I sometimes allow my mind to wander while I read something on the internet and I’ll end up losing entire paragraphs.

So, when there’s a video on the page, I really want to thank and maybe even hug the website owner. “Thank you, you’re so sweet and considerate.” That’s what I would say to them.

I know I’m not the only one. In fact, more than 72% of internet users prefer videos to text to learn about something.

The reason why most of us love online video is quite simple: videos are so much easier to digest. They do a great, even perfect job at breaking down complex topics. And that’s what makes them an ideal addition to a website.

Today, not only news websites have videos. Every professional brand website always has an introduction or short product demo video on its homepage. In the food and beverage industry, restaurant video marketing can help owners get more reach and visibility online.

Not only do they aim to give a visitor a quick, engaging insight into their brand– but also want to give them a solid user experience. 

If you want to add videos to your WordPress website to engage visitors with a short attention span like me, then you need to use video plugins. 

We’ve listed some of the best WordPress video plugins for you.

List of WordPress Video Plugins

There’s no such a thing as a one-size-fits-all WordPress video plugin. The best one is always the one that can fulfill your needs and meet your preferences.

But, these plugins below are great options for adding your video to your website.

#1. Envira Gallery

With Envira Gallery, you don’t have to hire a developer to create a WordPress video gallery. 

This plugin is easy to use and lets you create a custom video gallery in minutes. The best thing about this video plugin is it works great with the top page builders out there.

You can use it to create a gallery of any size, and your videos will look great on any device.

Here are other key features that can make you fall in love with this plugin:

• Mobile-friendly,
• Drag and drop builder,
• Social media integrations, image proofing, and WooCommerce store integration,
• Guttenberg blocks for WordPress 5.0,
• Watermark,
• Social sharing for Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Pricing: starts at $29/year.

#2. YouTube Showcase

YouTube Showcase is a popular WordPress video plugin that lets you add videos from YouTube to your website. 

It’s easy to use and has a user-friendly interface. You can add videos by entering the video URL. Since it’s designed for simplicity, it’s a great option for you if you want to add videos to your website without any hassle.

This plugin also allows you to customize the player, so you can match it with your website’s design. And, you can control what appears on the video screen by hiding the player controls, info bar, and title.

This video plugin also comes with some great features like:

• Widget support,
• Custom CSS,
• Ability to hide player controls,
• Continuous play option,
• Autoplay and loop options,
• Shortcode support,
• Video thumbnail quality option.

Pricing: starts at $99.99/year. There is also a free version available.

#3. Modula

Modula is another great WordPress video plugin that allows you to create beautiful custom, unique, and responsive video galleries. 

With this plugin, you can easily add videos from YouTube, Vimeo, or self-hosted videos. You can also control the layout and design of your video gallery. You can basically add any video to your WordPress page without needing coding skills.

This video plugin is mobile-friendly and responsive, so your videos will look great on any device. 

Let’s take a look at its key features:

• Responsive and mobile-friendly,
• Video extension,
• Self-hosted video support,
• Huge library of free add-ons,
• Watermark,
• Password protection.

Pricing: starts at $39/year.

#4. YourChannel

YourChannel provides a quick way to create or curate YouTube videos. With this video plugin, you can show your YouTube videos and even playlists on your own website. 

You can use this plugin to create a video gallery or even add a single video to your post or page. This plugin is perfect if you want to embed YouTube videos in WordPress without having to copy and paste the embed code.

This video plugin has an intuitive interface that makes it easy to use. Plus, it comes with some great features like:

• YouTube Live stream support,
• RTL support,
• Translation,
• Autoplay option,
• Easy shortcode instructions in the post editor,
• Cache system for fast loading.

Pricing: starts $29/year. Free version included.

#5. Videopack

Formerly known as Video Embed & Thumbnail Generator, Videopack is a popular WordPress video plugin that allows you to embed videos from YouTube, Vimeo, and other video sites. 

