Do you know that you can repurpose your blog posts into a video using an awesome online tool? You don’t have to put yourself on camera (great for those of us that are a bit camera shy!), and you don’t have to have advanced video editing skills either!
If you spend a lot of time creating a really good blog post, then why not explore the opportunity to put it into a different format to reach new and different audiences?
In the past I’ve talked about converting your blog post into an infographic and into a SlideShare presentation, into a content upgrade and even into a PDF.
Why would you repurpose your blog post into a video?
1. Video is SO popular
If you need some convincing as to the popularity of video content, then click here and have a look at the research and stats that Wordstream have published.
Stand out stats for me are:
- By 2019, internet video traffic will account for 80% of all consumer Internet traffic – given it’s already 2018 I find that amazing
- Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined
- Blog posts incorporating video attract 3x as many inbound links as blog posts without video
2. You’re providing different ways for people to connect with your content
Listen to this for a fun fact from Wordstream - viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text.
So, if you really want the message in your blog to hit home with people, perhaps consider creating a video too.
Everybody learns in different ways and it’s important to find the best way to connect with your audience
3. Broaden your audience reach
If you turn your blog post into a video, what would you do with the video?
I can tell you, there are plenty of things that you can do with your video!
Put the video on your website. You can publish it in the blog post itself…simply providing another way to consume your key message.
You can share your video on the social media platforms.
You can publish it on your YouTube channel.
If you have a membership site you could include your video in your membership.
Perhaps you have an online course - could your video form part of the course content!
You video could form the basis of a webinar.
There’s lots that you can do with a video version of you blog post
4. Video helps you to be concise with your messaging
Creating a video version of your blog can be a great way to communicate your message in the clearest and most concise way.
Imagine taking a 2000 word blog post and stripping it right down to a 1 minute video. This forces you to focus on only the most important points of your message. It’s a great way to de-fluff it!!
Okay…you’ve convinced me….but how do I repurpose my blog post into a video?
I was going to run through a few different online tools that help you convert your blog post into a video, but…I decided to focus on only one and it’s called Lumen 5.
I think Lumen 5 is great. It’s a free online tool (as always there are paid upgrades), and all you need to do is provide the URL of your blog post, and through the power of AI and bots it pulls over what it considers to be the most important text and turns it into a video storyboard. You can make any changes that you want to the text until it’s just right, and then you select images to pair up with the text.
It will even bring images over from your blog post if they are in the right dimension. Plus, you can upload your own images. Or, (and I think this is BRILLIANT), it is synced with some of the royalty free image sites (including my favourite unsplash.com) so you can choose images from those sites without leaving Lumen 5!
You can change the style of the video in terms of colours, placement of text et. Then, if you want to, you can even add music. Similar to the images, you can add your own music or you can select from royalty free music on the site.
You can also add your own branding – e.g. your logo and watermarks. Of course, there are even more features if you have the paid version. But I really recommend just having a go with their free version.
Once you’re happy you are free to download and share the video, and do what you like with it!
To illustrate this, here's a video that I created on Lumen 5 that was based on this post...
Now, Lumen 5 marketing would tell you that you can ‘transform your article to a video in minutes’. I’d argue that ‘minutes’ is a little over ambitious! I think you’re more realistically looking at 30 minutes (…to maybe an hour but I’m just really fussy about these things).
In conclusion
What are you waiting for?! Head on over to Lumen 5 and have a go at turning one of you blog posts into a fun video, for free! What do you have to lose?
If you’re looking to take your repurposing to the next level, then The Content 10x Toolkit has guides and templates for writing show notes for YouTube, tutorials on how to burn captions, how to repurpose your horizontal videos to vertical videos and more. It’s available to buy now.