Not so long ago, Email marketing was limited to platforms with text and images. Creating content had become even more interesting when the power of video was introduced to sales and marketing professionals. It was a perfect way to engage your customers and provide them with everything they needed to know about you, your company and your products or services. How many of the marketers are actually incorporating video in their email marketing strategy? What can others learn from them?

First, there were TV commercials that used the video to deliver the message, but now there isn’t a situation where a video wouldn’t be the best option for communicating with consumers. According to the latest research in 2018, ⅓ of all online activities is spent watching videos. It’s not a surprise then that most companies are trying to incorporate video into their existing marketing strategy. People love watching videos; they are even more likely to buy a product online after seeing them (64 % of users). The reason why video is becoming so popular with everyone is not just because the video content is so engaging, but also because the digital world really loves videos. For instance, the video content will always have a better ranking than photos and text on social media. That means that more people will probably see it when they are online. The same is with search engines. Nobody loves videos more than Google! A video is 50 times more likely to appear on the first page of search results than a traditional web page. Google’s recent algorithm has completely transformed the search landscape, prioritizing rich and blended search results with unique content.

Now, it’s all about the communication. You can’t expect to sell or advertise anything if you are not communicating properly. Thankfully,  dark age of communication is behind us, and now customers want more. They want to know everything: why should they buy from you, how much it will help them, when and where can they use or implement your product or service, what level of knowledge and skills should they have to use it, and so on. Of course, all of these questions could easily be answered with text, but the video has two things that text doesn’t: personalization and credibility.

Personalization

The video can consist of people, and that is what makes it powerful. When you have people in your story, or better yet in your video, your audience will feel more familiar with the scenario and will recall on a similar situation. For example, it is hard for an insurance company to describe what are flood consequences and why you need insurance for it. However, if you have people in your video and they represent a family whose home was affected by the flood, the viewers will understand it better and they will know why flood insurance is vital for them. If you want people to understand and feel something when delivering your message, you have to add the human beings to your video. The same is with video usage in email communication. To stand out and create an email that will catch someone’s eye, you should really think about integrating video content into your existing email campaigns. Did you know that mentioning a personalized video in the subject line increases the open rate by 272%?

Credibility

Would you trust more the information you read in a written form or the one that you see in a video? Without any doubt, the video is a content that has the highest level of credibility. Not only that you can read or hear about something, but you can also see it. Building trust and gaining credibility is something that takes a while, but if you do your best to deliver high-quality content with trustworthy information in it, you will see a positive effect. Just remember, if your audience can’t trust you, then they won’t believe you. Your customers have to believe you are competent. Without credibility, people will not trust you nor believe you, and that will lead to serious profit drop. Is there a bigger nightmare than losing you money due to bad communication strategy?

Cisco estimates that 82 % of all Internet traffic by 2021 will be just video. This is why all marketers are now focusing on video. They are even making video their priority when creating marketing strategies. The biggest challenge for them is how to switch from written communication to video communication, or how to balance between those two?

Are you sending personalized emails? And by ‘personalized’ we are not thinking of just throwing in the name of the recipient. Can your recipients know that this email was created just for them? Here is where you have to forget about cold emails. If there is information you have about the person you are sending the email to, you have to create a personalized email for them. Yes, have to! This is the difference between the average marketer and a great one. The great marketer will not only do his/her best when communicating with the clients, but he or she will also use the best communication tools available. Without any doubt, the video would also be the best communication tool for email platforms, but how to implement it in your existing email marketing strategy?

Revise your email marketing strategy

Were you sending newsletters to your existing and potential customers? What was the feedback you were getting from them? How many of your newsletter audience became your loyal customers due to your great newsletter strategy? Besides newsletters, are you sending other emails to your customers? There are probably million more questions that you could ask yourself to get the overview of everything you have ever done in the field of email marketing in your company. The point of revision is to know where and how to implement video in it. The video shouldn’t completely change your email marketing strategy; it should improve it. You still have to be recognizable on the market so be careful when implementing any of the communication or marketing tools.

