Content Creators: you no longer have a choice whether or not to deliver your content through video.
Video is now the primary way people want to learn, shop, and interact online.
According to a report from Cisco, by 2020, over 82% of ALL web traffic will come from video.
Five years from now, Facebook “will be definitely mobile, it will be probably all video,” said Nicola Mendelsohn, head of Facebook operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, at a conference in London in June 2016.
And this study by Vidyard shows that video drives better results. Period.
So much so that marketers who use video:
- receive 41% more web traffic from search than non-users;
- see 27% higher click-through rates;
- and grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users.
Why does video play such a powerful role in how we consume content?
Research by child development theorist Linda Kreger Silverman suggests that:
- about 30% of the population strongly uses visual thinking,
- another 45% uses both visual thinking and thinking in the form of words,
- and 25% thinks exclusively in words.
So… if you primary form of communicating with your audience is words – blog posts, for instance – you are only reaching about 25% of them effectively.
The rest will need you to show it to them or they might not read your posts, period.
Their attention might cost you a video.
Thus creating videos will open up your business to a whole new segment of readers who aren’t readers at all.
They are viewers.
You MUST Create Videos… Now What?
All these impressive stats lead to one conclusion… content creators – YOU – need to expand their content production line to include videos.
Now you are probably doubly-scared…
First, by all the stats that showed in black ‘n white just how poorly you might be doing in reaching your target market.
Then by the realization that to overcome that hurdle you’ll need to face the inevitable: learn a skill (video creation) that has always intimidated the wits out of you.
Me too…
On the other hand, hiring someone to do it for you, which can easily cost thousands of dollars, is out of the question for most of us, simple bloggin’ folk.
Naturally, when faced with the facts, I set out to find a better way to create videos.
By “better” I mean:
- creating killer videos
- from scratch
- in minutes
- without any complicated editing software
- without a steep learning curve
- without paying someone thousands of dollars to do it for you.
Tall order, huh? No guts, no glory!
And… what do you know… unicorns do exist!
My video creating unicorn came in the form of Content Samurai.
What is Content Samurai?
Content Samurai is a completely web-based video system that allows you to…
- create killer videos
- from scratch
- in minutes
- without any complicated editing software
- without a steep learning curve
- without paying someone thousands of dollars to do it for you.
Yep!
It was created by the same team that built Market Samurai – one of the most popular keyword research tools, which I too have been using for years.
Since Market Samurai has always been synonymous with reliability, trust, and value, taking for a spin their new product, Content Samurai, was a no-brainer.
Remember that tidbit about 30% of the population using visual thinking, 45% using both visual thinking and thinking in the form of words, and 25% thinking exclusively in words?
Well, that’s exactly what Content Samurai does best: it combines text (your blog post) and visual aids (images and movement) to keep your audience focused on your message.
It kills your entire audience with one stone!
Let me show you how it works in the following Content Samurai review and tutorial.
Content Samurai Blog-to-Video Review & Tutorial
Content Samurai Discount
I love it when I can take an awesome product like Content Samurai and make it even more awesome by giving my equally awesome Traffic Generation Café Readers the best value for their money.
With that said…
Disclaimer: Content Samurai links throughout this post are affiliate links, which means I’ll make a small commission should you decide to make a purchase – at no additional cost to you.
I am a Content Samurai paid customer myself and recommend it to you because I truly believe it’s one of very few marketing tools your business will actually benefit from.
5 Ways to Use Content Samurai with Your Blog Posts
So… You’ve got Content Samurai. You’ve got your blog posts. Now what?
Here are 5 practical ways to use Content Samurai to turn your blog posts into videos:
go full blog-post-to-video
create a reader’s digest version
draw readers in with post video summary
create videos on blog post subtopics
stand out with social media video updates
Go full blog-post-to-video
Converting your entire blog post to video is, in some ways, the most time-efficient way to use Content Samurai.
All you do is literally copy and paste the entire post into Content Samurai Script section and you are done.
A couple of things to keep in mind when creating a full blog post video:
- slide styling
Even though you save time editing, you’ll be styling quite a few slides for your video. Might take just as long. - video length
If your average blog post is 1,500-2,000 words long, your videos will be quite lengthy – 15-20 minutes. This might work with some niches/audiences, but not others.
As a point of reference, the last Traffic Generation Café blog post I converted into a Content Samurai video turned out to be about 7 minutes long. It had just over 800 words (edited down from 1,800.)
Create a reader’s digest version
The next way to convert a blog post into a Content Samurai video is to edit it for length.
The most efficient way to do it would be to copy and paste the entire post into Content Samurai Script section and edit it from there.
I am thinking a 500-word video script should hit the sweet spot. That’s what I am going for next time I use Content Samurai.
