After an amazingly impressive raise in popularity, video is now widely recognised as the quickest and most effective way to communicate.
One of the prerequisites for the success of a video is that it gets in front of the right audiences. And who, better than your mailing list, might qualify as “the right audiences”? Using video in your email marketing makes so much sense that you may be tapping your forehead right now, wondering how you haven’t thought about it before!
Video email marketing will help: Increase conversions + Increase brand awareness + Educate your customers
A 2013 study by eMarketer reported that: “Respondents who had used videos in their email campaigns saw real returns on their investments. 55% percent reported higher click through rates, 44% percent saw an increase in the amount of time subscribers spent with an email, and 41% reported an increase in the sharing or forwarding of emails”.
What’s in it for my business?
How many marketing emails are left unopened in your professional or personal inbox?
If one of them could stand out from other email communications, wouldn’t you be intrigued and want to know more? The prospect of watching a video catches viewers’ attention, which means you’re in for a lift in open rate! Moreover, video still has the power to mesmerize people: once they start watching, they get hooked, and chances are, they will also engage with the video.
- Video conveys a message easily: Videos are highly entertaining and hence much more watchable than plain text (especially in a sea of marketing emails with plain text content)
- Video saves time: Video emailing saves time for both senders and receivers. It gives information on a product or service in less time and makes complex subjects easy to understand.
- Video is a powerful Marketing tool: Not only viewers respond more positively to a product after watching a video, but they can also share it easily if they see value in it.
- Video is a great SEO ally: Could your Google ranking do with a boost? Then look no further than video marketing. People viewing, sharing and engaging with your video could take your brand to play in the big leagues on Google.
- Video looks cool:
How do I get started?
Don’t make a video for the sake of it. Video emails are part of a marketing strategy and should be approached as such.
- Strong foundations for your campaign
Audience, budget, goals, time frame, competition… ask yourself all the relevant questions.
Are you: Creating awareness? Announcing an event? Creating the buzz around a new product?…
- Do not compromise on quality
This seems pretty obvious. What we mean is, it’s not because it’s a video email that it’s a second-rate video. Hire a team or professional video makers or animators. No DIY!
- Short is best: up to 2 minutes
Punchy lines, striking visual, intriguing message, catchy words, charismatic people.
- Sharing is caring (…for your business)
Host your video on popular platforms like YouTube or Vimeo to give it more sharing and visibility. These platforms are free and have proven to be great for driving traffic, generating leads, and building your brand.
- Test, then test again, and again
Send it to colleagues and friends, collect feedbacks, and ask for suggestions on how to best introduce the video in the email. Take it into account before sending the video or the email across different channels and platforms.
Best Practices
- Create a Series of Videos
As we said above, short is best. Short doesn’t get dull or boring. And short, repeated often, creates a sense of anticipation…
If you succeed in picking your viewers’ interests with the first video email you send out, chances are, they’ll open your following email communications.
- Give hints in the subject line
Using the word “video” in your subject line can potentially make your email more attractive to the receiver. More users are likely to click on it, and that is a great achievement in itself.
- Include a Call to Action
The #1 goal in (video) marketing is to get your viewers to engage with your brand. A CTA tells your audience what to do next (share, click here for more, etc). Make it clear (not part of the message conveyed by the video) and actionable. You can also mention your CTA within the text content.
- CTA is the best way to encourage your viewers to act; therefore, use it clearly.
- Place social buttons or a contact form at the end of the video.
- Consider using a sense of urgency. For example: Hurry up! Or, Limited seating!
- Don’t forget to follow up with your viewers.
- Gather contact information from viewers.
(Source: kissmetrics.com)
- No Autoplay
After reading your introductory paragraph, viewers should decide whether they want to watch the video or not.
- Interviews and Testimonials
Depending on the subject of your video, including customer testimonials, employee testimonials (to demonstrate your staff expertise for example), re-seller interviews, can have a massive impact on the viewers, as they create a trusting relationship with the brand. All your associates should be seen as your brand advocates.
- Dig deep, and go personal
Video aims to show your company in the best light. It gives your company a face (through your associates, clients, etc), a voice, and, why not, a soul! A small personal touch can go a long way…
Don’t be too hard-selling; instead build trust by reaching users on an emotional level. Dove (self-esteem project), Sanctuary (if you were young again) or Always (like a girl), for example have mastered the technique, using the negative perceptions many women carry – about their looks, or just about being female.). Their videos went viral overnight.
The technical bit
Sending video in email might prove to be a bit tricky. There are some technical issues that needs to be tackled. But from where we stand now, it seems pretty obvious that video emails will become mainstream in the near future. So let’s face the challenges today, in order to harvest the fruits of your labour as early as possible.
How to Embed Videos in Your Email Marketing Campaign
Here are some of the tools that will enable you to embed videos in your emails.
- MailChimp
- Bombomb
- TailoredMail
- Constant Contact
- AWeber
- Infusionsoft
- HTML5
- Animated .GIF and .PNG Videos
Here at WVA, we make the videos, and we guarantee that they’ll catch your viewers’ attention. For technical advice on how to embed these videos in your emails, you will find some useful information here!
Don’t’ forget to follow-up on your video analytics and user engagement behaviour.
Give us a shout if you fancy a chat about a project for a one-off video email, or maybe for a series of those as part of your marketing strategy. We’d love to see how we can help!