video podcast workflow. We initiate the editing process in Descript by transcribing the content and setting it up for editing. From there, we make most of the editorial changes in Descript before exporting to Adobe Premiere and After Effects for final polishing.
For most teams, I strongly believe Descript can get the job done without exporting to more advanced editing tools. It allows you to remove background noise, add music, integrate sound effects, and make other edits to both audio and video. With Descript, you can essentially edit the audio and video episode simultaneously.
Software to use for managing the distribution of a video podcast
After you have a number of episodes, it’s important to organize & categorize your podcast episodes. We use Digitile to categorize all of the assets from each episode.
This allows our team to search transcripts, images, videos, audio files, etc. And it allows us to build a flywheel of new ideas. When we’re ready to distribute content from our company pages, we use Publer for LinkedIn and Twitter.
Software for managing large video podcast files in the cloud
A video podcast generates a lot of large files. And you need a way to back up the source files from your recording platform. At Motion, we use Google Drive as the initial environment and then sync our company’s drive to Backblaze.
Build a video podcast tech stack that’s simple and scalable
You don’t need a lot of software to get started with a video podcast. In my opinion, it’s best to keep things simple and try to use tools your team is already familiar with.
But as your podcast grows, you might need to consider more specialized software. And if you plan on scaling your show, it’s important to build a tech stack that can accommodate your future needs.
If you want to start a new video podcast for your company, check out Recorded Content. Each week, we release an episode that helps B2B marketers get the most out of their show.