According to research,
one third of the time we spend online is used to watch videos.
This may not seem like groundbreaking information, and indeed it's fairly obvious when you think about it, but are you taking advantage of this for your business? Most companies are aware of this, which is why they are incorporating video into their existing marketing strategies. Whether it's used for promotional or communication purposes, video content is something that people clearly love to consume.
As the level of interaction with video is constantly growing your marketing strategy needs to as well and the sky is the limit where video content is concerned. Websites, landing pages, promotional material, newsletters, digital ads, emails, and the list goes on.
In fact,
SocialMediaToday
published an article revealing that people are around 64% more likely to buy a product online after watching a video. The reason is simple, video gets your message across more effectively and your customers respond by taking action.
Most email inboxes are inundated with important emails, unimportant solicited newsletters and promotions, and unfortunately the unsolicited spam and junk mail can make it in there too. The challenge is to cut through the noise and grab the attention of your recipient. Video is a great way to do that, in-fact you could increase your click-through rates by 200%.
So here are a few ways you can use video in your newsletters to stand out and get better results on your email campaigns.
Introduce yourself or a new product or service.
With text and images there is always a chance that your message may get lost in translation or misunderstood. Getting your message across might not hit the mark with a photo.
This add for Purina's Puppy Chow is a perfect example...
Although this video is about a man who adopts and raises a puppy, it's not meant to be inspiring or a 'hard sell' tactic — it's meant to be entertaining and fun. The writers did a great job taking all the classic puppy stories you've heard (puppy chewing on the furniture; puppy keeping you up all night) and turning them into a lovely tale of a man and his dog spending time together.
Even with the best writher in the world, it would be difficult to get the same message across with text or a photo.
Offer tips, tricks or 'hacks'.
When it comes to email marketing with video, users want short, digestible clips.
Create a
“Top 5 ways to improve your credit score"
or
"best work form home, life hacks". These will get more attention than a 2-minute creation of you trying to explain a product or service. And when its followed up with a strong call to action, linked to your website or contact information you have the makings of a great sales or lead generating funnel.
Create a series.
This is a great way to keep people engaged with your expertise, as long as what you’re providing is valuable to them. Just like the idea of offering tips and tricks you want to create a mini series of short easy to watch videos.
Try to avoid turning this into a multi-part sales pitch that might just put people of opening your next email all together. Instead, use this to provide some value and solve a problem.
For example an accounting firm could set up a campaign and do a four-part video series on how to set up a new company :
- Part 1:
Accounting software reviews
- Part 2:
Pros and cons of D.I.Y and hiring an accountant
- Part 3:
Tips for tracking and making sure that you file your returns on time
- Part 4:
A quick guide on calculating deprecating assets
A few things to check before you get started:
Can your mail service support video content?
There are so many email clients to choose from and these days most will support all types of media. However, some of them don’t support the requirements for using email with video so its a good idea to check that your email platform supports video content.
The popular services like MailChimp make it easy to share across all providers by using a screen capture image of your video and linking it to your original content on your blog, YouTube, Vimeo or similar sites.
This gives the appearance there’s actually video in your email and avoids technical issues with your email provider.
Is it mobile friendly?
According to Hubspot, mobile opens accounted for 46% of all email opens. That means you have to ensure you’re keeping smartphones in mind when you’re email marketing with video.
Fortunately, eNewsletter providers such as MailChimp and Campaign Monitor let you test and see how your messaging will look before you send it out.
It’s still important to keep the file size as low as possible so the video doesn’t need to buffer to start playing. Mobile devices don’t have the fastest download speed.
However, not every email needs to or should contain a video. If you start using this marketing strategy every time you send your subscribers a Newsletter, they may stop paying attention. As we said earlier, its a way to cut through the noise and stand out from the crowd, but don't neglect your other tactics.
Creating a newsletter campaign with or without video, choosing the right email provider, testing and monitoring open rates and engagement is a tough job. And, it needs to be done well or you're going to end up alienating and losing subscribers.
