Add Video to Your Email-Marketing Campaigns for a Whole New Level of Engagement

Add Video to Your Email-Marketing Campaigns for a Whole New Level of EngagementCan integrating video into your email campaigns positively impact your marketing results? The answer is yes – according to a recent study of more than 1 billion video emails by the Internet marketing firm Implix. Study results demonstrated that emails containing videos achieved 96.38% higher click-through rates and 5.6% higher open rates compared to non-video emails. In this month’s feature, we explore the hot topic of integrating video into email campaigns.

YouTube Popularity Demonstrates the Engaging Power of Videos
Although conversion – typically measured through sales and sign-ups – is the ultimate goal of an email campaign, audience engagement consistently plays a central role in achieving that goal. And more and more marketers are finding that integrating video into their email messages increases engagement with target audiences.

The growing popularity of YouTube – the online community that allows people to watch and share videos – is certainly a good indication of the high degree of engagement associated with videos. According to YouTube statistics:

  • 2 billion YouTube videos are viewed daily.
  • 24 hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute.
  • 51% of YouTube users go to the site at least weekly.
  • The age range of the user base is broad – 18 to 55 years of age – and evenly divided between females and males.
  • 52% of the 18-to-34-year-olds share videos often with friends and colleagues.

Is Video Integration Becoming a Trend in Email Marketing?
To help answer that question, the 2010 Video Email Marketing Survey and Industry Trends Report – conducted by the Web Video Marketing Council with Flimp Media and ExactTarget – gathered data from 200 marketers and marketing decision-makers. The survey results showed:

  • 50% of respondents had already used video in their email-marketing programs, while an additional 24% are currently considering using it.
  • 73% of respondents believed integrating video with email marketing will increase click-through rates.
  • 73% also believed video-based email marketing will increase conversion rates.

What Are Some Ways to Use Video in Your Email Campaigns?
In addition to creating a typical promotional commercial for your company’s products or services, there are numerous other ways to effectively communicate your marketing message in a video email. Here are some ideas for using video in your email campaigns:

  • Customer testimonials
  • Product/service demonstrations
  • Educational or training courses
  • How-to videos
  • Company/product news and announcements
  • Brand image messages
  • Event highlights.

How Do You Integrate Video in Emails?
Some marketers have expressed the concern that adding video to their email campaigns will result in bounces or land their messages in recipients’ spam folders. If the technology is applied in the right way and the email follows the best practices of email marketing, however, adding video should not affect email deliverability.

The following are three options for ways to integrate video into emails:

  1. Create a thumbnail image in your email that links to Web video.
    A simple and popular solution to integrating video in email involves creating a video thumbnail image, complete with a play arrow, that links to the real video – either hosted on a landing page or a social media site such as YouTube.
  2. Use an animated graphics interchange format (GIF).
    Animated GIFs could work for a simple product display or demonstration. The drawbacks of this technology include that they:

    • Lack audio
    • Won’t work for all email clients
    • May take some time to load.
  3. Embed video in your email.
    The biggest limitation for embedding video in an email is that it will work only for certain email clients and Internet Service Providers. Recipients who use iPhones, iPads, and Apple Mail can view embedded video, for example, but users who can’t see HTML – such as on many mobile devices – won’t be able to access the video content.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to effectively integrate video into your email-marketing campaigns, the experts at FulcrumTech can help. Contact us or give us a call today at 215-489-9336. We can show you the best ways to leverage the latest technologies to optimize your email-marketing results.

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