Video editing is a daunting task to consider, especially for those of us who haven’t experienced any formal training in the area.
It’s so easy to spot a cheesy or sloppily-put-together video, so thinking about going through mounds of clips to get down to a perfectly polished product is overwhelming.
Well, the good news is that there’s a solution for those of us who feel that way! Lumen5 has entirely gotten rid of the problem through the original service they provide.
Anyone who is having to produce videos on a regular basis without the proper time or know-how to do so will want to know who Lumen5 is and what they’re offering.
The people behind Lumen5 realize that internet content is increasingly moving towards videos over blog posts and the like.
More and more in this day and age, moving pictures are necessary to grab and hold your audience’s attention.
So, they’ve simplified it by making a way for businesses to convert text into video through a multi-tiered web-based service.
The best part about it is that if you just want to try it out for a while before taking the deep plunge or if you just need the basics, they have a free service.
Of course, it is limited; for instance, exports are at a maximum of 480p (the Business tier exports to HD).
Despite this, they’ll still give you access to the Standard Library (where Lumen5 sources most of its shots and photos) and its popular themes.
However, if you have one of the paid tiers, you also have access to the Getty image library.
We’ll be giving a full overview of what Lumen5 has to offer through all its tiers so that you can see if it will fit your needs.
How does Lumen5 work?
Setup
You can do one of two things: paste new content into Lumen5 directly or simply give them the link to the post you want to convert.
Next, Lumen5 will present your text on the left of the webpage with slides (or scenes, as Lumen5 calls them) on the right.
The text is broken down in chunks, and as you hover your mouse over the words, Lumen5 will suggest a scene to fit it.
Of course, you’re free to choose as you prefer. You’re also able to edit the final product once it has been added to your project.
Text Editing
You’ll choose a section of text to add to a scene and position as well as highlight words as you prefer.
Lumen5 will automatically show which media is most relevant for a particular section of text when you click on it; if you don’t like their suggestion, you’re free to access the Media Libraries and make your own selection.
You can also add your own clips and photos if you like, and if there was any media already in your blog post, it will be available for your use in the Media section as well.
So, once you’ve selected the perfectly appropriate background, you can click and drag it from the Media section and drop it wherever you want.
You can also trim video clips and use just the part you want. On the other hand, there’s very little you can do with photo animation.
Lumen5 really only gives you the option to “Zoom in” or “Pan down” and such.
Trimming
Basically, with Lumen5, you won’t get much closer to actual video editing.
Editing
If the text you’ve selected won’t fit into a single scene, Lumen5 will automatically create sub-scenes for you with the same background as the original one.
The editing choices are quite limited, but if you’d prefer a new background, you’ll just have to copy the text into a new scene or make the text shorter to fit within the original scene.
Customization
If you’re a paying customer, you’ll be able to customize your own look instead of being locked into a built-in theme.
Otherwise, the only other ways you can customize your work is to choose where the text goes on the scene and what words to highlight, if you’re wanting to highlight any.
Music and Effects
One of the best features about Lumen5 is the thousands of royalty-free songs it gives you to choose from.
You can search them by name, tag, and even mood – you can simply search the word angry, sad, happy, etc.
Or you can add your own song, but unfortunately, you cannot trim the score. However, the team is actually currently working on adjusting this feature!
Now, you might be thinking that this still sounds a bit too complicated for you. If that’s the case, just check out Lumen5’s Instant Video tab.
All you have to do is give it an RSS feed – unless it has already detected one from a previous URL you used –, and it will offer you a list of potential videos based on various articles.
Once you choose one, everything we just talked about will be completed for you! Then, you can use it as is, or refine it if there are some changes you’d like to make.
If a more personal touch is what you’re wanting, you’ll fine more customization options in the paid tiers.
For example, you’ll be able to add Watermark, switch to a different theme, or even make your own there with whatever fonts, text animations (out of 3 options), highlight and background colors, and scene transitions (out of 4 options) you’d like.
Additional Features
If you’re working for a business who has multiple clients, you’re probably thinking about how much work it will entail to change all of these settings every time you want to produce a video for a different company.
Good news! Lumen5 also has Brand Presets where settings are stored and switching between clients or companies is simple.
If you’re in the top tier, you can even invite as many teammates as you want to work on the videos.
Once your work is done, it is rendered, which can take some time if your video is long. Once this is done, you’re ready to upload the video onto Facebook or download it to your computer.
What makes Lumen5 unique as a video editor is that you’re not really even editing the video.
It’s basically all drag and drop. The most editing that’s involved is just when you trim an animated background.
