Video marketing.
Most marketers’ worst nightmare…
But why?
Simple: it takes time to learn how to create a video and it can easily cost thousands of dollars to hire someone to do it for you.
And getting your face in front of that camera?… NUH-UH!…
Thus you decide to sit this one out. After all, what’s the harm in not creating videos, right?
WRONG…
According to a report from Cisco, by 2020, over 82% of all web traffic will come from video.
And this study by Vidyard shows that video drives better results. Period.
So much so that marketers who use video:
- receive 41% more web traffic from search than non-users;
- see 27% higher click-through rates;
- and grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users.
In other words, you no longer have a choice whether or not to deliver your content through video.
Video is now the primary way people want to learn, shop, and interact online.
What are YOU going to do about it???
How about turning your blog posts into videos?
As in: take your last blog post, fire up your Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, give it a few minutes of your time and… TA-DA!… a video ready to be uploaded to YouTube and/or any other video site.
NOT kidding…
Turning your blog posts into videos is one of the easiest ways to repurpose your content AND it opens up a whole new traffic generation venue and a whole new segment of people to consume your content.
A mighty 91% of internet users, to be exact. 91%!!!
(source)
Plus, YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world… and it’s OWNED by the first largest search engine!
(as of July 2016; source)
Let me show you how easy it is to convert a blog post into a video.
How to Turn Blog Posts into Videos [ Tutorial ]
SIDE NOTE: I used Office 2016 for Mac in the video below. If you are working with a different Office version, look for similar functions in your specific software.
How to turn a blog post into a video [step-by-step instructions]
☐ STEP 1: Copy and paste a blog post into a Word document
A few ‘good-to-knows’:
- Include post title.
- Even though you can use your blog post as is, I strongly suggest editing it for size.
- Each paragraph in your Word doc will become its own PowerPoint slide. Thus, the shorter your paragraphs are the better. One-sentence paragraphs work best.
- Avoid adding extra spaces between paragraphs; they’ll turn into blank slides in your PowerPoint presentation.
☐ STEP 2: Save document as. . .
Now that your blog post is short and sweet, you need to save it as
- text file (.txt) on Mac;
or - Word doc on PC.
Yes, it’s important – or else your document might not properly import into PowerPoint.
PRO TIP: If you use Word Outline feature to format your blog post, PowerPoint will adopt the same heading styles.
For example, Heading 1 will turn into a slide title, Heading 2 will become the first level of text, and so forth.
If you do use Word Outline, make sure to save your doc as a Rich Text Format (.rtf) file.
☐ STEP 3: Import saved file into PowerPoint
In PowerPoint, go to
- Home Tab
- New Slide
- Outline
Or
- Insert
- Slides from…
- Outline
You’ll be asked to select the file to import.
Next… sit back and watch your blog post paragraphs magically populate PowerPoint slides! 😃 ❤️ 👍
Troubleshooting tips:
- If each paragraph doesn’t become its own PowerPoint slide, you might need to go back and save the document in a different format – as a text file, if you saved it as a Word doc, or vice versa.
- If you have blank slides between text slides, you might’ve added extra spaces between paragraphs. Just delete the blank slides and remember to mind your spaces next time around.
☐ STEP 4: Style the slides
Yes, you can go nuts here, but if time and skills are a concern, the one thing you should do is to pick the best layout for your slides.
Here’s how:
- Click on any slide in the left-hand preview sidebar to select it.
- Go to Edit => Select All.
- With all slides selected, go to Layout and choose the one you wish to use.
Most of the times, Title Slide layout works best, but it’s entirely up to you.
For all intents and purposes, your slide deck is now ready to be turned into a video.
Buuuut… because you could leave it at that, doesn’t mean you should.
At the very least, go through your slide deck and change it up a bit – apply different layouts, add images, or change font colors to emphasize key words and phrases.
OR…
How to Turn Blog Posts into G-R-E-A-T Videos
Yes, this traffic hack removes all excuses holding you back from creating videos. (SORRY! 😁 )
Now you *too* can…
- receive 41% more web traffic from search than non-users;
- see 27% higher click-through rates and 35% conversion rates;
- and grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users.
SWEET!
However, I’ll be honest with you…
Yes, you absolutely can turn any blog post into a video in nibbles of your time. And those videos WILL drive traffic.
However, to get BIG bites of traffic, you’ll need to step up your game.
A few months ago, I set out on a quest to find a better way to turn blog posts into videos.
