7 Bullet-Proof Ways to Drive More Traffic to Your Blog Posts Using Video
This is a guest post from our friends over at Wave.video who know a thing or two about creating video!!!!
When it comes to content marketing, you should spend at least as much time promoting your content as you spend on its creation. The numbers might vary (some say the rule should really be 20/80) but the bottom line is the same: without promotion, your content won’t get as stellar a result as it might.
Chances are, you already promote your content on social media platforms or via email newsletters. Add another powerful tool to your arsenal – video. Posts with video get more engagement, and 50% of viewers want to see more videos from the brands that they follow.
Here are 7 easy ways of how video can help you promote your blog content.
1. Shoot videos for the most popular blog posts
Oftentimes, marketers just don’t know where to start with videos. In fact, as we found out from our recent study, this is the #1 reason why marketers fail at video.
If you want to get the best results from your video marketing effort, start by making videos for the best-performing blog posts. Since they are already driving a significant amount of traffic, it’s the sign that they are well-written and of interest to the audience.
To find out what your best-performing pieces of content are, head over to your Google Analytics, then choose the report Behavior > Site Content > Landing pages and filter by the blog pages.
Creating videos from blog posts is a great tactic because you already have all the content. Simply repurpose your article text into a script and shoot a talking head video. If you feel uncomfortable on camera, use a tool like Wave.video to make a video online.
Once your video is ready, post it on YouTube and add a link back to the original blog post from the video description. This way, you are giving your viewers a chance to learn more about the topic and driving traffic back to your website.
2. Embed a GIF in the email
While technically GIFs are not video, they do surely look like a short video clip. They are fun, engaging, and show your audience you speak their language.
GIFs are marketers’ best friends. Not only are they cute and catchy, but they also help you improve click-through rates and conversions.
Next time you send out a newsletter with a new article, try embedding an animated GIF. Don’t forget to insert a link that would lead back to the article. If the article has a video, make sure to add a Play button to the GIF. This way, your readers will know right away that there is a video they can watch in the article and be more likely to click.
3. Create a short teaser video and share it on Twitter
On their business blog, Twitter revealed that tweets with videos get 10X more engagement than tweets without. To take advantage of this great opportunity, make sure you accompany at least some of your blog promotion tweets with video.
The videos that you make for Twitter don’t have to be long. In fact, the ideal length of a Twitter video is no longer than 45 seconds.
Here are a few ideas on how you can create a teaser video for your blog post:
- Share the title of the article and one powerful quote
- Add the article subtitles as text on video, to give your viewers an idea of what they will be able to find in the blog post
- If you featured a guest author in your blog post, add her/his picture to the video along with a quote
- You can even record a short video of yourself where you can briefly talk about the main idea of the article
4. Shoot a talking-head video for Instagram
Another underestimated social media platform that can help you drive traffic back to your blog posts is Instagram. While most of us know it as a visual platform for sharing images and videos, it has certainly outgrown this default functionality.
Videos generate more comments on Instagram than images. They create meaningful, personal relations with your followers.
If you want to drive more traffic to your blog posts with the help of Instagram, a talking-head video might probably work best. It helps your audience to connect with you on a deeper level. Besides, people love seeing a real person behind a brand.
You have several options on where to post a video on Instagram: in-feed, Stories, even a live video. Whatever option you choose, don’t forget to add a call-to-action: Swipe up to read more, Check out the link in bio, Visit my website, etc.
5. Make a video for LinkedIn
While LinkedIn was one of the last social media platforms to introduce native video, the power of video stands true on LinkedIn, too. It was found that videos were shared 20 times more than any other type of content.
In fact, when our Chief Visionary Officer Kate Skavish finally got the opportunity to post live videos on LinkedIn, she got tremendous results. Her first post received a whopping amount of 15,660 views and 68 comments, all without any paid promotion.
LinkedIn is one of the social platforms where you can still achieve amazing results with video. Space is not as cluttered as on Facebook or Twitter, and it’s easier to get noticed.
6. Do Facebook Live
It’s no secret that organic reach on Facebook is declining. Apparently, the social media giant wants us to put some budget behind our posts so that they can at least reach our own audience.
However, there is one trick that can help you get more eyes on your content, and that is live videos. In one of their experiments, Agorapulse found out that Facebook reach of live videos was 222% higher than uploaded videos (let alone posts without any visuals).
To promote your blog content on Facebook, you can start a live video where you can briefly talk about the content of the article. You can also share some interesting quotes or stats from the article. To ignite the meaningful conversation, don’t forget to ask questions and encourage your viewers to comment.
7. Embed the video in the blog post
Ranking well in search engines is a surefire way to get a steady stream of traffic to your blog posts. Once you manage to get to the top page of Google, your articles will keep attracting new visitors on autopilot.
While there are many things that contribute to SEO, the dwell time (i.e., how much time people spend on your website) is one of the important ranking factors. The longer people stay on your website, the more interesting they find the content. This gives the search engine a signal that your content is good and therefore worth putting higher on the result page.
Embedding a video into your blog posts helps you increase the dwell time. On average, people spend 2.6x more time on pages with video than without.
Conclusion
When promoting your blog content, make sure you take the full advantage of video as your promotion technique. Try creating short videos for social media or embedding an animated GIF in your newsletter. The results will surprise you!