7 Smart Ways Bloggers Can Use Audio and Video Content

The purpose of your blog is to capture more relevant traffic from your target audience. While writing high-quality content is a surefire way to engage your audience, video and audio blogging are also trending upwards.

Video marketing is yielding such favorable results that 95% of video marketers plan to increase or maintain video spend in 2020. And, audio content is not far behind. Forty-five percent of bloggers report that audio content helps them achieve better results.

If you’re looking to hop on the video and audio content bandwagon, this post is for you.

What bloggers need to create audio and video content

Before we delve too deep into creative ways to incorporate audio and video content into your blog, let’s talk about the materials you need to create outstanding content.

If you’re going to create audio content, it’s critical that your audio works properly and sounds good. Here is a quick checklist of what you need:

• A blogging platform that is suited for audio content distribution (e.g., WordPress)
• A reliable web hosting service (ahem…Virtue Media)
• A good microphone
• Audio recording software
• WordPress audio plugins

The same rules that apply to audio content apply to video content. Before you record your first video, make sure you have the following tools:

• A video camera or a smartphone
• Video editing software
• A reliable web hosting service
• A good microphone
• A YouTube account

You don’t have to spend a million dollars on audio and video tools, but you do need to have some tools that will help you create excellent DIY audio recordings and videos.

Now that we’ve covered what you need let’s look into the top 7 ways you can use audio and video content in your blog posts.

1. Include an audio version of your blog post

If you’ve already gone to the trouble of writing a blog post, why not go the extra mile and include a recorded version of your text?

Adding an audio version of your blog posts has two main advantages. First, it makes your website accessible to people of all abilities. Second, audio recordings humanize you.

With the help of an audio recording, you become a friendly voice that people look forward to hearing. Just think how much the podcast-listening world connects to celebrity journalist voices (e.g., Ira Glass, Sarah Koenig, Ronan Farrow, etc.).

The most reliable way to add an audio file to your blog post is with an audio file WordPress plugin. 

2. Conduct an audio or video interview

Reaching out to industry leaders to get quotes is a smart blogging strategy. Here’s why:

• It helps you quickly establish a relationship with influencers in your industry.
• Leaders offer invaluable insight to your followers that they’ve learned from years of experience.
• If you include a quote from an industry leader in your post, they are likely to share your content with their broad audience. 
• You can add high domain authority links from these leaders’ websites to your blog.

Quotes from industry leaders help you create valuable content. But, consider this. Video content is 50% more likely to drive organic traffic than plain text.

Instead of just asking for a quote, find influencers and ask if you can interview them. If you can capture them on video, that’s awesome! If not, an audio interview is just as valuable. 

It might be difficult to get an industry leader to agree to an interview at first, but don’t give up. Once you get one person to say yes, others will follow.

3. Create a slideshow video

Another way to include video in blog posts is to turn your text content into a short slideshow.

Blog content typically follows a basic structure, including an intro, headings of your main points, subheadings that support your heading, and a conclusion. 

If you’ve outlined your blog post with a solid structure, you can quickly turn it into a slideshow.

Create one slide for your intro, a slide for each heading, and a slide for your conclusion. Then, narrate your slides with the content you’ve already written.

You can create your slideshow directly in WordPress or pick one of the top WordPress slideshow plugins to help you make a slideshow.

4. Highlight a product or service with a video

Blogging is about providing value to your readers, but that doesn’t mean you can’t feature your products and services through an explainer video.

In a short explainer video, you succinctly sum up your products and services and show your target audience how your product solves pain points.

Explainer videos also have incredibly favorable results. In fact, 97% of marketers say video has helped users understand their products and services better.

It’s worthy to note that a video coupled with professional copy can boost your results up to 28%, according to Omnicore.

5. Incorporate video tutorials or a screencast in your blog

Estimates report that 50-80% of all internet searches are informational by nature. When people want to know how to do something, they Google it. 

If you are sharing “how-to” content, consider creating a YouTube video for your blog. Why? Because 65% of the population are visual learners. 

When you upload a YouTube video, your audience can watch you complete a task and mimic your actions. They also have the added benefit of being able to pause and restart the video as needed. How much more effective is watching video instruction than reading through a hefty “how-to” article?

Similarly, if you offer training on how to do something on the computer, you can record, narrate, and share a screencast.

Showing your audience how to complete a function on a computer is a lot more useful than telling them how to do it.

6. Add a video summary of your blog

If it’s worth writing about something, it’s worth creating a video about it. Seriously. Ask J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter franchise. 

After you write your blog post, create a video that quickly summarizes your main points. Remember that short videos get the most engagement because they are easy to consume. So, keep your video snappy.

7. Introduce yourself in a video

Your about page is a staple of your website. In fact, about pages are often the most visited page on any website.  

It makes sense why. About pages helps you connect with your readers. It gives your audience a chance to get to know you, learn what makes you tick and why you do what you do, and understand your background.

Your about page humanizes you.

If it’s fun for your audience to read about you, think how much they will enjoy watching a short video about you. 

Here’s a challenge. Spice up your blog’s about page with a video and see what results you get.

Wrap Up

If you’re ready to venture into the world of video and audio content creation, who you choose as your website hosting company matters. You need a website hosting company with 100% uptime and complete reliability. You need web hosting from Virtue Media.