By “better” I mean:
- creating killer videos
- from scratch
- in minutes
- without any complicated editing software
- without a steep learning curve
- without paying someone thousands of dollars to do it for you.
Tall order, huh?…
No guts, no glory!
And… what do you know… unicorns do exist!
My video creating unicorn came in the form of Vidnami – an easy-to-use software that simplifies the process of marrying your blog post with slides, offers a dead-simple sentence-by-sentence way to add a voiceover, and ‘professionalizes’ the resulting video.
You should DEFINITELY take a look at my Vidnami review and tutorial – you just might be blown away by what it can do for YOUR business.
Plus, for those of you who are truly ready to finally claim your share of video traffic in your market, I have a gift: 50% discount on Vidnami – for LIFE.
👍 ❤️
☐ STEP 5: Record your presentation as a video
Next, fire up your favorite screencast software (Screenflow is my personal favorite).
In PowerPoint, go to
- Slide Show
- Play from Start
- then simply read the text as you move from slide to slide.
IMPORTANT
Don’t forget to add a strong Call to Action at the end – anything from buying your product or service, encouraging your viewers to join your email list, or simply sending them back to your blog to find out more.
Your blog post is ready to be uploaded to YouTube as a video.
See?… wasn’t that easy?…
Bonus Tip: How to Turn Videos into Podcasts
This step is so simple it’s a shame to ignore it.
Now that your blog post got its second citizenship as a YouTube video, you can easily download the YouTube audio track and use it as yet another way to drive traffic – from audio sites like SoundCloud, Anchor.fm, or any other audio/podcasting site.
Just go to ListenToYouTube.com, enter your YouTube video URL, and press Go.
This free service will quickly strip your video voice-over and turn it into an MP3 file ready for audio distribution.
Marketing Takeaway
Day in and out, I tell my 10 year-old daughter, “The best time to do it is right now.”
Whatever that IT is.
Do you feel like you’ve let your competitors dominate video marketing in your niche for long enough?
Then the time to make video marketing your new best friend is NOW.
Time to make video marketing your new best friend!Click To Tweet
Thank you so much! I never knew that we could use powerpoint to create videos.
It’s a great way to create videos with what you already have for sure, Praful. Hope you’ll put it to good use.
Hey Ana,
This is the tutorial I was really looking for.
You have explained in detail through text, video, voice as well.
I’ll surely follow this guide and going to covert my post into video file.
Thanks
Saravana
Happy to hear that, Saravanakumar!
This article is very informative and all the tips will be really helpful to make video marketing.
Happy to hear it, Bidyut!
Ana, thanks for such a great article on video. I love your writing style. Would you also write an article on Youtube SEO, it is most sought term on search engine lately. I learned a lot from your blog. And after several years, I have been running a successful blog and co-founder of a successful company. I like the way you generously giving out information without expecting anything in return. I would love to interview for our new blog post titled Successful bloggers list. Please let me know if you could spare a few minutes? Thanks.
Thanks so much for stopping by TGC, Joanna – pleasure to meet you!
YouTube SEO, hmmm… Not a bad idea for a future post!
Would be happy to be an interview guest. 🙂
I guess this makes sense (and a great article overall, thank you). Though personally I’ve always enjoyed reading more than videos, especially whilst on commute. Either way, thank you!
I am with you, James – reading over watching, but you and I are a minority. 😉
Thanks for coming by.
Hi Ana,
I already taken a deep look into your topics on ‘Turn a blog post into a video’. Undoubtedly, an unique work. Many bloggers trying hard to find out such types of content. Anyway, the words of You and James touched me much. So, I would love to say, you two not a minority at all I do with you. Though now I am a video creator (Tom Nash TV) with a view to providing some tips or guideline on how to get views on you tube fast, from my boyhood I prefer reading to watching as reading anything always open a vast window of deep thinking ability, creativity and thirst for learning. Reading habit creates a strong inner world in the reader’s mind which helps a man to be simple, polite, co-operative and enthusiastic – above all wise. But our civilized world have turned our lives just into instrument. May be our tightly competition tendency or else.. Thanks for all and best wishes.
LOVED your comment, Tom – thanks for taking your time with it!
And yes, loved your channel as well… 😉 You do have a way to keep your viewers engaged!
Hope to see you around and have a great weekend.
Hi Ana,
This is Exellent Post about how to convert Blog post to video, now a days video are the best way for Blog marketing, thank you very much for your useful post.