And with it comes a huge media library where the intelligent text analyzer selects the most logical background for your content.
Pricing
The pricing, of course, depends on which tier you choose.
You can pay nothing for the limited options or start at $19/month for the Starter package, perfect for bloggers & solopreneurs creating social videos.
The next option is Premium, which is $49/month and includes photos from Getty and Shutterstock, better video resolution, and font and color options.
The most popular option is the Business package which is $149/month which includes everything in Premium plus 160 million photos and videos from the marketplace, 180 assets each year, and gives you the option to upload your company’s font, music, and custom outro.
Lastly, you can choose the custom option which allows you to have multiple users with team management, full control over branding, custom package of premium photos and videos, and a dedicated account manager.
The price depends on your customization.
How to Create Your First Video with Lumen5
Step 1: Copy and paste the article in the Start with some text box. Click OK.
Step 2: Next choose a video format. For this tutorial, I will create a landscape video.
Scroll down untill you see the YouTube 16:9 ratio. Since this is a trial version, we can only create a video with a limited duration.
Step 3: Choose a theme for your video.
For this video, I went with a theme with an organic color scheme to be consistent with the article.
Step 4: Customise your video content.
On the far left panel are your primary video settings. You can search the media library, preview soundtracks, make edits the theme and format.
One thing I found confusing with Lumen5 is editing the script.
It’s not intuitive and user-friendly compared to Content Samurai.
On the right-hand side beside each slide, you can preview the scene, change how the text is displayed, increase and decrease the time for each scene.
Clicking on more options will open a window allowing the user to:
- add an opacity
- add a background animation
- manually edit the background video
Step 5: Preview and Publish
Once you’re happy with the video, click the Preview button to double-check the video before exporting.
In case you forget, you can click Select Track to add a music track before rendering your video. You can also filter the music tracks by clicking on mood.
Clicking on Publish will activate a list. You can choose to share a link to your video, Download your video or even share it to Facebook.
For this tutorial, I will download the video directly onto the desktop.
That’s it!
Lumen5 Alternative: Content Samurai
If you’re still not sure about Lumen5, you might want to check out Samurai, another comprehensive video creator that’s here to make your life simpler.
Content Samurai enables you to make engaging, high-quality videos with minimal effort.
What exactly is Content Samurai?
Content Samurai is very similar to Lumen5 in that it takes the content you give it and turns it into a video that looks like it has been professionally made – and all it takes on your end is a few clicks with your mouse!
Days – and sometimes weeks – of editing are now compiled into just a few minutes of work.
You don’t even have to download or install Content Samurai like you need to do with many other video creators.
Content Samurai is a comprehensive library of video and editing features that allows you to do much more than just throw together a cheap-looking video.
It’s intuitive and easy to work with, yet the results are phenomenal.
What’s included with Content Samurai?
All you need to do is click a button, and Content Samurai will review your script, cut it up into professional slide layouts, and format the text – all in just seconds.
With over 112 million images to pick from, Content Samurai will examine the text you give it and determine which images fit it the best.
The entire video will be edited from beginning to end with amazing text- and voice-matching technology.
How does Content Samurai work?
Content Samurai is easy to use because its interface guides you through each step of creating a video.
Basically, the only work you’ll have to do is working your clicking finger!
The instructions are simple, clear, and altogether easy to follow, from video setup to adding text and images.
Templates, images, and an audio library come within Content Samurai to making your editing a quick project.
It even examines your work to ensure you see the details that best show it off.
To put it simply, it doesn’t get much easier than Content Samurai. You’ll do very little work to get cutting edge results.
How to Create a Video Using Content Samurai
Step 1: Create a New Video
Click on the blue button to create your first video.
Step 2: Choose Template
As you can see, Content Samurai offers many templates for different types of video formats and supported platforms.
For this tutorial, we will focus on Video from a blog post.
Similar to the Lumen5 video, I chose a template with a color scheme similar to the article.
Click on Use This Template to start adding your content.
Step 3: Insert Script
For this next step, copy and paste your article. I will use the same article from earlier.
Always start a sentence on a separate line. Content Samurai will generate separate scenes so that the content is easy to digest by the audience.
Click create scenes for your video.
Don’t forget to give your video a title.
Click on edit your scenes to move onto the next step.
Step 4: Editing your scenes
On the left, you can search for images and videos. You can toggle what type of content you want by switching between Clips or Images.
If you can’t find the right image or video, you can click on the Uploads tab to upload your own images/videos.
You can also drag and drop your files in the dotted box.
Clicking on the style tab will allow you to change the text, color, weight, highlight text and background color.
