Turning your Blog Content into Engaging Videos: The Why & the How

So, you want to drive traffic to your blogs and you’re wondering: Is it worth it? Where do I begin?

Buckle up, my content-creating friends, as we unpack not only why you should use video to enhance your blog content, but how to do it.

Why should I incorporate video into my blogs?

• Improve SEO: According to HubSpot, 31% of marketers create video content to improve their site’s SEO ranking. Adding video not only improves the quality of your post but extends the time visitors spend on your page. Both of those are cues to Google to rank your post higher. 
• Find new leads: 83% of video marketers say that video helps them generate new leads, according to this HubSpot post.
• Improve credibility: Seeing a real person connected to your blog content personalizes your brand. Your audience now has a face to associate with your messaging. 
• Get more use out of your content: Your video doesn’t just live in your blog. Put it on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook. You can even edit a shorter version for Reels, TikTok, and Instagram stories. 
• Enhance communication: Do you ever find yourself hashing out an issue with your colleague over chat before they ask, “Want to just jump on a call?” When conveying complex ideas, we often rely on visual cues. Hand gestures and body language are a part of conversational dialogue. “Normally if [content is] hard to understand, it will be hard to communicate it [via text],” said StoryTeller Club Marketing content specialist, Hope Waytas. “It’s much easier to do so [in video form].”
• Show your product: When shopping online, what’s an absolute must? Seeing the product! Video lets you showcase your product to a potential customer. Check out this video series from a Minnesota speaker company. They walked through their products in a series of videos aimed at specific buyers. Video not only makes you look like a credible vendor, but your customer gets to familiarize themselves with the product before buying. 

Which content should I select for a video?

There are three main reasons why you should select a given blog topic for your video. 

• It’s visual: No duh, right? I don’t want to read about how GoPro helped capture a video of a water-skiing squirrel. I want to see it. 
• It’s emotional: It is hard to properly convey emotion through text. It’s one thing to write about how hard it was to make a certain decision, it’s another to watch someone pause and visibly contemplate while trying to explain how they made it. 
• Choose an interesting/trending topic: HubSpot recommends that if a topic isn’t highly visual, it should be universally compelling. They cite a video about social media holiday calendars, which drove video and blog traffic in part because it’s a topic with a high search volume from both marketers and non-marketers.

Tips for creating your video

• Keep it short: Attention spans are short, so keep your videos brief and to the point. How short? The American Psychological Association found that in 2004 the average attention span was two and a half minutes. Now it’s about 47 seconds. (You can thank smartphones and social media for that). Bottom line: Your opportunity to make an impression is small. 
• Keep it conversational: No big words, please. Dialogue in your video should be similar to what you use in your everyday conversation. Keep your words simple and your sentences short. This will help your audience follow along. 
• Placement is key: When the video is complete, do not bury it in the body of the blog. “A good rule of thumb is not to have it [more than] two scrolls [into the blog],” Waytas said. “Because people normally do two scrolls and if it’s something that doesn’t catch their eye right away, they’re off the page.”

By following these steps and incorporating engaging elements, you can transform your blog content into captivating videos that resonate with your audience and drive results. Good luck!