Thanks so much, Prosanta.
Hi Anna,
Thanks for this wonderful tutorial, I’d long wanted to convert my blog posts into videos but never got to know which tool or software works best but you’ve brought up this post very well.
I would try this and see how well it works.
Thanks once more.
You are so very welcome and all the best with it!
Hello;
Thanks for this idea, i just started video marketing, lets see how it turns out
You are so very welcome; hope it works just as well for you as it does for me.
This article was very helpful. I am just starting to blog and turning it into a video in a short time is ideal. Thanks
Happy to help!
Wohooo Thanks for the post. Next time will surely use this hack. Quite a unique post for traffic generation for your blog.
? , Vivek.
Hi Ana,
Wow!
This article if very informative and all the tips will be really helpful the next time I’m going to make a video marketing.
You have explained it in a simple and easy to understand step by step tutorial!
Thank you!
Happy to be of help, Kristine.
Ana you make it very simple love the steps actually you explained it in really simple way to do. I am happy to here on your blog and will be coming back now on continuous basis.
Honored, Hammad – thank you.
Hi Ana,
What you’ve just shared here is a million $ worth of information. I’ve been trying to join the league of video marketers but like you rightly said…I keep thinking about a lot of the obstacles rather than focusing on solutions.
And this one you just shared here is unarguably the perfect fit for me.
Tonight, It is me and MS office…though I still use office 2010. Hope that won’t be a thing?
Thanks Ana, this is useful.
Your Office version shouldn’t matter that much, Shamsudeen.
So… how did it go? I’d love to see your first video when it’s ready!
Hey Ana,
You have really gone to the great length to explain it. I really love these kind of step-by-step ‘how to’ articles. This tutorial really encourages to take actions immediately. I have converted my ppt presentations into videos before and posted them on youtube. but that’s it. I never converted my post into video. I better start doing it now.
It’s amazing what we can do with one piece of content, isn’t it, Vinita?…
Hope you do get to take this hack for a spin soon; let me know how it goes!
After reading this post some news ideas now floating in my mind.
I never thought video can be great source of huge traffic.
Thanks for open my eyes.
Thanks again for sharing this details.
Glad to hear this post sparked your interest in video marketing, Hamim.
hi anna,
Initially i came to your blog accidentally but after going through 3-4 articles on your site i feel like keeping all my work aside and just keep reading your articles and gaining more and more knowledge.thank u so much for all such rapid and easy tips and ideas.will be looking forward to read many more articles from you.
Welcome to Traffic Generation Café, Tarjani – honored you decided to stick around!
Wow! I never consider video marketing a traffic hack but with this tutorial you’ve really change my views. Ana, You the best!
Thumb up……
Hacking the notion that creating a video is difficult… that’s certainly a hack in my book! ?
Thanks for coming by, Helyz; happy you found this helpful.
Thanks Ana,
I’m a little nervous when it comes to having my voice on a recording, i tried doing this once before and ended up saying “basically” and “um” A LOT.
But with that percentage of traffic, I’m thinking I will just have to refine my craft a little more and get some practice.
I’ll let you know how i go.
Thanks again
I know EXACTLY what you mean, Heath. I’ve struggled with this for a long time myself; as a matter of fact, this was the primary reason I stayed away from video marketing altogether.
A simple but brilliant idea turned it all around: a script! I started writing scripts for every video and it worked like a charm. If you think about it, it doesn’t really take that much more extra time, considering how much time you are saving editing all the ‘ums’… 😉
You should definitely give it a shot. If you try Content Samurai, you’ll do even better since it records one sentence at a time by default. It’s almost too hard to mess up.
Hey Ana,
We need to take a post that we’ve written and extract the key points in bullet points in PowerPoint or Keynote. A template that we like that’s not too busy to give our presentation some flair. Source photos to add some visual element. If we are reviewing a product, it’s important that we include a shot of the product in question. We’ll be adding those photos inside our presentation. We have to sure of our opening slide refers to our brand.
Close presentation with our brand and with the URL we want people to visit. Open our screencapture program. And read out the screens we’ve created in a lively way. When we are done, convert that into a flash format that we can easy upload. Upload the video on our YouTube channel.
Make sure we add the URL that we want people to visit to our video description and make sure we added an interesting description. Grab the embedded code from YouTube and add that to our blog post and also add a bit of an introduction to the video. In this process i have converted many times a blog into a video, it also take less time in complete procedure. But i have learned many additional information by your post so thanks for sharing your thought with us.
