Video blogging isn’t a new concept for a lot of industries, but I don’t see it enough in author promotion.

Personally, I can understand if the hesitation is about being “video ready” – I don’t love the prep work for video blogging, you have to figure out the lighting, make sure your hair doesn’t look crazy, and hopefully perfect that angle that doesn’t add 10 pounds.

But I do love the response I get from video blogging, it’s so engaging, and always beats the other content I put out, so for that reason alone it’s a winning author promotion strategy.

How much work is it?

When it comes to deciding on what to video blog about, it’s no different than a written blog really, in fact, it’s likely less work for a lot of you.

Consider this, the best, most engaging video blogging content is less than 2 minutes.

And while you need to prep what you’ll talk about, it’s very different than typical blogging which requires actual writing after you brainstorm the topic, framing sentence structures, finding and using synonyms as appropriate, adding photos, proofreading and checking for grammatical errors – a video blogger drops all these other steps by making the same point in a short video.

Convinced yet?

If saving time isn’t a sweet enough payoff, here are a few more benefits to adding video blogging to your author promotion:

1. Deeper connection with your audience

It’s undeniable that video blogging is one of the most personal ways to approach your author promotion. And believe it or not, Face time with you can take interested readers to dedicated readers quite quickly.

95% of book purchases are made on personal recommendations – that a powerful statistic – and it should tell you that your author promotion needs to be as personal as possible.

I was at a doctor’s office recently and the business cards out front were stunning black and white headshots of the doctors. I was so impressed and the psychology behind this, because one, it’s hard to throw away someone’s face, and two, putting a face to a name is such a fantastic way to make a bigger impact.

 2. Encouraged commenting and engagement

Commenting and discussion and even debate has increased online lately, for a number of reasons, we don’t need to go there.

But I can tell you right now that people are even more likely to engage with you on a video blog than they are a written blog post.

Playing back into personal recommendations, someone who is actively engaging with you on your content is much more likely to recommend your work to a friend or colleague – because they’re already investing time in you.

Author promotion is about expanding your reach, so increased engagement and the SEO value of commenting really take your potential reach to a new level.

3. Avoid editing and upload hassles

Any of you who run a traditional blog right now know that it’s not as simple as just uploading the content.

Once it’s there you need to adjust formatting, and you need to work in images. On our blog we’re very strict about following SEO and readability guidelines. It’s a real task.

With video blogging, once you get a take you like, it’s as simple as uploading the file to your site, adding some keywords, and you’re good to go.

I love that sound of that…

4. It gives your writing skills a break and hones a new talent

I don’t know about you but I write a lot. I write emails, I write blog posts, I write guest articles, I write books, the list continues. And I’ll go out on a limb and say I’m satisfied that I know how to write.

Video blogging pushes you to hone a new talent.

It trains you to be more engaging in person and it’s a great way to increase your comfort level being in front of an audience if you plan on securing events as part of your author promotion.

If you write non-fiction and your goal is to expand into speaking at conferences or other venues, video blogging is also a great way to build your speaking resume.

Sure, sitting being a camera isn’t exactly the same as presenting to an audience, but it does give people a great idea of your personality, your delivery, and your charisma – which are all really important to the people considering you for their event.

5.  You can post content to multiple channels

For most authors, if you write a blog, it likely only exists on your site. Sure you can share it on your social accounts or in your newsletter, but that’s still just asking people to go to your site and read your post.

With video blogging your author promotion can expand to new channels.

Sure, you’ll put the video on your site, but there are numerous free platforms and some strong paid ones that you can get accounts on to ensure you’re reaching thousands of more people than you ever could with your website.

Here’s a great list of options with details.

 6. You can do it from anywhere

I really love this benefit, because to be honest, I feel more myself “in the moment” than I do planning out a video recording.

So I’ve recorded video at events and even on the weekends when I’m just out at the house somewhere I love or somewhere that inspires an idea for content. (Each month I publish a list of content ideas that you’ll find of interest for social media content and video blogs!)

If you’re planning on tackling video blogging do your fans and followers a favor and change it up every once in awhile with a video taken somewhere that not only adds an exciting element to your content, but likely inspires your content and your delivery to be that much better.

Plus the added benefit is that you can record on your phone or your tablet.

This means even when you’re on vacation or life just gets in the way of your author promotion schedule, you can record content and stay up with your video blogging schedule – all on the fly. (Need to stay organized? Download my free monthly planner here!)

The takeaway

If you haven’t started a blog because you lack the time, or we can be honest here, lack of interest or inspiration, consider video blogging.

I’ve covered a lot of benefits, so if you can get over the fear of being on screen, like I have, you’re ready to go!

And hey, no one says you have to commit to doing this without testing the waters.

Simply add a few video blogs to your upcoming author promotion efforts and see what kind of responses you get. My bet is you’ll be pleasantly surprised, and motivated.

Have you had any great successes with video blogging? What are some of your favorite things that video bloggers you follow do? Please share in the comments!