I’ve just come back from BrightonSEO and it’s official – video is still the marketing tool of choice this year (see my top trends for 2016).
With video predicted to be 80% of all internet traffic by 2018, if you’re not already incorporating it into your marketing, now is the time to do so.
But video is not just for website content or driving traffic from social media. It’s proved to be very effective in email marketing campaigns – research by Forrester and email marketing company Eloqua found that embedded video improves the email click-through rate by up to 300 percent and reduce the unsubscribe rate by 75 percent.
You still have to execute quality video content to make it work. Proceed with caution before just putting a video into the emails you’re already sending.
Here’s 7 tips for producing Videos for Email Marketing
1When to use it
Video is multisensory, so you should use it to address multisensory topics such as product demonstrations and subjects that your target audience are likely to have a lot of questions about.
It’s an emotional tool, using colour, motion and sound to connect with viewers. It makes it memorable and allows you to resonate with your audience so it’s a great way of telling them about you and your company. After all, people buy from people.
2Keep it short
Keep the video under 90 seconds for email marketing. You want to present your product or service quickly and effectively before you lose viewers’ attention.
3Have a call to action
You’ve got their attention – don’t leave them hanging at the end. Drives viewers to the next step of your marketing campaign. Otherwise, they’ll watch it and have no idea how to proceed.
4Embed your video or include a thumbnail link
Unless you are paying for a premium email marketing service, where you can embed the video into the email (one that plays within the email) the chances are you’ll have to just provide a link. BUT put effort into making the link look like an embedded video so it gets a much higher click through. You can do this by creating a thumbnail image including the play button and linking it to your video. When the recipient clicks the image it will take them to the video. (Research has shown that custom thumbnail gives you 35% increase in play rate whilst a custom play button will give 19% in increase in play rate. Video hosting service Wisteria will do this).
5Include a text link to the video
Remember not all email recipients will view your email with images on it, so have a version that reads in plain text by creating a text link below any rich media you feature in your email marketing campaigns.
6Make it prominent
Position it at the top of your email so you don’t run the risk of your prospects not scrolling down far enough and missing out on it.
7Say the V word
Research shows that simply putting the word “video” in the subject line of an email increases open rates by 19 percent, increases click-through rates by 65 percent, and decreases unsubscribes by 26 percent.
Email marketing is a great way to build and maintain relationships with your prospects and customers and using videos can make your campaigns even more successful. And of course that video can become part of your marketing repertoire, on your website, on social or bringing in traffic from the video player itself.
If you need some help creating your video, we have the perfect contacts at IMN, video production company Switched-on Multi-media and if you need help with the script, expert copywriter Editing Edge. And of course IMN can set up the email campaigns and provide advice on the sales funnel, marketing and optimisation.
Here’s a recent collaboration between the 3 of us to give you some food for thought.
If you would like to use video in your email marketing campaigns get in touch.