How to Include a Video in Email Marketing

The use of video in email marketing is still among the most popular business strategies. This article will attempt to provide an overview of its main components. First, let’s start with a few reminders about videos in email marketing. Simply put, this term comprises the efforts made to render emails more ‘alive’ and thus increase subscribers. This type of email typically includes an animated GIF, a static image with a play button leading to a video link, an HTML5 video, etc., or even several types of material at the same time.

There is no doubt that the video mail concept is a smart choice to enhance your posts’ attractiveness. Let’s take a closer look at its advantages. 

Benefits of Video in Email Marketing 

Using video in email is definitely a good idea, especially for marketing purposes. Several reasons can be listed:

Positive Impact on Conversion and Click-Through Rates

Indeed, some statistical sources estimate that embedding a video in your emails can increase your click-through rate by up to 300%. This would give you a big advantage over competitors who don’t use animated material. The same goes for conversion rate, and this is quite understandable: recipients will retain about 95% of the information gathered from video content versus only around 10% with text-only content. This is due to the brain’s processing speed, which is 60,000 faster for visuals than text. But before becoming memorable, you may want to ensure that your recipient opens the email! Message titles directly indicating the word ‘video’ will also increase your open rate. 

It Acts Like a Social Media Booster

Yes, it is a fact. Your social media presence is likely to become stronger thanks to video email. People watching a video in your email campaigns may become your new promoters by sharing your content on other channels and networks. This can attract brand new audiences to you. Consequently, this can also contribute to growing your email marketing lists. 

Provides Tailored Content to Your Audience

For example, think about a blog post you would like to draw more attention to. How about including its main messages within a video and thus grabbing the opportunity to share content much more entertainingly? Your subscriber may be a slow reader, but (s)he may probably want to spare some time to watch animated visuals and all the more if the video thumbnail is appealing. Indeed, don’t forget that the latter is like a book cover, so you should design it with particular care.

First impressions matter! Keep in mind that you don’t have to sacrifice your other content supports for all that. For example, you can make your videos more interactive by adding calls-to-action to them. This would allow you to redirect your audience to your original blog post’s link or a photo gallery, among others. The most important thing is to prove to your audience that your content is valuable enough to be consumed. Incorporating video in your emails can be a first step when you aim to earn long-term trust and loyalty from your recipients. 

How to Add Video in Email

There are several ways to add videos to an email. You can decide which method you will use according to your needs. For example, if you don’t want to create an email that will load slowly, you can just use gifs or thumbnails. Also, you can add a link or video.

Add Video Link

You can simply embed the video by writing the link of the video. In this way, you can collect important data, such as the video and the number of people who click, watch, and share. Moreover, you can just use the video’s thumbnail or create gifs from the video and add a play button with a link. Thus, when people click the image, this button will direct them to the video.

Use Email Marketing Tools

You can choose email marketing tools to create a campaign. They provide many templates and analyzing tools. After choosing a template, you just need to add the URL of the video or choose from your files. Mailchimp, Benchmark, and HubSpot are the most popular email marketing tools.

Ways to Use Video in Email Marketing

If you are unsure how to use the videos in your email marketing campaign, this list can help determine a purpose.

Use Your Videos as Proof

If you are looking for something to make your arguments even more convincing in the eyes of your leads, then video content can be your best bet. Try to film and collect testimonials from your current customers who are satisfied with your products and services. You can then integrate that footage into your email marketing process. Watching positive experience stories can motivate your recipients to use what you are offering.

Use Your Videos for Newsletter

If you have newsletter subscribers, adding videos to them will increase user experience. Watching a video is easier to consume than reading. That’s why a newsletter with videos can get more conversions. In addition, it increases the number of views on social media, so you can boost engagement rates. Using the videos as a commercial for your brand and website will be a great strategy for brand awareness.

Use Videos to Get More Attention

Let’s think about your reading email experience. Can you focus on an email with full text, and do you find it boring? Full-text concepts will probably not catch your attention because of the social media effect. It is crucial to follow trends to increase conversion rates. Using more visual elements, such as videos and gifs, will arouse the subscribers’ curiosity.

Use Your Videos as A Bridge Toward Landing Pages

Video integration in email marketing serves several purposes. One of them is to highlight your other creations as well. In other words, videos should also bring the audience’s focus to specific content or message. If you want to learn more about what is a landing page, it is the page that visitors click. Thus, you will add videos that people click on and go to the specific page for your campaign.

Tips for Video in Email Marketing

Here is what you can do for a better campaign with video in email marketing.

• Awaken curiosity with calls to action. First, try to create a more casual ambiance or simply surprise. As said previously, you can, for example, use calls-to-action in your video email (such as the ‘learn more’ buttons). 
• Don’t abuse embeddings. In the previous paragraphs, we have briefly mentioned video embedding. Caution, though: it may not always be an optimal idea. Many email clients (including the major ones, such as Yahoo or Gmail) don’t support this functionality, at least not for all types of video content. So, you may not embed video in Gmail. Short videos may not be a solution because of the large file size. Instead, use a video thumbnail as a link to redirect to a video on your website, YouTube, or Vimeo. 
• Redirect to your landing pages. By clicking on call buttons, your recipients will be led to your landing pages which may contain your latest collection, major products, or discount codes, to name only a few. They can also draw attention to more serious topics (e.g., a blog post about an ecological issue). 
• Try to use the word “video” in the subject line. The subscribers will know the email contains a video, and in this way, they can be curious about the email.
• Create gifs from video. Thus, the email will open faster. It looks like an image but is more attractive.

Summary of Video in Email Marketing

We have briefly reviewed some of the facets of video in email marketing. As you have probably noticed, it is a whole methodology that offers attractive digital marketing campaign opportunities. By keeping in mind the old saying that ‘the customer is always right,’ designing video emails tailored to your audience’s needs is the top priority. Making your content intuitive and easy to access is another important aspect. All in all, as long as you pay attention to these basics, the sky is the limit for your creativity.