Every marketer dreams of having visitors spending more time on their blog posts. The longer the visitors stay, the higher the chances of conversion. And there can be no other better way of adding a bit of muscle to your blog post than using videos.
This idea makes sense because videos are popular and more accessible these days. Videos make up 82% of all the online customer traffic, with 500 million people watching Facebook videos every day and 10 billion people watching videos on Snapchat.
Then there are people spending 2.6 times as much time on pages featuring videos as they do on pages without videos. Videos are easy to understand, consumer and recall. And blog posts with videos have higher chances of ranking in the SERPs than pages without videos.
The statistics above are more than enough to prove the efficacy of using videos in blog posts to increase engagement. But what if you do not know how to do this? Not a problem, the tips below will help you out:
1. Show the Product in Context
This is a strategy that helps in eliminating the nasty challenges that businesses face with their blog posts. This entails promoting a product or a service without being too salesy or pushy. This problem is specifically nagging when you write blogs to target people at the top of the funnel.
These people do not know your brand yet, and they also do not have any idea of your products. And most importantly, they are not at the stage where they will consider purchasing from you.
But it will work for you to show them your products specifically in the context of the issue they are searching for, and this is where videos come in handy. The tutorial video in your blog post need not be professional and polished.
Shoot it on your laptop by using a blend of screen recording and a front-facing camera. You can even add different effects for overlaying the recording with text by using a simple video maker.
2. Keep the Videos in Your Blog Post Less Than 2 Minutes
If you really want to increase engagement with your blog posts by including videos, ensure that the videos are short and to the point. That’s because short videos gain more engagement.
As per reports, most of the engagement is found in videos less than 2 minutes in length. Do not think further if you are wondering how to include all crucial information in a 2-minute video.
You do not need to worry about explaining and going into the details of covering the different aspects of your blog post topic. Using video for increasing engagement with your blog post means complementing the information being discussed and not covering the post entirely.
3. Create a Summary Video of Your Blog Post
Not all the readers will like consuming all the content, which has nothing to do with your writing. Many people these days are visual learners. Thus, they might not put in a lot of effort in going through your long blog post. But this does not mean that they do not require your advice.
That’s exactly where a video can help you out. Recording a summary of your post and publishing it within the content will allow viewers to choose the way they would like to consume your content. This is a strategy that works specifically for content answering the audiences’ questions.
For example, Ahrefs, a webmaster tools website, regularly adds video summaries in its blog posts, allowing its visitors to either go through written content or engage with the visual format.
You must note that the brand places these videos right at the beginning of its blog posts, just under the table of contents section. By doing so, the company ensures that even the most casual readers who do not like scrolling to the end of a post will see their video.
4. Create Tutorials and How-To Videos
Creating good quality video tutorials showcasing your brand, products, and services and including them in your blog posts enhances conversion rates. Try showing off features, a step-by-step guide, and the uses of your products. Demonstrate exactly how people can use your products and services to simplify their problems.
In the same way, how-to videos are good at introducing brands to their target audiences, which is why such videos are quite popular on YouTube. In fact, 30% of the individuals search YouTube for how-to videos.
66% of the individuals prefer watching product videos instead of reading blogs. Therefore, showcasing your service or product in a video and including the same in your blog post will bring maximum benefits.
Such blog posts with videos will convey your brand message faster to individuals who are not accustomed to your brand and are not on the stage of buying from you yet.
5. Use Videos as Teasers for Promoting Your Blog
So, you have put in a lot of effort in producing your blog only to find that it has not got the number of views you had expected. The key to increasing engagement with your blog posts is promoting them most effectively.
Structure your blog so that there is an increase in its chances of appearing on Google SERPs. Also, try emailing your blog to your mailing list and publishing it on different social media platforms.
Most importantly, you can make a teaser video summarizing the main points of your blog. This will enable the audience to understand what you intend to say in the newsfeed. At least they will get the highlights of your content if they are not willing to go through the entire blog.
WSI, a Digital Marketing Agency from Dublin, uses this technique with its blog posts and has seen positive results over time. The video platform of the agency uses AI in the video production stage for selecting sound-bites from blogs and then supports the sound-bites with stock video and images. The result is engaging videos specifically designed to tease out the aspects of the company’s blogs to encourage people to go through its full story.
The Bottom Line
Regardless of the video strategy, the most crucial thing is knowing your objectives and working to achieve them consistently. If you do not have any idea of the approach to take, research what your competitors are doing and figure out how you can be better at including videos in your blog posts.