How to Do Video Email Marketing

You are an awesome copywriter. Even if you are not, let's for the sake of this situation agree that you are. You need to launch an email marketing campaign - an important announcement, a feature launch, a course, and so on - and you sit down to write, once you start you can't be stopped, you have so much information, charts, statistics, infographics, pictures, indeed, you have a lot to say, and you are so hellbent to say them all that you end up with a new type of content…

…email marketing novel. You could sell that email as a stand-alone book, screenwriting for a movie or tv show. Yeah, it’s that long.

Wait, that is not a bad idea actually. No, not the selling part, the movie part, a video to be more specific. Instead of a long and daunting email, why not record a video and send it to your subscribers?

Yes, video email marketing. The concept has been around for a while now, but lately, it’s getting more and more adopters. As video marketing gains more and more prominence it is high time that emails also adopted it.

In this article, I will talk a little bit about why you should start doing some video email marketing, how to start doing it, and some tips to help you nail it, even though you are not even close to being a mix between Tarantino and Ogilvy.

Why Use Video in Your Email Marketing Efforts?

The thing is: when you use video for your email marketing it is easier to pass your message to your subscribers, videos capture more attention than your writing. You can explain things better and keep your engagement rate higher.

According to an email marketing research study, including a video in an email leads to open rate increases of 6%. Once you determine what the goal of your video is, you can easily use it as a tool to entice the recipients to stay engaged. Utilizing text to audio software can further enhance the impact of your video content by providing engaging voice narration that complements your product presentation. For instance, if you are trying to sell a product, with the help of animated explainer videos you’ll be able to showcase the feature and functionality of your products creatively.

Stories are easier to convey when you use videos because you can show what you mean, instead of trying to explain it in the abstract with written words. Especially with the abundance of user-friendly video and video editing tools available today, creating captivating and informative videos to showcase your products' features and functionality has never been easier. Editing videos online has made the process incredibly streamlined and accessible, allowing you to flex your creative muscles and produce content that engages your audience.

And if you are one of those kinds of folks that have no problem to show your face in videos, that will create some proximity with your subscribers. You don't believe me? Let's do an exercise, who do you trust more when you are receiving your news, the guy that writes them on a newspaper or the anchor for the night news on TV? Maybe the guy from the newspaper does a better job in the way he gives you the news, but I am sure you feel more compelled to trust the anchor from TV.

If this anecdotal example won't suffice for you to believe in me, maybe a report from Forrester Research will. Bear in mind that you will have to purchase the report, but if you not inclined to do that, I will tell you what it says.

The Forrester report says that when you use videos in your email marketing campaigns, you can achieve an absurd 200-300% Clickthrough Rate increase. It seems like video email marketing is the dream for any email marketer out there.

Video Email Marketing - How To?

Well, it is well known that videos are heavy, some services may allow you to upload a video directly into your email, but that's not the best strategy to use in this case.

Instead of uploading your video into your email marketing campaign, making your email heavier, you should take advantage of YouTube and then use the link in the email. By not listing your video, you will assure that not everybody will find it online. And it would be like something for your eyes only. If it is not something you would prefer to not be shared if your subscribers share it, it would be like a word-of-mouth type of thing. Your content was so good that people couldn't keep it for themselves.

Or you could take advantage of SEO, since YouTube is the second biggest and popular search engine on the internet, and upload your video public for people to find you when they are searching for a specific keyword. Two birds with one stone.

How?

I will not show you how to create a channel and upload a video on YouTube. I will assume that you already have this kind of knowledge. A quick Google Search can solve that problem for you in case you don’t.

Upload the video on your YouTube channel. Grab the link, and take a screenshot of the thumbnail. You can even put the YouTube logo in the center of that image. In your email, you will upload the image, using the SendX drag-and-drop editor for example, and put the URL for the video in the thumbnail. When people click on the image, they will be sent to your video on YouTube.

If you don’t like the idea of having a static image in your email body, and you want something that truly resembles this notion of video email marketing, you could use a GIF instead. You can go on GIPHY and use it to transform a part of your video into a GIF, upload it to your SendX email editor and link it to your video on YouTube, and voilà! Magic.

Keep in mind that if someone is using Microsoft Outlook, from the Microsoft Office Suite, to receive emails the GIF won't behave as expected, but don't let this stop you from experimenting with GIFs. You can also use a tool like Rocketium to automate the video and image creation.

Wistia

Loved by the marketers, because of the ability to give you precise reports that marketers need, that YouTube is not able to provide them with, Wistia is an alternative service that you can upload your videos in. And then you can use the same tactics explained above for your video email marketing campaign.

The difference is that you will have a more detailed report on how your subscribers interact with your videos. But you will lose that SEO advantage of Youtube. Like everything in life, you will have to decide what solution suits your needs better.

Landing Page with Retargeting

Youtube or Wistia, it doesn't matter at all.

You can use a specific landing page for your video email marketing campaign, instead of linking the image or the GIF directly to the video, you can link it to a landing page, where you will have the video embedded and ready to play, and if you selling or launching something, you can use a Facebook Pixel or Google Ads for retargeting purposes.

And since retargeting will bump your chances of conversion up to 70%, this is a no-brainer.

