Think about the e-mails that you receive from your favorite stores and restaurants. How many of them do you ignore? How many of them do you open and then close quickly? And then how many of them do you actually read and engage with?
The ones you’re opening and engaging in, clicking links, and actually making a purchase, what do they look like? Do they have fun pictures of their products? Or are you watching short videos?
We bet it’s the former.
In e-mail marketing, words are your best friend. When you just have a short headline to get someone’s attention and then a few paragraphs of text, it becomes really easy for them to bounce from the e-mail quickly or just ignore it completely. But when you add a video to your e-mail campaign, success rates shoot through the roof.
Video e-mail marketing works for two main reasons. The first is that when you have a video in front of your e-mail, the person receiving the e-mail has to at least give it a few seconds before they can hit delete. So if your e-mail headline was ‘20% off today!’ and then your e-mail body text said ‘Click below to shop our sale!’, your e-mail will have been deleted before they have a chance to see the 20% off deal.
But with a video e-mail marketing campaign, not only do you get that e-mail in front of them because it’s being watched, but when people are watching the e-mail video, they are also more engaged. There’s no way that someone can read e-mails while watching a video e-mail campaign, so unless they want to turn off the e-mail altogether, they have no choice but to pay attention.
It might seem like people aren’t interested in e-mails anymore, since every e-mail you get nowadays is just a ‘special offer’ or an e-coupon for something. But e-mails still have the potential to be one of the best lead generation tools out there, as long as companies are doing e-mail marketing right.
All e-mails still have to follow the basic e-mail marketing rules. One of those rules is knowing your audience. So if you know that your e-mail video sales campaign is targeting very tech-savvy people, then it might be more effective for you to get straight to the point in your e-mail and skip over the intro video.
But e-mail marketers need to be careful about how they are using e-mail video marketing campaigns. If the video is too long, it will frustrate your e-mail audience and give them a very good reason to delete the e-mail right away. Always keep your e-mails short and sweet. You don’t have much space to work with, so cram as much information as you can about your e-mail campaign, video included, into that e-mail.
E-mails are still a viable lead generation tool if you are doing e-mail marketing correctly. When using e-mail marketing campaigns to generate sales, use e-mails that have short videos in them to grab the attention of people reading e-mails and make sure that e-mails follow e-mail marketing best practices.
What is it about videos in e-mail marketing campaigns that draw people in?
Currently, marketing e-mails are rather monotonous. Filled with pictures of products, usually being modeled by the same types of models from store to store. There might be a few links to click on to take you to said products in hopes that you’ll purchase them. But, other than a subject stating that the store is having a sale, what is there to convince you to make the purchase?
E-mail marketing analysts have noticed is that e-mails with videos in them experienced a much higher success rate than e-mails without videos. What this means is that, of the e-mails sent out, e-mails with videos were opened and time was spent reading them more times than e-mails without videos.
Videos offer more than just words on a screen. Videos allow you to see the products in action, hear testimonies from past customers, and so much more.
When people are watching video e-mails, they are engaged in the e-mail. It’s almost natural that when people watch e-mails that e-mail then becomes more successful than e-mails without videos. This is what e-mail marketers need to keep in mind when planning an e-mail marketing campaign. By placing a video in their marketing e-mail, you’re raising the possibility of consumers clicking through to make a purchase.
What types of videos should I include in a marketing e-mail campaign?
First, you’ll want to know what kinds of videos do best for the industry you’re in. You’re not going to want to place videos that have nothing to do with your company or what you’re trying to sell in your marketing e-mails. That will get people to unsubscribe faster than a cat on a mouse. And you definitely don’t want people to be unsubscribing from your e-mails!
Instead, you want to make sure your videos are relevant, especially to the reason you’re sending out the e-mail in the first place: to sell something.
The videos that work here the best are videos that showcase what you’re selling in a positive and informative light. These e-mail videos should include some sort of customer testimonial or a video showing the features of the products being sold.
If you’re e-mailing your e-mail marketing campaign to customers, then making e-mails with videos that show why people need your product and how it can benefit them will definitely make a good impression.
Are you letting people know about the latest and greatest product you just got in? Consider a quick unboxing video!
You can unbox any product! From opening the latest shipment of books or shirts that you’re about to put out for display or there’s a brand new sewing machine on the market that you want to show off, an unboxing video will draw in people who want to purchase the merchandise. This especially works great for expensive investments, like a sewing machine, where people will want to see what comes in the box with the machine- is it worth the investment before they make the purchase?
Other videos that work perfectly in a marketing e-mail are testimonials from past customers.
Testimonial videos, or reviews, really help to build trust with prospective customers. You’re going to have a much better e-mail marketing campaign if you have a customer that’s saying “I bought this product and it was the best purchase I ever made!” over just a picture of the product. It gives a sense of genuineness from someone who has no connection with your company, so people feel as if they can trust your marketing e-mails more often.
The last video that e-mail marketers should consider is a how-to video. If you have a product, service, or even an e-book you want to promote, showing people how they can use it will make the e-mail successful in many ways.
People love being able to see a product being used. It doesn’t have to be anything big. It should be a short video, after all. How to e-mail market videos are great because of the fact that e-mail marketers can sync it with e-mails they’ve sent out before. It can be a type of follow-up e-mail where people have shown interest in the e-mail but didn’t click through.
There are many types of videos you can include in an e-mail marketing campaign, too, so don’t feel too limited to this list alone.
How long should a video meant for e-mail marketing be?
You’ll want to include videos that are short. There is nothing worse than e-mails with huge videos in them. People have busy lives and their e-mail inboxes are filled with e-mails from all sorts of companies they’ve already bought from or are not interested in buying from right now. Don’t make their e-mail reading experience any different than it already is. Linking GIFs in your email with a play button on them, can keep your emails small in size, but have the motion needed to get the attention—and the click—to actually engage with your video.
Short videos work best in e-mail marketing campaigns. But how short is “short”? Well, e-mail marketing videos should be around 20 seconds long or less. If you want people to watch your e-mails, don’t make them work too hard for it!
They’ll appreciate the fact that your e-mail doesn’t take up their entire e-mail reading time. Keep it short and simple for e-mail marketing success!
How can I create these videos?
You could take the time out of your day to film a video yourself. But you’re probably lacking in a proper setting, professional equipment, and post-production software and skills to create a professional video that will really bring the customers into your store. That’s why we highly recommend hiring a professional video production company like C&I Studios.
Video production companies have skills that they’ve honed for years to know the best way to get the perfect shot. They have the means to hire talent that will really make your products look and sound amazing without overshadowing them. They know the best places to shoot the video you are envisioning and likely have access to them. They use only the best professional equipment and software and work amazing post-production magic to bring you only the best, most polished videos.
It’s truly an investment. Not only in money but time and energy.
Do you know what’s also great about hiring a professional company? They usually offer more services than just video production. C&I Studios offers many other content creation services that will only benefit your marketing strategy.
In Conclusion
Adding videos to your e-mail marketing campaigns will only add to your revenue. E-mail marketers want e-mails open. E-mail marketers want e-mails clicked through to their websites. Keep e-mail marketing videos short and sweet so that they are read by the e-mail recipient without overwhelming them. Then e-mail marketers will earn more e-mail campaign success.
And we want you and your business to be as successful as it possibly can be!
So, when you’re ready, give us at C&I Studios a shout. We’re ready to get started making amazing videos for your company to use in your e-mail marketing and everywhere else videos are posted! Don’t wait too much longer- you don’t want the competition to get a one-up on you!