Video can communicate quickly and more effectively than any other marketing medium. It makes more sense to use video in your email marketing if you want to increase brand awareness and help educate your customers, especially if you have a lead nurturing system in place.
Email marketing remains one of the top distribution tactics for engaging target audiences.
However due to email marketing becoming easy and reliable to use everyone has started to use it, which means many people receiving these emails can come across looking like spam.
The end goal here is to create something that is eye-grabbing and will rope your viewer in. Here is a guide on how to use video in your email marketing.
Using Video in Subject Line
By putting the word video in the subject line you are letting people know that there is a video. It has been proven by multiple companies that just by putting the word video in the subject line you increase open rates. People like watching something more than having to read something. An example subject line would be
{VIDEO} Learn How To Grow Your Company!
Embedding a video and using HTML
One way to share a video is to embed it into the email directly. If you want to embed the video into your email the best way to do this is to use a Youtube or Vimeo link. Embedding a video can allow a video to play directly in an email.
The problem with doing this, however, is that most big email providers don’t support embedded video. While this may improve user experience the cost of doing it is too much. There is something much easier that you can use.
Don’t use links try using GIFS.
You will want to make it obvious that what you are offering is a video for people to watch. Saying “click the link and watch the video to learn more” and inserting a link will simply not do it. Instead, offer a big enticing thumbnail image inside your email.
The image should link directly to the video when selected. For more added effect use a fake play button. This will get the point across even more.
Video playback is not supported in most email clients however ‘playing’ an animated GIF is. This will make it clear that a video is waiting for them to watch. The subtlety of the GIF will draw people to the video and hopefully want to click. That is if the GIF is enticing enough.
Send people to your landing page, not someone else’s
When a person clicks on the thumbnail image the video will not playback natively in the email. The question is then where are you going to send them? and the answer to this question is your own landing page, not someone else’s. Now, what you don’t want to happen is for a person to click the thumbnail and be taken to a page where the video does not exist or is difficult to find.
Autoplay? Or no Autoplay?
Often times people do not like it when they receive an email and a video starts playing. However, since you already told and show people that there is a video in your email this time around you will want to use autoplay. So, when a person clicks the thumbnail in your email the video should autoplay. That way it reduces the amount of steps that people have to take.
Call to Action
Like most marketing outlets, having a strong CTA or the Call to Action is super important. After someone watches your video, you want your viewers to take the next step in your sales funnel. Therefore, it is important to keep it clear and urgent, Otherwise, the viewer may not know what to do next. And example CTA would be to give you a call the number below or request a demo depending on your product/service.