With best wishes,
Amar kumar
Sounds like you’ve got the process down, Amar – actually very similar to what I do as well! ?
And you are so right, the more you do it, the easier it gets and the better your videos are.
Thanks for coming by!
Hi Ana,
Glad to be here again!
This is yet another informative piece.
Thanks for the amazing tips you shared with the video.
The step by step guide to a video is really amazing.
The statistics presented shows that The video is here to stay!
Good to know more on this line in the upcoming posts.
May you have a wonderful October ahead
Best
~ Philip
Welcome back, Philip!
Video marketing is definitely the right move for ANY business.
Awesome Article !!! Now a days many people are targeting video marketing and getting huge engagement. I was also focusing on video marketing itself. This Awesome tips by you even made my work easier. Really great way to convert the blog post into a video with the help of software. Thanks for the share 🙂
You are very welcome, Gaurav.
Ana my wife does this with almost every blog post. It does help a ton. I admit that I have been lazy but will take you advice and do it for myself as well. Thank you once again for your amazing tips.
Love the man who puts his action to where his mouth is, Randy!
Great job on the video (https://steemit.com/panama/@hilarski/panama-cost-of-living – for anyone who wants to see how Randy’s done) – I thought it was perfect length, engaging, and informative. I’d definitely click on that link if I were considering to move to Panama! 😉
Hey Anna,
This is awesome and I thank you for this amazing tutorial. I’ve learned a lot here and appreciate it. Video and podcasts are becoming so popular I can’t keep up lol.
Whenever I do a video, I do get more information in there as opposed to writing a blog. Plus, the social media is giving more attention to video than anything we write these days so why the heck not.
You have given me that little push I need to do this….right after I get my hair cut in a few days. I know I don’t have to be in front of the camera, but sometimes I like to do that for the KLT factor. Whenever I did a video blog, I did have more success with my face talking to people as opposed to my screen shares and such.
OK…off I go
-Donna
Nothing like a great haircut to push us to the new heights! ? ?
Video is definitely a much better way to drive your point across, so as you very well put it ‘why the heck not’! ?
Send me the link to your next video, please; would love to take a look.
Hi Ana…
This is actually an interesting post about making videos. It is true that maximum visitors over 80% comes from videos According to a report from Cisco, by 2020. I learn many tips from your post. Thanks
Glad to hear it!
Great article, and well explained, thanks Ana. I’m always interested in discovering alternative methods, and to learn someone else’s perspective on something with which I may already be familiar.
I use Snagit11, so basically the same principle. I copy/paste my articles from Word to PowerPoint, use a generic “cover” page, so that I can edit the article title accordingly, then either narrate through the article/PP for an MP4 YouTube “slides” presentation, or just keep the title page and narrate through. It depends whether the listener will be more or less distracted or better informed by one method or the other; I like to mix it a bit.
As you know, the technique is not to sound like you’re reading off a page, and with experience and practice, this can be pretty much perfected. Getting used to speaking/recording my voice was my biggest challenge, and then listening to myself in playback the second biggest! The more you do, the easier it gets, and some will find their comfort zone more quickly than others; often it is one of those “just do it” things!
YouTube is something I need to gear up more as my channel is pretty new at the moment.
I love Snagit, but for some reason, mine records the voice-over fine, but shows black screen the entire video. I could probably try to figure out why, but since I have Screenflow… who has the time to deal with it?… 😉
I know exactly what you mean – voice-over has always been my most challenging part. As you said – practice makes perfect! That’s one of the reasons I love Content Samurai so much; it allows me to record one sentence at a time, thus taking the pressure off to sound perfect throughout the video.
Yes, need to look into Samurai, can’t argue with their prediction for 2017!
Ana,
This is an awesome tip! Nowadays, video and podcast are greta ways for marketing. As for me, I am always having issue with video because I’m not used to holding the d*mn camera in front of me!
Great one indeed!
I know EXACTLY what you mean, Reginald – video had never been my friend until I figured out I didn’t actually have to be on camera to make good videos. Plus now that I use Content Samurai… I actually DO make videos! 😉
Thanks so much for stopping by.
Another great one Ana – shared!
I’ve always shied away from video, I guess it’s time I stopped doing that…
Do you use a special microphone?
Thanks, Tim!
And no, no special equipment. I’ve actually experimented doing it with and without a mike, and personally, I liked the audio quality better without it. Just sounded more natural. Go figure!