This plugin can also generate thumbnails for your videos so you don’t have to worry about creating them yourself. It’s easy to use and lets you customize the look of your video gallery. Not to mention you can use the plugin to create a popup video gallery. 

Videopack also allows you to:

• Add videos to your post or page,
• Customize the look of your video gallery,
• Create a popup video gallery,
• Automatically select the one closest to the size of the player or a resolution of your choice,
• Shortcodes,
• Add advertisements to your videos.

Now, if you’re using the Block Editor, you should be aware that Videopack is not compatible with it.

Pricing: starts at $5.99/year.

How to Work With Modula to Create WordPress Video Galleries

Modula might be one of the most popular WordPress gallery plugins out there. So, we’re going to show you how to use it to create a video gallery in WordPress. 

First, you need to install and activate the Modula plugin.

Once you’ve installed and activated the plugin, you need to click on the Add New Gallery button on the Galleries page.

This will bring you to the Gallery Settings screen where you need to enter the details of your video gallery. You can start adding your videos by either selecting “Upload a File” or “Select from Library”. You can even drag an drop your files.

And here are some other settings:

In the General tab, you need to provide a name for your gallery and select the type of gallery you want to create.  

Meanwhile, in the Videos tab, you need to enter the URL of the video you want to add and select a thumbnail. You can also choose to hide the player controls, info bar, and title.

Once you’ve finished configuring the settings, click on the Save Gallery button to save your changes. 

You can now add your gallery to any post or page on your WordPress site using the shortcode that is displayed on the right side of the screen.

Here’s a video tutorial as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxrTXQNExh4

How to Choose the Right WordPress Video Plugins

Again, not all plugins are a good fit for everyone. Remember that the best WordPress video plugin for you might not be the best one for someone else.

So, before you start choosing one of them, it’s always best to consider these points:

• Your needs and preferences,
• The features offered by the plugin,
• Ease of use,
• Customer support,
• Product reviews,
• Is there some documentation offered?
• When was the plugin last updated?
• Does the plugin work with the Default WordPress Editor (aka Block Editor aka Gutenberg Editor)?,
• Price.

Now, the thing is that with WordPress you might end up using tons of plugins. Each one of them will end up slowing down your website. And that’s not a good thing. Page speed s crucial for a site. In a world that is fast, with short attention spans, page loading speed can make or break your site.

This is why I would recommend using page builders. They have tons of features that can easily substitute lots of the plugins out there. Let’s look at an example.

How to Manage Videos inside Kubio WordPress Builder

I’m going to show you how you can use videos on your site using Kubio. Kubio is a block-based builder. It works on top of the latest WordPress experience, aka Gutenberg. Kubio is compatible with any WordPress theme out there, but it works best with block based themes.

At the end of the day, if you start a site from scratch, with Kubio, the theme almost becomes irrelevant. This happens because Kubio gives you so much design freedom!

Before jumping into working with videos in Kubio you should first understand how the new experience in WordPress works.

Everything in WordPress is now a block: paragraphs, images, videos, tables, and more.

When you are inside a page in WordPress you should look for “+” signs.

When you click on such a sign, you will open up a block inserter. You can start typing the name of a block and then select it to insert it. The black ones are the default WordPress blocks, while the blue-green ones are the ones from Kubio.

How you can use video blocks in WordPress and Kubio

Now, the moment you add a block you will notice a toolbar on top of it with several options that can vary from block to block. They mostly refer to moving the block, copying it, or removing it.  In the case of the video block you can only add a video and that is all. No other styling options are available. And this is why you would need a plugin for some more advanced designs.

But let’s see what happens when you add the Kubio video block:

It will place a default video on the page, which you can replace from the block editing panel on the right.

Now, the block editing panel allows you to do tons of customizations. It has three layers: Content, Style, and Advanced.