Draw readers in with post video summary
This is a great use of Content Samurai – suck your readers in with a quick and engaging post video summary.
Very few readers will skip that kind of an intro, that’s for sure!
Content Samurai makes it extremely easy to create summary videos.
Here’s how:
- Write a short intro to the blog post.
- Use the post headings to show your readers what they’ll learn.
- Write a short conclusion.
- Record your short video script with Content Samurai.
Create videos on post subtopics
In this case, you’ll use your blog post headings as topical videos.
This is a great compromise to going full blog-post-to-video – you can still use the entire sections of your blog post with minimum editing without spitting out over-bloated videos.
Stand out with social media video updates
This is my favorite Content Samurai video strategy.
It opens up endless opportunities to stand out on both Twitter and Facebook – the two platforms where it really pays to post native video content.
Creating Content Samurai videos for Facebook
Facebook tends to value shorter videos to keep you moving through the feed.
As much as 85% of Facebook video views happen with the sound off, according to multiple publishers.
That is, once again, where Content Samurai shines – combining text with relevant images makes for a perfect silent movie!
Ideally, your Content Samurai Facebook video should have a powerful opening that captivates the audience without making a sound.
But then again… so should ALL your content – wherever it’s posted, right?
So, when creating your Content Samurai Facebook video, DON’T:
- start it with a video intro
as helpful as those are for branding, they generally fail to capture and keep your audience’s attention, especially if all your videos start the same way; - start by introducing yourself/your company
what’s in it for your viewers after all?
DO – in the first few seconds of the video:
- tell your viewers why
why should they watch the video? what’s in it for them? - use powerful images
to pique interest from the get-go; - use text
remember, your video is silent until a user chooses to unmute it, so use text to tell them why they should keep watching (and Content Samurai is perfect for that!) - keep moving through the slides
go through at least 2-3 frames in the first couple of seconds – if you linger too long without any action, Facebook user is a lot more likely to scroll right past your video.
Creating Content Samurai videos for Twitter
Due to the nature of this social media platform, there are more restrictions on your native video uploads.
- Maximum Twitter video length is 2 minutes and 20 seconds.
- Maximum file size is 512MB.
- You can currently upload videos to twitter.com or import them from an iPhone/iPad only; no Android uploads at this time.
- Twitter videos, like Facebook videos, will autoplay while muted once in full view.
SIDE NOTE: There’s actually a hack to upload longer videos to Twitter (up to 10 minutes long), but… just because you can, does it mean you should? Might not be wise for a quick flash-in-the-pan kind of platform like Twitter.
With all that in mind, you can use the same Content Samurai videos for both Facebook and Twitter, providing they are under 140 seconds long.
Once again, all the DO’s and DON’Ts from above apply to creating video blog post updates on Twitter, as well as Facebook.
My Personal Wins with Content Samurai
No, I am not here to sell you on Content Samurai…
I use it. I love the results. I want only the best for you, dear Reader.
Here are some final, more personal thoughts about Content Samurai.
Before Content Samurai, when recording any video, I…
- got flustered,
- didn’t know what to say,
- would start blabbering as a result,
- constantly felt like re-recording everything,
- edited the heck out of everything…
…as a result, got very little done, which followed by constant frustration and aversion to trying it again.
Content Samurai has completely removed all my friction points. ALL of them.
I love it that I can record a voice-over sentence by sentence.
I love it that most of the ‘putting it all together’ is done for me by Content Samurai.
I even love it that there are so few options – with a choice of fonts, for instance. It bugged me at first, but… you know what I realized?… the fewer (good) options you have, the faster you make the right decision, the quicker you get things done!!!
I am still not perfect at making videos. Far from it. But I am making them… and they are good.
And they bring RESULTS.
For instance, my very first Content Samurai video was ranked #1 for ‘mobile friendly emails‘ a day after it was posted to YouTube. Even before a couple of Constant Contact videos, which by all standards should be the authority on the subject!
That was, honestly, the first one for me.
Now… I am NOT saying the video ranked because I made it with Content Samurai. Alas, Content Samurai videos don’t have a magical ranking power.
What I am saying is…
I wouldn’t have made that video BUT for Content Samurai.
THAT’s Content Samurai’s real value to me. It made video creation so easy that I am out of excuses of why I can’t do it. *sigh*
Content Samurai Marketing Takeaway
Day in and out, I tell my 9 year-old daughter, “The best time to do IT is right now.”
Whatever that IT is.
Do you feel like you’ve let your competitors dominate video marketing traffic in your niche for long enough?
Then there’s no better tool than Content Samurai to get you there.
Off creating yet another Content Samurai video,
