Statistics show that more than 205 billion emails are sent every day, many of which have commercial intent. Companies use email to promote their respective products, services and brand. It’s a powerful marketing channel that delivers real results.
According to an Experian study, email is 20 times more cost effective than traditional marketing channels. The same study also suggests that email increases customer loyalty, profitability, sales/conversions and more. With benefits such as these, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that roughly 56% of companies use email in their overall marketing strategy. If you want to capitalize on email marketing for your company, though, you should consider using video in your messages.
Benefits of Using Video In Email
Video can enhance marketing emails in several ways. According to one study, video increases the click-through rate (CTR) of introductory emails by 96%. This, of course, is particularly important for companies attempting to drive sales with email. If you have a call-to-action (CTA) link or button in your email, video will entice recipients to click it. And when more users click the link, you’ll have more people viewing your promotional offer. While this study focused specifically on introductory emails, research shows that video can increase the CTR of all marketing emails.
In addition to boosting CTR, video also increases the average time users spend reading marketing emails. Conventional wisdom should lead you to believe that email marketing is only effective if recipients actually read your messages. If a recipient immediately deletes your email after reading it for only two or three seconds, it’s not going to offer much value. So, it’s important to note that, according to a report by The Relevancy Group, users spend 44% more time reading emails with video.
The Relevancy Group also claims that emails with video generate 41% more social shares and forwards than emails without video. With each share or forward your email receives, you’ll generate more exposure for your brand and the product or service it offers. And assuming your video content is good, these shares could generate a viral effect; thus, generating massive amounts of traffic.
These are just a few benefits of using video in email. Regardless of the industry or niche in which your company operates, you’ll probably discover other benefits as well. The only way you’ll know, however, is by testing the waters. So, if you’re ready to supercharge your email marketing campaigns, consider using video.
How to Include Video in Email
There are several different ways to include video in your marketing emails. Some email marketing platforms, for instance, offer integrated video hosting. TailoredMail will encode and embed your videos directly into your emails. Additionally, they track every subscriber and their behavior, revealing how much time they spent viewing your video, whether or not they shared it, and the device or platform they used to view it.
Another idea is to embed the video in your email directly using HTML5. The latest version of the Hyper Text Markup Language, HTML5 offers improved functionality for media playback. It’s supported by all of the major web browsers, and it even works with Apple iOS devices that otherwise don’t play Flash media.
The email marketing service providers AWeber and Constant Contact recommend a different method. Rather than embedding videos, they recommend using an image and linking that image to the video hosted on another platform (e.g. YouTube). Basically, you create a screenshot of your video, embed that screenshot in your email as an image, and link it to the URL of your hosted video. Recipients will see the screenshot of your video. And if they want to watch it, they can click it to access the URL on which it’s hosted.
What you shouldn’t do — at least in most scenarios — is include the video as a file attachment. Emails with file attachments are often viewed as spam, resulting in the messages getting red flagged by the email provider. If you want to include video in your marketing emails, use one of the alternative methods described above.
Tips for Using Video In Email
- Include a CTA either in your email or video or both. When using a text-based CTA, publish it within the first paragraph for maximum exposure.
- When creating screenshots of your video, use the PNG file format for maximum quality.
- If your video is hosted and not embedded, make sure the hosting provider is reliable.
- Create compelling subject lines to encourage recipients to open and read your emails.
- Avoid using autoplay videos, as users often view them as intrusive.
- Always test your emails to ensure the video and other elements function as intended before sending.
Perhaps the most important tip when using video in email is to track the results. Email is measurable, with most email marketing providers offering built-in analytics tools. This means you can track key performance indicators (KPI) to see what works best for your company’s email marketing campaigns.
