As bloggers, it’s probably quite easy and fast for us to come up with a nice 500 to 1,000-word article for our sites and call it a day. The benefit of written content is that it’s great for SEO and it brings a sense of ‘freshness’ to our sites if we are publishing on a somewhat consistent basis. However… is ‘text content’ the best option for you and your audience?
Something I always try to stress to all bloggers and content marketers is that we don’t need ‘more content’, we simply need ‘better content’. Text content works great, but if you aren’t breaking it apart with H1 tags, sub-sections, images, charts, infographics and video… you likely aren’t producing the best quality of content out there.
With all of this in mind, today I wanted to share three different ways you can start using online video to liven up your blog content. Best of all, many of these methods are free (or super low-cost) to get started with and easy enough to implement within your latest blog content.
Create a Whiteboard or Explainer Video
The goal behind nearly every website or online business is to get someone to take a specific action or purchase something. However, this isn’t always the easiest process. Sure, if you have an e-commerce site or an online store, it’s obvious when and how someone is supposed to buy something — but what if you have new service to offer or something that takes a bit of explaining?
Again, video is a great way to accomplish this — especially if you were looking to create an explainer or whiteboard video. Â If you needed a great example of how this could be done, how fitting would it be to see an explainer video on how to create an explainer video!? Head over to MySimpleShow and you will see exactly that.
Nearly all online marketers know what an whiteboard or explainer video is, but not as many know how to actually create one. Through the explainer video on MySimpleShow, they walk audiences through the process of how to create one, while also showing while their platform is ideal for getting the job done.
This is a perfect example of how video gets the job done much better than any text and image article based content could. Take a moment to sit back and look at your business model and if a whiteboard video could be explaining the process even better.
User Testimonials Drive Crazy Conversions
We all know the power of testimonials and customer feedback, but even as customers in our everyday life, we really don’t think about how powerful they really are. For example… when you are watching TV and see a commercial, do you often relate to the ‘actors’ or individuals using the product, and think about how it can benefit you as well? Sure… we all do.
The power of testimonials is huge, and even more so when they are in video form. One brand that is doing this extremely well right now is Kajabi. Through their #kajabihero video series they are doing interviews with their top site partners and customers to showcase how the product is helping them launch online courses and businesses.
The benefit here is two-fold. Kajabi gets to show off their platform and how it works for their customers, and new visitors to the site can get inspired by how others are able to start a business online through their own expertise and online courses — which further backs up that anyone can do it.
It doesn’t matter what niche market you are in or what you are selling, once you start using customer testimonials to back up your service it’s a huge benefit. This can work for general blogging as well. The next time you are at a conference or event, ask for a quick 10-15 second testimonial from readers of your blog. John did this here and it worked out extremely well!
Record Yourself Talking to Your Audience
There are text bloggers, podcasting bloggers… and also video bloggers. Finding the right mix for your audience is always key, but at the same time, you don’t want to limit yourself to just one. I personally focus most of my efforts on text content (because it’s an easy and effective method for me to create content), but I have also created podcasting and audio content as well.
As great as text and audio content is, video content is probably even better. Online video is on the rise, and as we can continually see through John’s recent YouTube numbers… there is no end in sight — especially with Facebook and mobile usage on the rise.
Getting back to being a video blogger, this is pretty simple. Someone who is doing this very well is Ryan Biddulph. Ryan not only guest blogs on Blogging Tips and a number of other sites, he also creates a ton of videos for his audiences on many of the sites he writes for and also through his Facebook account — all of which has immensely helped grow his brand and following over the past few years.
The next time you put out a new blog post, why not create a quick 3-5 minute video recapping what you wrote about, embed it into your post and then share it on social media as well. This will allow you to reach new audiences, increase engagement and even ask an open-ended question to your audience for them to respond in your blog comments.