How to Promote Your Blog Post with a Simple Video Trailer

You just can’t argue with the statistics. We are firmly entrenched in the age of video marketing and you ignore it at your peril.

Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined. (Wordstream)

If you want more eyeballs on your content a.k.a your business, then you need to promote your blog posts with video. There are a couple of ways you can do this: talking head style announcing your new blog post or a simple video trailer featuring images and quotes from your article. Both are relatively simple to create.

FYI… this is yet another way to repurpose your blog content.

In the first instance, a talking head video, all you need is your smartphone or a webcam to record a short synopsis of your blog post. As long as it’s under a minute, you can upload it directly to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Include a call to action and a link to the post, and you’re all set.

In the second example, creating a video trailer, it can be time-consuming (create a slide deck and convert it to video) or super simple with a tool I recently discovered called Lumen5.

85% of Facebook Video is watched with the sound off. (Animoto)

The biggest complaints, and what stops most people from making videos, are the complexity and the time it takes to create videos. Lumen5 eliminates those obstacles.

The biggest complaints, and what stops most people from making videos, are the complexity and the time it takes to create videos. Click to Tweet

There are four steps after you create your free account:

1. Paste the URL from your blog post into a field and click Go. The software creates a storyboard with text pulled directly from your blog post.
2. Edit with suggested royalty-free images to match your content. Or upload your own images.
3. Select a clip of royalty-free music.
4. Review and publish.

I couldn’t believe it the first time I created a video from a blog post. It took me about 15 minutes because I was messing around with the images. The video below is from this post.

Here’s How to Create a Video with Lumen5

After you create your free account at Lumen5.com, click on your profile image and select the option to Create Video.

In the field next to the Create button, paste in the URL (permalink) for the blog post you want to turn into a video trailer. Click the Create button.

The Storyboard

Depending on the length of the blog post, a window may open like the one you see below. It’s recommended you keep your videos under two minutes. I recommend keeping them around 1 minute if you want the viewer to watch the entire thing.

What the software is doing is estimating how long your video will be and if your post is very long, it will recommend that you create several shorter videos from selections of your article.

If you prefer to use the entire article, then slick the link that’s highlighted at the bottom of the window to use the entire article.

Now, you’ll see the storyboard that is created from your content. To create a new section, simply highlight the text you want to use on a “slide.” Each section will create a single slide when the video is created. Short, concise sentences are best.

You can edit each section. Looking at the image below, on the left, some of the text is highlighted. That created each section. Then, I edited the content to be shorter, and still maintain the message.

IMPORTANT: Add a final section with a call to action to read the post on your site (see the examples at the end of the post). You’ll be able to do some additional editing later. Click the Continue button at the top of the page.

Add Images and Music

The next step is to tweak the images that were auto-populated with your text. Some will be appropriate and some will need to be changed.

On the left side of the dashboard you have an option to select media, music, and create some customized branding for your video. This is where you’ll spend the most time. You can use images that you’ll discover under the media tab, you can upload your own images or you can simply use a background color for the text. Be sure to save your work as you create the visuals.

Time to Publish

You can preview your video at any time by clicking Continue. If the video needs some work, click on Continue Editing. When you’re satisfied with the preview, click on Publish. You’ll receive an email when the video rendering is complete (this can take awhile, go do something else while you wait 😆  ).

Download Your Video

Once your video is finished rendering, download it to your computer or Dropbox or whereever you save your files. If you discover that there’s an error, never fear. You can edit the video again and then rerender it.

Share Your Video

Now that you have a video trailer for your blog post, it’s time to share it. If your video is under one minute, you can upload it to Instagram, as well as Facebook and Twitter. If it’s under 140 seconds (2 minutes, 20 seconds), then you can upload it to Twitter and Facebook (up to 4 hours). [Here’s the video I created while capturing screenshots for this post.]

You’ll also want to upload your videos to your YouTube channel. But, do not post the YouTube link on your social networks. Upload the video file directly (native upload) to each platform so you get the benefit of the preference from the algorithms.  What is “native video”?

…videos that are created within or uploaded directly to Facebook, and auto-play within the News Feed.

The social platforms don’t want you to sent your viewers off of their site. They give preference to any native content that keeps the audience on their platform.

Here’s what you do:

1. First, upload the video file directly within a status update.
2. Next, write a short description of your blog post to complement the video trailer.
3. Finally, include a call to action and link back to the blog post on your site.

This works for Twitter and Facebook. Hyperlinks don’t work on Instagram posts. You can refer to the link in your bio to get to the blog post.

I found that keeping video trailers close to one minute works better than those that are two minutes or more. You’ll get better reach, engagement and click-throughs to your blog post.

I asked a few people in my Visibility Group to share video trailers they made for their blog posts so you can see how others are doing it.

Jo Guerra of KickA Marketing

Sharon Williams of The 24 Hour Secretary

Liana George of By George Organizing Solutions

RECOMMENDED READING

13 Ways to Repurpose Your Content

Your Action Steps

Give it a try!
1. Set up a free Lumen5 account.

2. Follow the steps to create a video as outlined in this post.

3. Post a link to your video in the comments so I can check it out!

Title image: Chris Lawton