5 Top Tips On How To Use Video In Email Marketing

Email marketing is the best way to quickly distribute and share your message to the masses. Video production is now a very sought-after tool in email marketing. Unfortunately not all email service providers (ESPs) can support video format, therefore you will need to take another approach in order to incorporate video into your email campaigns.

1. Videos embedded in emails

Not all ESPs allow you to self-host the video within the email. Therefore, firstly you will need to capture a still image from the video you wish to share, this will act as the thumbnail or preview image that will show within your email copy. You will need to host your video on a third party website, such as YouTube or Vimeo for this tactic to work, then with each email you send, add this preview image, along with the link to the hosted video. Most ESPs will apply a play icon over this image to provide a clear visual indication that video is part of your email, enticing the viewer to click on the link that sends them to the viewing platform for your video.

Set the video on your sharing page to autoplay in order to immediately catch attention. Once the viewer has clicked on the link within your email they won’t need to do anything more, as this link will open the page to the video automatically and will instantly start playing.

2. Attract Attention

20% of viewers will click away from a video within 10 seconds or less so it is vital to capture the attention of the viewer quickly in order to draw them in. Generally, most videos should be 30-90 seconds long in total, to ensure your message is concise and impactful.

Add an call to action button at the end of the video to direct the user to engage, view further videos or to the conversion pages of your website. This will attract the attention of the viewer and allow them to explore further into your business.

3. Tracking Your Video

Add a tracker to your email and videos to determine when the messages are being opened and what links are being clicked on within the message. By adding a feedback loop into your video, you can determine the number of times your video has been viewed, measure the drop-off points and the click-through rate of your videos. This will help you to effectively establish the best email recipients and best-tailored video for your target audience.

4. Email Leads

If an email and video is successful, many people may wish to forward and share the message with their own clients and contacts. If that particular contact information is not stored on your marketing automated database, you’ll need to provide a way for people to contact you directly. One way of doing this is by using email gates which works by adding an action button to the beginning or end of your video, for example, a contact form. This will allow the viewer to add their name and email address into a form that gets sent directly to you, meaning their details can now be added to your marketing automated database. This means no matter who views your video, there will always be a way to lead back to your company.

5. Marketing Announcements

Video is a great way for you to broadcast relevant information, whether it be an internal message for your company or an external message for your users. One way of doing this is to create a screen recording video from your computer, using a Google Chrome plug-in such as ‘Loom’. This will allow you to launch a video with the relevant information you need, using a voice-over tool where you can directly communicate your message. For an internal company email, unlike a spoken meeting, this annotated video can be watched on repeat and be referred to at any point, which is a great way to ensure everyone stays up to date, even if they don’t happen to be present at the time. For an external email, this is a great way for you to add a personal touch to your informative message, rather than repeating the same conversation over the phone to each individual client.

Unlike a normal video, this screen recording has the option to automatically attach it to an email once completed on ‘Loom’. As you are still using a form of video, you can again add a feedback loop, which means you can monitor the number of times the video is viewed, the click-through rates, drop off points and number of replays.