Is video necessary?

Ask your prospects. Run an ask campaign and ask them.

Test the market... create some audio only offers to run as a test and split it against audio + video.

Offer video version as an upsell to the initial audio and test response. See if it boosts your bottom line.

While I am only one person if you were to ask my my "opinion" as a buyer... I rarely consume audio while in the office but I consume a lot of video.

If I am traveling I consume audio.

The reason I prefer video is because I am a "skimmer." I don't want to hear everything you have to say. I want to skip to the parts that interest me and I find video easier to do that with.

Of course you can improve the consumer experience by having outlines of what is in each audio chapter and breaking it down into shorter digestable tracks.

Ultimately this is where I think todays market is going:

I think that you must produce your content in multiple formats. Not limited to one or another.

Produce a video, rip the audio, transcribe the content to pdf.

Publish it as a podcast, embedded video, downloadable files, readable ebook, physical cd, dvd and book.

Offer your client the options to receive it in the format they want to receive it in.

If ultimately boosting consumption means that you are achieving your goal, building your relationship with the client, and improving your bottom line...

Then this new philosophy is a great idea.

And its not hard to do.

In fact since 2006 I have been running and developing a publisher network that provides the tools to do all this to our publishers so that they can automate and reach the desktop, mobile device, and offline markets.

Hi Josh,
Thanks for the detailed reply. Lots of food for thought. I appreciate it.