At the Content level you can:

• Select your video type (self hosted, Youtube, Vimeo);
• Decide the starting and ending times for the video;
• Decide whether you want to have your video to be auto played, muted, or looped;
• Decide whether to show or not the video controls.

At the Style level you can set up:

• The video’s aspect ratio;
• The video’s box shadow;

Here are the available advanced video block edits:

• Background. Here you can make adjustments to background color and type.
• Border and shadows. Here you can add borders with a different color, radius and thickness to your video Gutenberg block. Also, you can add box shadows. You have full control over the position, blur, spread and color of the box shadow.
• Responsive. Here you can decide whether the video block will hide or not on desktop, tablet or mobile.
• Miscellaneous.At this level you can set up the z-index of your block (vertically order the elements that overlap), set up if the element overflows or not (displaying the content of the block flowing out of its container into the surrounding area), add HTML anchors and CSS classes.

Here you can find more info about video block editing in Kubio.

Now, let’s go a bit more in-depth.

How to add a video background with Kubio

Let’s say you want to add a video background to a section, a row, or a column.

Every block, section, column, or row can be editing inside the block editing panel on the right.

Backgrounds can be edited under Style or Advanced.

Now, let’s change the background image this column here (on the left hand side) with a video.

Let’s go to Style -> Background -> Background type and change from Image to Video.

Let’s upload a self hosted video, or paste a link. Use the External option to paste a link from Youtube.

Next you can add a video poster.

And here’s our video background:

Video source

Pretty neat, right?

Creating video galleries with Kubio

We can do this in 3 ways:

1. Adding video blocks to columns

In Kubio you can easily add blank sections if you go at the bottom of a page and select “Add blank section”.

Now, you are asked to choose how many columns you need. Let’s go with three.

We’ll get this:

Let’s click on each “+” sign and add the Kubio video block.

We can add box shadows using the video block Style option, or add a section background, from the section Style option.

Now, I’m going to replace the default videos and set them up to autoplay and loop. You can easily add video posters as well. Everything happens under the Style option in the block editing panel.

Let’s hit “Preview” in the upper-right and take a look at the result:

Next you can make the section full width, change the dimensions of the videos, the spacing between them…All this magic will be managed in the block editing panel on the right hand side.

Adding videos to sliders using Kubio

Now, let’s say we want something more dynamic. Maybe we want a slider with videos, and maybe some text on top. How can we do this?

Well, let’s use the Kubio slider block.

I’m going to add a new section with a single column at the bottom of the page and add the slider block from the “+” sign.

Now, the default slider has several slides with different designs.

I like the first slide design.

From the block editing panel on the right, inside Content, we can add or remove slides. Let’s delete the slides from 2 to 4 using by clicking on the “x” sign.

Now, I’m going to change the first slide background from image to a video. This means we need to select the slide. We’ll do this by clicking on it straight in the canvas. Notice how the block editing panel changed from “Slider” to “Slide”?

This means that both the slider and the slides can be customized separately in the block editing panel.

Now, from the Style level, let’s change the background to video and upload a video or paste an external link.

Now, you notice that we have a heading, a paragraph and a button. Each element is in fact a block. When you click on them you will be able to customize them from the block editing panel on the right, but also delete them. You can use the “Delete” key from the keyboard for this, or the “Remove block” option from the toolbar we mentioned a bit earlier.

Now, the text is not visible on this background, let’s add an overlay to fix this. This means that we need to head over to “Style” in the slide’s block editing panel and to toggle on “Background overlay”.

From the settings icon we can adjust the overlay’s opacity, its color, and more.

Next, we can customize the dots or arrows of the slider in order to improve the navigation between the slider’s slides. The dots and the arrows are also blocks that you can customize the way you see fit.

Now, when the design is clear, we can easily duplicate our slide and add the content we want to it. Just go ahead and change the text and videos.

This is how we get a nice video slider with overlays and text on top. Nice, right?

