How To Boost Engagement With Video Email Marketing

What is Video Email Marketing?

Video email marketing is a strategy where videos are incorporated into email content to enhance engagement with subscribers. As consumer attention spans grow shorter, many businesses are searching for ways to stand out in crowded inboxes. Using video within emails can help capture that attention more effectively than traditional text-based messages alone.

Whether it’s product launches, tutorials, testimonials, or behind-the-scenes looks, embedding or linking to video content can greatly increase click-through rates, conversions, and customer retention. It allows marketers to deliver messages in a more dynamic, compelling way. In fact, studies show that emails containing videos can boost click-through rates by up to 300%.

Why is Video Email Marketing Effective?

There are several reasons why video email marketing has emerged as a highly effective tool for marketers:

• Higher Engagement: People tend to prefer watching videos over reading long emails. Video content is visually stimulating, making it more appealing and easier to process.
• Improved Click-Through Rate (CTR): A well-placed video can drive more people to visit your website or landing page, leading to higher CTRs and potentially more sales.
• Better Information Retention: Visual content is easier to remember. According to psychology studies, viewers retain 95% of a video’s message compared to only 10% when reading a text.
• Mobile Era Benefits: Video content is appealing to mobile users who may not have the time or patience to read lengthy emails. Mobile email opens now account for more than 50% of all email opens.
• Versatility: Videos are adaptable. You can create product demos, tutorials, explainer videos, customer testimonials, and more, all using a single platform: your email marketing campaign.
• SEO Boost: Linking videos through emails can drive traffic back to your website or video hosting platform, impacting your SEO performance positively by increasing dwell time or page views.

Best Practices for Video Email Marketing

While video email marketing is highly effective when done right, it’s not as simple as just embedding a video. Many email service providers (ESPs) and inboxes don’t support direct video playback. Here’s a list of best practices to ensure your strategy yields returns:

• Use a Captivating Thumbnail: Since not all email clients support video embeds, try including a static image from the video (a thumbnail) with a play button overlay. When the recipient clicks on the thumbnail, have it open the video in a new tab, directing them to a hosting platform like YouTube or your website.
• Keep It Short: Ensure that your video conveys your main message within the first few seconds. The sweet spot for video length is around 1 to 2 minutes, especially for mobile viewers.
• Add Relevant Alt Text: Always include alt text for your video thumbnail image. This is crucial in case the image fails to load or the user has image previews turned off. The alt text will give viewers a clue about your video's content.
• Personalize Your Videos: Using recipients' names or specific data within videos can dramatically increase engagement. Advanced tools like AI-powered personalization engines allow you to add personal touches to video content at scale easily.
• Include Text-Based Links: Alongside your video thumbnail, ensure you include a text-based call-to-action (CTA) link for viewers who may have trouble interacting with the images or the video itself. This ensures you capture engagement from subscribers who block images or can’t play videos.
• Test Your Emails Across Different Devices: Since video playback and rendering can differ depending on the email client and device, test your email across more applications to ensure it looks great everywhere.

How to Embed Videos in Emails

While directly embedding videos into emails is supported by some platforms, not all email clients and ESPs provide compatibility. Here are five common ways to integrate videos into your email campaigns:

Measuring the Success of Video Email Marketing Campaigns

To optimize your video email marketing strategy, tracking and measuring the right metrics is crucial. The metrics may vary based on your campaign's specific goals, but the core measurements remain consistent:

• Open Rates: Track how many recipients opened your email. Subject lines with "video" perform better, so including the word in the email’s title can contribute to a higher open rate.
• Click-Through Rates (CTR): After the email is opened, the next goal is to drive users to take action. CTR reflects the percentage of people who clicked on your video or accompanying links.
• Play Rates: This measures how many recipients clicked on the video thumbnail to play the video content. A low play rate could signal that the thumbnail or CTA isn’t compelling enough.
• Conversion Rates: If the email had a call to action (e.g., making a purchase, completing a form), track how successful the campaign was in converting viewers into customers.
• Unsubscribe Rates: This is important in understanding the engagement level overall. If too many users unsubscribe, rethink your content approach or targeting strategy.

Tools for Video Email Marketing

If you're eager to try video email marketing but are unsure where to start, several tools are available to help simplify the process:

• BombBomb: BombBomb specializes in video email marketing, giving users the ability to record, embed, and send personal videos all within one platform.
• Vidyard: Vidyard offers powerful tools for creating personalized video campaigns, as well as analytics for deep insight into video performance.
• Mailchimp: Mailchimp doesn’t support direct video embedding but offers support for GIF animations and external hosting functions, allowing seamless video promotions.
• Loom: Loom enables seamless video recording and sharing that can be easily linked within emails, providing both personal and professional options.

Examples of Video Email Marketing Success

Video email marketing has proven to be a game changer for several companies. Take, for instance, the case of Everlane, a well-known clothing retailer. They implemented video content to show how their products are made, emphasizing transparency and sustainability. By incorporating video in their email campaigns, they saw a significant increase in both engagement and sales.

Dollar Shave Club also employs video marketing with great success. Their humorous and informative product videos, sent through email campaigns, have helped build a strong brand identity and customer loyalty, catapulting them to success in the grooming industry.

Final Thoughts

Incorporating video into your email marketing strategy can supercharge campaigns and deliver more meaningful interactions to your audience. Effective video email marketing is about more than including a video—it’s about creating a holistic and supportive strategy that includes engaging thumbnails, relevant metrics, and tailored content across platforms.

The key to a successful campaign is planning, testing, and tracking metrics. If executed properly, video email marketing can bolster brand loyalty, conversions, and customer satisfaction. As user preferences continue to shift more towards visual content, your brand must stay pertinent in ever-evolving marketing trends.

For brands looking to stay at the forefront of innovation, now is the perfect time to experiment with video email marketing, before your audience's inbox becomes even more competitive.