Video in Email Marketing: Are You Ready to Up Your Game?

If pictures are worth 1000 words, videos are worth a lot more. Email marketing videos can facilitate communication in the best possible way and build stronger relationships with prospects and customers alike. 

Videos are no longer limited to Facebook, Instagram Reels, or YouTube ads, they have also entered the realm of email marketing and are making quite the impact. Just adding the word “video” in email subject lines can result in an increased open rate. This clearly reflects that your subscribers actually appreciate video marketing in emails. 

With that being said, let’s brush up the basics of video email marketing.

Back to Basics: Video Email Marketing

Video email marketing is a tactic to promote your business with the help of embedded videos that play right in your recipients’ inbox. Alternatively, marketers can even add a video thumbnail in a static image or GIF and redirect the email recipients to YouTube or a video landing page. 

Advantages of Using Video in Emails

If you want your subscribers to take action, using video email marketing can prove extremely effective. Here are some reasons why you should invest in video email marketing: 

You can convey your message in a limited space with the help of a video

Rather than writing a paragraph of text, you can simply include a video in your email. It will make your message much more memorable and compelling which will inspire viewers to take action. 

Video emails enhance the subscriber engagement

A video in email is likely to draw the subscriber’s attention, which will in turn lead to better engagement. It will increase the click-through rate by 65%. Videos can pique the subscriber’s curiosity and make the information easily digestible. After all, people usually retain 95% of the information displayed when they watch a video while just 10% of what they read. 

You stand a chance to go viral

Most of the viral videos tap on the emotional or humor instinct of the users. If you succeed in creating such an impactful video, promoting it through emails can help you turn it into the next viral video. You can use tools like Promo.com to build engaging videos for your brand. You can use video email templates or the help of expert professionals from an email marketing agency.  

It can increase your email forwarding rate

As videos are more relatable and shareable, you can increase your email forwarding rate by employing video email marketing. Besides increasing the open rate, click-through rate, engagement rate, and reading time, videos can increase the email forwarding rate too. 

Applications of Video Email Marketing

Video emails are used for several applications as discussed below. 

Use it as an explainer video

Video email marketing can be used to demonstrate the usage of your products or services. You can either have a short video or snippets of shorter videos created from a long video. SaaS and B2B companies can use this method of video advertising to entice them to convert. 

Take a look at this email example by TrustedHousesitters. They embedded a video right inside the email and ended the email with a CTA asking the subscribers for any questions. 

Build social proof with the help of video testimonials in emails

Testimonials and feedback from other users can be used as social proof. These reviews can build the subscriber’s confidence and convince him or her to make the purchase. An email featuring a video testimonial goes a long way in yielding a higher conversion rate and better ROI.     

Take a look at this email by Jigsaw Health in which they have promoted Jigsaw Magsoothe with the help of a video testimonial by one of their happy customers. 

Employ video email marketing for your event promotions

Using videos in your event invitation emails works like a charm to get more attendees. You can include a snippet video of the previous year’s event to show the subscribers a glimpse of what it will be like. You can also include a video in the follow up email to express gratitude to the visitors.

Here’s an example of how Marketing United 2018 thanked event participants by showcasing a “Best of Marketing 2018” video. Moreover, they subtly asked attendees for their feedback to understand how they liked the event.  

Incorporate videos to upsell and cross-sell your products or services

Adding demonstration videos in your promotional emails is a great idea to upsell or cross-sell your products or services. According to the book Marketing Metrics, the probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20% while selling to an existing customer is 60-70%.

This is pretty much obvious because people are more open to buying something from a place that they’ve purchased from before rather than from somewhere else. Leverage this psychology with the help of attractive videos in your emails and encourage people to purchase from you again.   

Telecommunications industry can use videos in emails for trailers and promos of their shows

If you are a marketer in the telecommunications industry, you can use videos in emails to promote the upcoming shows with an interesting trailer. It will pique the subscriber’s interest and tempt them to subscribe to your service to watch the show when it’s released.  

Take a look at this email by Ubisoft in which they have promoted the trailer of Assassin’s Creed with the help of a video thumbnail image. 

Wrapping Up

Video email marketing is a great tool to build credibility while driving faster business growth. Just make sure that you formulate a well-thought plan and define your objectives before employing videos in emails. These examples will surely inspire you and help you plan out your next video email.y