Now, you can apply the same logic when using the Kubio carousel block. But I’ll let you play with it. You can start by installing Kubio and enjoying it for free.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many great WordPress video plugins available. Each one has its own unique features and benefits. Choose the plugin that best suits your needs and start adding videos to your WordPress site today.

Now, if you liked this article, and you want to learn more about how to design a WordPress website, make sure to subscribe to our Youtube channel and follow us on Twitter and Facebook!

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Now, did you know that 54% of consumers want to see more video content from a brand or business they support?

Users are seeing videos increasingly on every channel: whether it’s on websites, blogs, social media, Youtube, or TikTok, there’s a huge demand for video content. From explainer videos, testimonials, to commercials, video is taking over all media platforms.

Videos became consumers’ favorite type of content in 2018 (as per Animoto). Their trends report showed that 73% of consumers claim that they have been influenced by a brand’s social media presence when making a purchasing decision.

What does this mean for you?

You must follow along, else, let’s say it might not be a happy-ending story.

Now, in this article we’ll talk about:

• Minimum requirements when making a low-budget video (logistics and more)
• How to embed a video in your WordPress website

For those that want to jump straight to the embedding part, just click the link above.

Let’s get going!

Minimum requirements when making a low-budget video (logistics and more)

Hypothesis: you can’t afford to hire a videographer to do the job for you (filming and editing) but you still need to create a product demo, tutorial or video ad.

How do you begin?

1. Script preparation

Now, before starting with the script you should decide on the video type you want to make:

• Demo
• Tutorial
• Branding video
• Interview
• Educational videos (course, training)

Also, think of your audience, its language, its values.

Then start with the script (the storyline for the video). 

It can be something like below. The more details you provide, the fewer iterations you will need.

Also, try to keep it short. If you’re doing a Facebook ad, make sure to introduce really quickly the benefits, the main idea…because people have a short attention span and don’t always get to the end of a video. Squeeze some hooks along the story to make people stick for more.

Check this video ad for eToro! It starts with “Sure, skip this video, just like you skipped out on buying Amazon stock”. Wow, you really got my attention here, let’s see what you want from me. 

2. Video design inspiration

You could check the competitions’ demos, their Youtube videos, Fiverr portfolios. 

Also go look at some stock videos and templates on Pexels (some of them are free, but always check the requirements, if they are for commercial use or not), Adobe Stock (these templates can be used in Adobe’s editing products, such as Premiere Pro), Envato (compatible with Adobe Premiere Pro), or more. Also, if you need free stock videos, motion graphics, music, and sound effects Videvo is a good place to start from.

My tip here: make it simple in the beginning, you’re still learning. Take it baby steps, your next video can be a bit more complex.

If you’re not sure if you’re moving in the right direction, ask for feedback from friends, work colleagues, or some customers.

3. Tools for filming

Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/ZMy5pprZu1s

Minimum gear:

• A phone with 4k possibilities or an entry-level DSLR with HD features.
• Stabilizer (if you use a phone)
• Artificial light (a lamp, it doesn’t have to be a professional one, a household one can do the trick) if you don’t have natural light, or there’s too much light. Use it at an angle of 45 degrees from the subject
• Optional: a diffusion panel (you can even go DIY). More about this in this tutorial.
• Optional: microphone

Tip: go with diffused natural light (let’s say you’re doing an interview). Make sure you have a clean, non-disturbing background.

Now, if you want to do a product demo in your web app, things can get really easy. All you need to do is use a tool for screen sharing.

So far I played with the free versions of Vidyard and Drift, they do a pretty good job!

4. Tools for video editing

Here’s my shortlist:

• Veed helps you edit videos, add subtitles, transcribe audio, and more.
• Camtasia is a budget-friendly tool. It’s perfect for screen sharing, demo, and tutorials!
• Final cut Pro is for the Mac lovers
• Premiere Pro is for those that want more and are willing to invest more time (lots of features to dwell into) and money in their video making.
• Movavi –  a program the main purpose of which is to edit video materials. It allows you to cut and paste videos without losing quality, apply filters and effects.
• FlexClip – allows you to edit videos online without installing any software, and offers a great selection of professional-looking templates.