Changing any of these settings will affect every scene of the video.
On each scene, you can also change the text position.
When you are happy with how each scene looks, click Add Voice Track To Your Video.
Step 5: Voice Track Options
With Content Samurai, you can create a video with just music or you can add an automated voice that reads your script.
If you don’t like how the automated voices sound, you can record your own voice track.
For this tutorial, I will use Luke as the voice track for this video.
Click Preview Your Video to move onto the next step.
Step 6: Preview Your Video
In this last step, you can choose from over 125,000 music tracks, add your own watermark, adjust the music volume, track volume and track speed.
I’m not a huge fan of the automated voice, with a few adjustments, we can make it sound a bit more natural.
Reduce the Voice Track Speed to 95%.
You can also adjust each scene by clicking Manually Adjust Timing.
When you’re ready to export, click Looks Good, Continue…
To download your video, click Generate Your Video.
Once Content Samurai finishes rendering the video, click Download Your Video to save it on your onto your desktop.
Why Do You Need Content Samurai to Grow Your Business?
As we mentioned earlier, increasing amounts of people don’t have the attention span to focus on blogs, article, or anything that doesn’t move.
Whether it’s the news or a marketing ad, people prefer videos to get the information they’re looking for.
In fact, Cisco projects that online videos will make up 82% of all internet traffic in 2022.
As a result, videos are the best marketing strategy.
For instance, MarketingSherpa found that videos draw in 300% more internet traffic and nurture leads, so being able to present your content through videos is critical to having a thriving business – or any successful business at all!
This is where something like Content Samurai comes in.
With Content Samurai, you can create excellent videos at a faster rate since they’ve streamlined the entire process for you.
As a result, you’ll be churning more videos out at a quicker pace, which means you’ll have more leads and more business.
The more videos you have, the higher the likelihood of people finding the content you’re putting out there.
And the videos you’ll be creating with Content Samurai aren’t just little promotional videos but clips with helpful information and value.
With Content Samurai, there’s no doubt that your brand will stand out, even if you don’t have video editing expertise.
Content Samurai Pricing
Though Content Samurai has no free options, they do offer their services at a fairly reasonable price.
They used to charge $97 at the very least, but just recently, they’ve come out with more price-friendly options.
The most popular plan costs $47/month and gives you basically everything Content Samurai has to offer.
Another option is the one where you pay annually. It comes out to $33/month, but you’re paying $397 all at once.
It’s a little cheaper and has a few more bonuses that you can find online.
If you just want to dabble in Content Samurai to make sure it’s a service you like using, you can choose one of a few cheaper options.
And they even offer a 7-day free trial where you can test out all the features.
If you don’t like it, just cancel with no money lost!
Final Verdict
Lumen5 vs Content Samurai
| Comparison Table | Lumen5 | Content Samurai |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Price | $29 - $199 | $47 |
| Free Trial | Yes | Yes |
| Social Media Videos | Yes | Yes |
| User Experience | No | Yes |
| Automated Voice Track | No | Yes |
| Text To Speech | No | Yes |
| Promotional Training Videos | No | Yes |
| Responsive Support | Yes | Yes |
| Purchase | Buy Lumen5 | Buy Content Samurai |
Content Samurai has over 270,000 users, so this alone shows that it does what it’s meant to do extremely well.
Without a doubt, it’s one of the best-quality video creation platforms out there.
It enables you to make attention-grabbing videos that are unique to you or your business with all the quality features it offers, and Content Samurai takes care of all the grunt work for you.
It’s also an extremely user-friendly platform as it instructs you how to use each one of its features step-by-step.
Whether a novice or an experienced professional, anyone can figure out how to use Content Samurai.
Videos are, without a doubt, powerful marketing tools. If you do them right, you will see the results, and Content Samurai does it all for you.
And they just lowered their price from $97/month to $47/month – that’s a huge price drop!
If you want to make professional-looking, valuable content, Content Samurai is the way to go, especially if you’re short on time or simply just don’t have the expertise to do it.
Not only will it help you get the job done quickly, but it will also make videos that are unique and gripping.
As a result, with just the click of a button, you are free to share information through quality videos, engaging people all over the worldwide web in the way that is most profitable.
Now, it’s time for you to decide! Videos are integral to a successful business, but how will you put them out there?
These reviews will help you get started, but now it’s on you to try out the video-editing platform that sounds most appealing to you and decide for yourself.
Start your Content Samurai 7 Day Free Trial.
You can also read my full Content Samurai review here.
I hope my review was helpful to you.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please leave a comment below!
Darren
