Content Samurai Review

Welcome to my review of Content Samurai.

Content Samurai is a web-based software that allows you to create professional looking videos in a matter of minutes.

It is a game changer for those of us who may not like creating videos because of shyness or just don’t like being in front of a camera. For me it’s both, I feel uncomfortable recording videos plus my mind goes blank and I end up just staring into the camera like a nerd.

Having a video marketing strategy for your business is more important than ever, according to research by CISCO, videos will drive more than 80% of internet traffic by the year 2022.

Also, people love consuming content through video, they are 4 times more likely to purchase a product or service after watching a video about it.

Other stats that amplify the need for a good video marketing strategy;

90% of consumers rely on video to make a purchasing decision.
Content with videos can increase conversions by 80%
64% of online consumers will make a purchase after watching a video.
According to digital marketing expert Dr James McQuivery, 1 minute of video is equivalent to 1.8 million words!!
Over 500 hours of videos are watched daily on YouTube
A staggering 1/3 of online browsing done watching videos
Videos on social media get 12 times more shares than other forms of content.

So, there is no doubt that having a video marketing plan is essential for your business if it is to compete and succeed in this digital age.

However, creating high-quality videos can end up costing you a lot of money, you will either have to purchase expensive video editing software many of which can take a while to master or you can outsource the production.

If you are a small-time blogger like me, the above is not really an option and from a time management point of view, not very efficient.

Unless you are a full-time vlogger, you do not want to be wasting hours on video creation when you could be spending that time working on your site.

Luckily there is a far more efficient solution and is creating high-quality videos through Content Samurai.

Content Samurai is a web-based software application that will allow you to create high-quality videos with little effort even if you have no prior experience.

The team behind Content Samurai are also the developers of Market Samurai one of the most well-known keyword research tools on the market.

Content Samurai was released in 2015 and is probably the best video creation software of its kind.

Creating videos with Content Samurai is very simple and straight forward. The hardest part will probably be coming up with a script for your video ( hardest for me anyway) however if you intend to use music tracks, then this will not be an issue.

Inside The Members Area

The interface is clean and easy to understand, there is not a huge learning curve and is another aspect of this software that I really like.

They have developed software for everyone but especially for beginners who have little experience with video creation.

Content Samurai gives you 5 options on the type of video you want to create.

These are;

1. Video from your article

2. Videos for your online course

3. A sales video

4. Video for social media

5. Real estate videos

After you have chosen what type of video you want to create ( I usually go for the first option) and selected one of the templates, you will need to provide a name and a script for your video.

For SEO purposes make sure the video title includes your target keyword.

If you have a script for your video, you can enter this in the text area. One thing to remember is to have complete sentences if you are going to be using the text to speech technology for your videos.

Otherwise, the automated voice will read the whole script in one go without stopping and it sounds very bad.

You also get options on how you want Content Samurai to structure your slides, you can either;

Have Content Samurai Automatically choose the slide layouts
Have one slide per sentence
Have one slide per paragraph
Or one slide per phrase.

I usually let Content Samurai automatically choose the styles for me, however, whichever option you choose, you can still edit the slides later if they are not to your liking.

You also have the option of letting the software choose what type of images and video clips to insert into your slides (inserting video clips was also another upgrade they recently made). It does this by analysing your text and then inserting relevant images and clips.

Once you have entered your script and chosen your options, just hit the big blue button on the bottom right and the software will go and create your video.

It does not take more than a few minutes for Content Samurai to put together the relevant slides to create your video.

Once your video has been created you can go through each slide and make any edits you want. You can make transition changes, add Ken Burns effects and even animate the text.

Your next option will be to choose what kind of sound you want for your video, you have 4 options for this.

You can either;

1. Choose one of the royalty free music tracks provided by Content Samurai

2. Use the text to speech technology and choose one of 14 different automated voices ( I mostly use this option)

3. Record your own voice

4. Upload a track or voice

You will then get to preview your video where you can edit the timing of each slide transition so that it syncs perfectly with whatever background track you have.