5. Some extra video making tips

For the voice-over, you could hire someone on Fiverr…but you could also do stuff with no voice-over like this tutorial of ours, it all depends on the purpose of your video.

Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/NeWmr345VC4

On Fiverr, you could find native English speakers, but I would start with someone in-house at first, before investing in this.

I always say “Test, test, test”. Do something on a low budget, get the feedback, then optimize.

Don’t go full-speed ahead and throw money down the window, this won’t promise you any result.

Now, in marketing we always say that in a content strategy, content creation accounts for 20% of the investment, 80% should be the promotion.

What does this mean?

Go ahead and post your video on your website/blog, on social media channels, on Youtube and Vimeo.

Next, promote it in your newsletters, social media posts, and via partners.

You could recycle part of your videos and repurpose them in paid ads.

How to embed a video in your WordPress website

Ok, now you’ve built your video…how do you put it live on your website?

Now, you can upload locally saved files or provide a video URL for your video.

I will show you how to do both. But, there’s always a “but”.

When you upload a new video file you will use server resources and it might affect your website performance. 

On the other hand, when you embed Youtube videos you get something from the Youtube experience (autoplay, speed control and more). It will provide a better user experience. 

Now that I cleared this thing out, you can go ahead with one of the methods below to embed your video in a WordPress post or page.

1. Use the “Add media” feature in WordPress

If the video is stored locally on your computer

1.  Go to your WordPress post/page
2. Select “Add Media” and upload your video. You can even use stock video images taken from libraries such as Mazwai.
3. Insert your newly added media (provide an alt text as well, it can help out with search engine optimization)

If the video is uploaded to Youtube:

1. Go to Youtube and copy your video URL
2. Go to your WordPress pages or post
3. Select “Add Media”
4. Add the Youtube URL and insert the video to your post/page

I think things can’t get any easier than this.

2. Use the iFrame embedding method

Yeah, it might sound fancy, but this is an easy way as well to embed videos almost anywhere!

It also comes with a twist: it allows you to control how your video will show up.

What do you have to do?

1. Go to your Youtube video
2. Select “Share” from the options below the video
   
3. Select the “embed” option
4. Copy the tiny piece of code
5. Go to your WordPress post or page
6. Switch to the WordPress text editor
7. Paste the code

3. Adding videos to WordPress websites’ sidebars

When dealing with sidebars, widgets are your go-to thing. Follow me to find out how you can do this.

1. Go to your WordPress dashboard, select Appearance -> Customize
2. From the Customizer menu select “Widgets”
3. Choose the video Widget
   
4. Upload your video or paste your URL video then hit “Insert”

Don’t forget to save your page and publish it!

4. Embedding videos in the Gutenberg editor

In Gutenberg, you have the option to add Youtube, Vimeo, or other video blocks. This is how you do it:

1. Add a video block
2. Paste the URL of your video

And you’re done

5. Use video embedding plugins for WordPress

This is one of my least favorite methods of mine. The more plugins you use, the less performing your website will be.

Some of them though might come with some extra features that you might enjoy.

You can check some of these plugins here.

If you don’t know how to work with plugins, this tutorial will show you how (in less than 3 minutes).

That’s a wrap, folks!

Conclusions

Video embedding in WordPress websites is piece of cake.

The heartache is the video making.

Videos are taking over the internet. Brands need video content more than ever, for demos, ads, social media, events, and more. You can’t afford to stay behind.

Video production can be daunting, but we tried to make your life easier and give you suggestions on how to do this on a low budget.

Nevertheless, don’t forget: video promotion is essential!

Until next time!

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The post 5 Methods to Embed Videos in Your WordPress Website (Video Creation Tips Included) appeared first on ColibriWP Blog.