How You Can Skyrocket Your Email Marketing Using Video

The power of video in marketing today is undeniable. Just look at electronic music duo Daft Punk-the pair successfully built an entire marketing campaign around it! Using video in your email marketing can help your click-through-rates and sales soar. Here, we explore three video email marketing questions that can help you to quickly and efficiently build your email list.

1) What’s the big deal about video, anyway? People love video. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, right behind its owner, Google. Video allows email marketers to succinctly tell a visual “story” in a matter of minutes. It sparks emotions and encourages higher click-through-rates. According to the WSJ, The Relevancy Group discovered that only 25 percent of email marketers are using video in email, but those marketers were increasing their CTR’s and conversions by 40 percent!

2) What are the best video practices? So you know video can make a big impact in your email marketing, but how do you properly implement into your campaigns? You may be thinking the first step for effective video marketing is to have a huge budget, right? Wrong. One of the great things about video is that producing a high quality product doesn’t require bottomless pockets-all you need is quality content that evokes emotion from your audience and engages them.

You can use a number of video formats, including embedded video, animated .gif video or even a static callout linking to a web-hosted video. But regardless of the type of video you use, it’s important that you stick to the below guidelines:

• Keep your videos under three minutes. If you’re using animated .gif videos, keep them to 30-45 seconds.
• Keep in mind that some email clients block images-make sure your CTA is in text form so all readers have the opportunity to convert.
• Some email clients only show static images, make sure your video’s first frame complies with this.
• Keep bandwidth needed for viewing at 150-200kB/second or less.
• Put the word ‘Video’ in your subject line to alert your reader. You can also use a play button in the email and briefly tell your audience what to expect when they click the video.

3) What role does follow up play in video email marketing? Following up initial emails with autoresponders allows email marketers to nurture prospects, but more importantly, it allows you to immediately engage with them by using time-sensitive triggers that reward them.

As an example, let’s say you embedded a 2-minute video into your email that highlights your product or service. After your viewers watch the first 30 seconds, you can send them a message thanking them for watching that includes a reward coupon for your product. If they watch the entire video, raise the stakes and give them a coupon with an even higher discount and encourage them to share the video via social media.

You can even use video email as a follow up for previously sent text emails that have a low click-through-rate. Hubspot brilliantly executed this strategy by poking fun at its engagement tactics. The result? The email had a CTR of 16.4 percent, which is 583 percent higher than the industry standard of 2.4 percent.

Looking for other methods to build your email list? Download “20 Great Ways to Grow Your Email List” today!