Do you know that 78% of people watch online videos every week? This makes it one of the most successful types of communication mediums. No, we don’t mean to reel you in by writing click-bait sentences. This figure is as genuine as it gets!
What we’re emphasizing, though, is the criticality of embedding videos in your marketing emails for improved brand visibility and click-through rates that lead to subsequent conversions.
But, an individual around the globe receives hundreds of marketing emails every day. So, tell us, why would potential leads open your email over your competitors’? Well, they would, if they get a sense that your content is personalized but also easy to consume. And, this feat is achievable through video email marketing.
What Exactly is Video Email Marketing?
Firstly, it’s no rocket science, and secondly, it’s exactly as it sounds like! Introducing videos in emails for enhanced engagement is video email marketing. If you get creative and craft content-rich videos for the right audiences, your brand stands to go viral rather quickly.
Video email marketing is perhaps the best tool to get a conversation started around your business offering and that too, quickly. This highly penetrative platform is rejoiced by search engines as well. As videos are easier to share than text, they get picked and placed on the first page of Google. Simple because viewers tend to share videos more than textual pieces.
Video emails essentially speak volumes as they condense data into motion, thus making complex topics easier to understand. You can make one in as little time as you would spare investing in other mediums, with far superior returns. As if all this was not enough, video emails also save a recipient’s precious time.
So, if all is rosy, why aren’t more B2B and B2C organizations leveraging video email marketing? Well, a lot of them try, and many succeed, but even more, fail to create truly gripping and valuable video email content.
Don’t be like them! Before segmenting your email list to deploy your next email marketing campaign, ensure two things- i) make sure it’s a video email marketing campaign, ii) figure out how to make it supremely impactful.
10 Expert Ways to Create Engaging Video Email Marketing Campaigns
Here are a few instantly actionable email marketing tips to help you nail your next video email marketing campaign:
1. Mention the Word Video in Your Subject Line
Given how videos on interesting and personalized topics attract curios-natured humans, let them know your email carries one. This doesn’t mean wasting the subject line in telling them that there’s a video inside.
Craft an impactful subject statement the usual way, except write the word video in brackets towards the beginning. Doing this helps your video email stand out and also creates a contrast as opposed to other marketing email subject lines.
However, a simple trick such as this only works if the rest of your subject line is genuinely bespoke, witty, and promises value in the body content. Anyway, you must not forget that your subject line is responsible for creating an excellent first impression. Craft one carefully, and avoid using spam-like catchphrases and words to draw attention.
2. Let Your Video Autoplay, Sans the Sound
This is the same trick social media portals like Facebook and Instagram use to entice their viewers into continuously watching video content. You must’ve noticed that videos on these platforms automatically play but without sound. Only when you tap on them, the sound comes alive. This format is called instream videos, and there is no reason why you shouldn’t leverage it when sending emails.
In fact, instream videos often achieve a lot more views than their out-stream counterparts, which take viewers to a different landing page altogether. This can annoy many who would drop out of watching videos on a different website.
So, don’t provide external links to watch your video. Instead, embed and program them to auto-play the minute viewers open your email. You can surely add links for external web pages, but they should mostly contain more product information, additional videos, or purchasing options. Your main video should play within the email.
3. Use GIFs or Animated Thumbnails
Even if you can’t use in-stream videos in your email, fret not! Introduce an animated thumbnail showing a few frames of the video rather than a default static image. Animated thumbnails attract more clicks and are easy to integrate.
No wonder why so many email marketers already use these when sending marketing emails with videos. These GIFs keep playing in an endless loop and often compel the viewer to play your video, even if they don’t finish watching it entirely.
4. Share a Free Video Tutorial or Other Non-Salesy Content
Communicating with your prospects only when you have something to sell is not ideal. You must also offer free valuable content educating them about the challenges that your offerings can solve. Go a step further and share interesting ‘how to’ or tutorial videos, just to keep a conversation brewing between your brand and prospects.
Sharing free content resources in video format can be both for the masses or finely segmented clientele. For instance, you can share your company culture video newsletter with all old and new customers and also warm leads.
But, this shouldn’t be it! Send personalized ‘how to’ and tutorial videos to only a niche set of prospects who may be looking for something particular. For example, if you’re a personal trainer, you can shoot a special exercise video working only the core muscles for a specific set of prospects to get work from them.
5. Share Video Newsletters
Be it for launching a product or giving annual updates; an email newsletter is a great way to stay on top of your lead’s mind. However, with a static newsletter, it’s hard to beat your competitors. Safe to say, the story would be different should you narrate things through a video.