Tips to Better Succeed in Your Video Email Marketing Endeavors

After telling you how you can use video email marketing in your campaigns, I will leave you with a few tips so you can increase your chances of success while experimenting with it.

First of all, make sure you will only give value to your subscribers. Avoid long videos that will waste their time. Only do it if the long video is something you must do in order to really pass the message.

Bear in mind that time is money, don't waste it from your subscribers’ because you may be throwing money away as well.

Second, make sure you let your subscribers know that the content from the email is a video, it won't hurt if you put something like "[Video]..." in your subject line. The heads up will be appreciated.

For increased engagement and production value, consider using an AI video API to automate some aspects of your video creation. These APIs can help you create dynamic content, add text overlays, and personalize your videos at scale.

Third, the concept of funnels applies in the video email marketing world as well. You do it in your traditional email marketing campaigns, so make sure you keep doing the same with your videos. Relevant content for your audience, make sure that you use segmentation and different videos for different stages of your funnels.

I know that this may seem like a lot of work, but disregard all this advice and you will have the notion of what true heavy work means when you start losing subscribers.

Here are the top 4 tips on video email marketing that we have gathered after analyzing several emails and user-behavior with those emails.

1. Let them know there is a video inside

Use the phrase ' video ' in your subject line to let people know that there is a video in the email.

Some ways to do that are:

• [Video] <rest of the subject line>
• New Video: <rest of the subject line>
• <short subject line> (3 min video inside)

There is no definitive answer to which one would work. So test out various options and see which one sticks.

2. If it's content, stick to a schedule

If your videos are content videos, and you wish to build a brand image with these, then stick to a schedule. Don't send your videos on random days. For example, if you send out a content video every Thursday, then stick to that day of the week for every week.

This will build a habit of looking forward to your videos amongst your most engaged audience.

Hence, boosting your reach and open rates.

3. Include CTA in your video

Every email and every piece of content in the email should have a goal - to make people buy something, follow you on social media, consume your content, etc.

So your video content will also be serving some purpose & should invite people to take action. For this, you can include cues in the video with the help of text-treatments or it can be part of the actual script. You should also place a CTA just below the video for higher conversion.

4. Use captions/subtitles

Most people watch videos with the audio off. They might be watching it on the train or in the office. That's why it's helpful to add subtitles to video, so that people can know what the video is about even without turning on the audio.

Since they will be reading your content and watching the visuals, it also means they will have more attention to give to the video.

This will boost engagement and responses to your video, thus helping a higher click-to-open rate.

Video Email Marketing Examples

Here are top 4 examples of emails with video embedded in them.

Example #1: The first one is an example from foundr.

There is a big, clear YT play button on top of the video. This makes it clear that this is a video & it can be played. They have a clear CTA below the video that will help increase click-to-open-rate.

This video by Foundr is a trailer of a course they might be launching. So it's part of the sales sequence.

Example #2: The second one is from Mindvalley. They have not used the bold red play button but have used a thumbnail that tells you what the video is about. Then there is a button CTA below the video that asks the reader to watch it.

This video by Mindvalley is a content video. It wishes to inform/educate the reader about something.

Example #3: Then there is another example of a video email from Travel Massive. The thumbnail is literally a massive red play button which a reader can't miss. The CTA is placed after the text and not directly below the video.

This video by Travel Massive is a year in review. It's made to entertain the subscriber.

So as you can see in the above examples, there is no single right or wrong way to do video email marketing. You have to test out what works best for your business.

Conclusion

Video is the new black in marketing.

Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and even Twitter are optimizing themselves for videos every day. You can look at successes like Snapchat, and now Tik Tok that video is the king on the internet realm.

I can even remind you that Youtubers and Streamers are the new rockstars of our era, and they achieve it by creating videos.

So, it is time for you to lose that fear of being in front of a camera, and use your copywriting skills to write those awesome scripts for your next videos, and embed it into your email marketing campaigns.

Lights, camera… action.

It's a wrap!

FAQs

 

1) Why should I use Videos in my email marketing efforts?

When you use video for your email marketing it is easier to pass your message to your subscribers, videos capture more attention than your writing. You can explain things better and keep your engagement rate higher. Stories are easier to convey when you use videos because you can show what you mean, instead of trying to explain it in the abstract with written words.

 

2) Can I use GIFs instead of a static image representing my video?

In order to use a GIF instead of a static image representing a video, you can go on GIPHY and use it to transform a part of your video into a GIF, upload it to your email editor and link it to your video on YouTube, and that's it!

 

3) How can I use a specific landing page for my video email marketing campaign?

You can use a specific landing page for your video email marketing campaign, instead of linking the image or the GIF directly to the video, you can link it to a landing page, where you will have the video embedded and ready to play, and if you selling or launching something, you can use a Facebook Pixel or Google Ads for retargeting purposes.

 

4) What are some tips to succeed in video email marketing efforts?

Here are some top tips to be successful in your video email marketing efforts:

• Make sure you will only give value to your subscribers. Avoid long videos that will waste their time. Only do it if the long video is something you must do in order to really pass the message.
• Make sure you let your subscribers know that the content from the email is a video, it won't hurt if you put something like "[Video]..." in your subject line.
• The concept of funnels applies in the video email marketing world as well. You do it in your traditional email marketing campaigns, so make sure you keep doing the same with your videos.