After you are happy with the final version you can download the video into your device and start sharing it with your audience.

The videos are also stored on the Content Samurai servers so you can go back and edit your videos as many times as you want.

The video creation process is really as simple as I have explained.

Who Is Content Samurai For?

It’s for any business looking to create a video marketing strategy without the huge production costs.

As an affiliate marketer, this is a great software that will allow me to easily create videos for products and services that I want to recommend.

I mainly use the software to turn my blog posts into video format.

This is called content repurposing and is something learned from the lovely Anna Hoffman who runs a fantastic blog called traffic generation café ( by the way it was through Anna’s blog that I also came across Content Samurai ).

I can then upload these videos on to different video platforms like YouTube and Daily Motion.

Repurposing your content allows you to reach a wider audience and give your content more exposure. This is also a good way of getting powerful backlinks the natural way and giving your original article some SEO power to move it up the search engine.

This is how I mainly use Content Samurai, but there are plenty of other ways to utilise this software.

You can use Content Samurai to create the following types of video

Videos for social media, Facebook videos are more likely to get shared than on any other platform.
Local marketing videos, lots of people use Content Samurai for this purpose.
Videos for advertising
Videos for your online courses.

I am sure there are other ways you can use Content Samurai for your business, you just have to be a little creative.

Content Samurai Features

What I really like about Content Samurai is the continuous upgrades and improvements to the system.

Some of the recent updates have really impressed me, for example, one of the upgrades they made late last year was the addition of automated voice overs.

So, instead of you having to read your video script ( which I do not like doing), Content Samurai has 14 different texts to speech voice-overs that will read the script for you.

Not only that but unlike many of the other software tools with text to speech technology that sound robotic, Content Samurai voice overs are the most realistic I have heard.

However, you can also add your own voice or any kind of music track. They provide a wide selection of royalty-free tracks or you can upload your own.

Another huge update they made was partnering up with Storyblocks videos which give you access to 350,000 HD video clips that you can use for any videos you create with Content Samurai.

Storyblocks has its own monthly subscription plan, but with access to the Content Samurai, you will have access to all the HD clips you need without the extra costs.

Other features include;

Over 125 million stock images
Adding watermarks
Full motion video backgrounds
Over 40 video templates

Content Samurai Pricing

Content Samurai costs $47 pm for all the features, you can go yearly for $397 which comes to $33 pm and saves you $168.

There is also a free 7-day trial which gives you all the features of Content Samurai and lets you keep any videos you create within the trial period, even if you do not sign up for the paid option.

Final Thoughts

Having a video marketing strategy is more important than ever before as more and more consumers prefer videos to learn and keep informed about businesses and their products.

Videos have a high conversion rate and if you want your business to have the best chance at success you will need to produce videos.

However, video production costs can be too high for small business owners which is why many do not bother with any kind of video marketing.

All that changes with Content Samurai, it is possible to create high-quality videos without any prior experience and without having to shell out a lot of money.

The software is simple to use and you can create 1 high-quality video a day, I know it says you can create videos in minutes and that is true but remember you want to go for quality and not quantity.

It’s not perfect by any means ( no software is) but it is the best software available for what it does.

Before I conclude this review, I have to warn you about something.

As video marketing is becoming more popular, there are many unscrupulous marketers who are cashing in on this by launching sub-standard video creation software.

These are launched mostly on affiliate networks like JVZOO and Warriorplus, do your research about these software products, most of the time they do not do what they are supposed to and many of these marketers are serial product launchers.

This means, support and upgrades will not be their priority and most likely they will abandon the software after a year or so.

Content Samurai is different, the team behind this product are also behind one of the leading keyword research tools that has been supported and maintained for nearly 10 years now.

Content Samurai is well supported and continues to evolve, it is the best software of its kind, and I highly recommend it.