You’ll not only be able to speak volumes with a video newsletter but also instantly arouse your prospects’ curiosity in your brand’s presence. If the idea of creating a video newsletter from scratch sounds intimidating and time-consuming, simply pick stuff from your old videos and static newsletters. Fashion something out of the old content and supplement it with the new.
Remember, as long as your video newsletter is valuable and personalized for your segmented leads; it will create a lasting impact. So, announce webinars, conduct online workshops, create instructional videos, extend product and feature updates – all through a well-thought and dynamic video email newsletter.
6. Optimize Video Emails for Both Mobile and Desktop
There isn’t a shred of contention that emails, whether they carry video or text or both, must also be mobile-friendly.
So, before creating your video, figure out who will likely view it, but more importantly, where. For example, B2B professional audiences appreciate video emails on office desktops. So, there the resolution should be high, and the video must be shot keeping in mind the landscape mode.
However, if your clientele is predominantly B2C, the chances of mobile viewing shoot up significantly. Therefore, you can film videos that are relatively low-resolution and specifically designed for portrait mode.
Creating video emails for the correct screen size is incredibly important as you don’t want leads zooming in or out a lot and missing out on the CTAs. So, the minute your video email opens on a screen, be it desktop or mobile, it should play quickly and seamlessly.
7. Don’t Forget to Include Captions or Subtitles
Considering how popular instream videos are, you must do your best to make them an easy watch. Other than churning valuable content for the instream format, ensure they play with subtitles or captions.
You’ll be surprised how many prospects are willing to watch an instream video right till the end if it comes with subtitles. This is partly because they don’t want to turn the volume up in a public space. However, if your video emails carry captions, the prospects watching in silent mode will receive the complete message, which was your aim to begin with.
8. Include Videos in Welcome Emails
Every email marketer automates or manually sends welcome emails to new list subscribers. These emails introduce a brand and its offerings. Most of these welcome emails contain text with some static imagery.
Supplement these emails with a zingy video. Know that a lead is not as invested in a brand or is at the very beginning of a sales funnel when you’re sending them a welcome marketing email. So, welcome video emails can provide them a solid reason to engage with you.
But, here, you must ensure that your welcome video email is short and crisp. The minute they see the timer going on for minutes after minutes, you can bid that lead goodbye
Before we move on to the next point, allow us to leave you with a few bonus tips on drafting noteworthy welcome emails containing videos.
- Don’t create vague welcome video emails. Be clear on what your prospects can expect from you. Simply put, use welcome video emails to set customer expectations.
- Make sure your welcome email carries an electronic signature or e-signature. This boosts legitimacy.
- Don’t wait too long to send across welcome video emails. Do it as soon as you receive a new subscriber.
- Personalize your welcome emails. Go beyond addressing them with their first name.
9. Include Customer Testimonials Towards the End of Your Video Emails
Customer testimonials are social proof that your offering works. So, why exclude them from your promotional video emails? In fact, try to capture testimonials from your happy customers on video. Even if the C-suites cannot find the time to give you a rave review on video, get their subordinates to vouch for your brand.
Fret not if you don’t have video endorsements. End your video email by quoting praise in the form of text. When you shoot testimonials or put them up in the textual form in your email, you instantly build credibility and pique your leads’ interest in your products and services.
10. A/B Tests Are Your Holy Grail
We know this may not sound like a tip to improve your video email quality, but it is!
If possible, create two video email variants, and test them with leads. Conducting an A/B test will give you a fair idea of which video type converts better with your target audience. Try one video email with regular push play videos and another with instream format.
In one, provide a CTA on top, while in another, place it somewhere in the bottom. Try different subject lines and email body content to see which one is more impactful. See if an animated thumbnail works better than a static one in your videos.
After you’ve deployed two types of video emails, track their performances through metrics such as click-through rates, open rates and which email is driving up your web traffic.
Over to You
Brass tacks! Video email marketing works. If you don’t believe us, see for yourself. Amnesty International boosted their Click-Through Rates (CTRs) by 83% through their video email marketing campaign. Study how their simple yet personalized video strikes a chord with viewers.
Video email marketing is already drawing a lot of attention from netizens. And, it’s safe to say that there is a lot you can do with this medium. You can shoot short documentaries on how well your product works in controlled environments or dole out free tutorials that link with your offering.
Now that you’ve learned all about the ‘dos’ of video email marketing, here is a short list of things you must stay far away from:
- Don’t use too many jarring colors within your videos or in-text alongside.
- Don’t make them too long.
- Do not write subject lines in upper case.
- Do not put unnecessary punctuation marks like exclamation points, question marks, epsilons, etc.
So, that’s all, folks! You’re now heavily armed to draft a video email marketing campaign that works!
This post was contributed from one of my marketing partners.
Hero photo by Maxim Ilyahov on Unsplash