For an email marketer, it is good to know that video in an email leads to 200-300% increase in click-through rates. There is no doubt about should you use the video in your emails or not, but the question is how. First, print out the last few newsletters you and your coworkers created and sent to your customers. Second, Write down the elements you would like to keep. Maybe it’s the way you create subject lines, the way you greet recipients, images, call-to-action buttons, newsletter structure or anything else. Third, decide which elements you would like to remove. Sometimes we are so used to doing things the same way we don’t see what is necessary and what is not. Even the small changes can improve the final layout of your emails and newsletters. Go through your newsletter like you are seeing them for the first time. Pretend you are a potential customer who just received this newsletter and knows only a few information about your company.

Fourth, talk to your colleagues about the information you gathered from conversations with the customers. Try to get as many comments as you can and write them down. See if there is something that keeps on repeating. For example, recipients are not reading your emails or newsletters because they are too long or your style guidelines are not appealing. If you ever thought about improving your email marketing strategy, this is when you should do it. It is very important that you are focused just on your previous emails and newsletters. Don’t try to create new ones before you revise everything that has already been done.

Fifth, think about which goals have you set up for your newsletters and check if they are still the same. What if you set up a goal to inform people about your business and have been sending informative newsletters for the past three years? That could seriously hurt your business! Your goals need to be revised more often, especially because you are sending your emails more often, too. Think about what you wanted to achieve with your email communication. Were you sending them to inform, entertain, engage, ask, communicate or something completely else? Remember, there is no wrong goal, the only mistake you could make is not being aware of your goal.

Lastly, you should create a summary of everything you came up with. Those ideas could be in a video, on a board or a piece of paper,… It really doesn’t matter! The important thing is that you know exactly how you want your next newsletters and emails to look like and what you don’t want them to look like. Keep it simple, don’t overcomplicate. But it will describe everything you want in details, that will help you incorporate the video into your email marketing strategy even better. Use the words all of your colleagues will understand, and make sure that everyone understands everything.

REVISE YOUR PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS: 

1. Print last few sent newsletters
2. Decide which elements you want to keep
3. Decide which elements you want to get rid of.
4. Analyze all the comments from your newsletter recipients.
5. Check what your goals were for previous newsletters.
6. Create a summary of everything you’ve decided on in this phase.

Video integration

Here we will not discuss budget or technical options, because they need to be considered more carefully and you should definitely do all that before implementing video into your email marketing strategy. After you know which video platform you will use, how much money will you spend on it and who will be your videographer, it is time to think about where to integrate video. Should it be in every newsletter? Should it replace all the text-based content? Should it be just one video per newsletter or more of them? So, let’s start answering those questions.

You can even integrate videos to Outlook:

Yes, videos should be in your every newsletter. Why? According to recent research, 97% of purchase intent with video ads, and the brand association is increased by 139%. If that information is not enough, we should also say that no other platform can deliver your message as good as video can. It is the closest type of communication to face-to-face interactions. Of course, you don’t have enough time to visit all of your customers and tell them a story about your products or services, and this is why the video is the perfect solution. If you are a little bit afraid you will overuse the video and your customers will not understand why everything is communicated through it now, you can relax. You can still keep your written words. Actually, combining them with your video material will result in a dynamic, creative and playful layout.

Let’s say you send your newsletters every Wednesday. How about your next newsletter starts with a personalized message where you greet your recipient, provide them with the most important information and updates of that week, and you end that newsletter with a video message? The research shows that where both video and text are available on the same page, 72% of people would rather use video to learn about a product or service. You can even record the ‘Tip of the Week’ video and insert it into your email campaigns. It can be DIY advice, an upgrade idea, or anything else. The goal is to provide your audience with something that will be useful to them. One thing is for sure: They will appreciate it! Did you know that 95% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service?

You can talk with your colleagues about which parts of your newsletter could benefit the most from video integration. Take into consideration everything from the design to the recipient’s point of view. Create a draft version of the new design for your newsletters before you go into details. After that, make sure you know what will be said in the video. The things said in the video should match the rest of the newsletter. For example, if in your newsletter you are talking directly to the person that receives the newsletter, then in your video you should do the same. If you are more laid back when communicating via email, don’t forget that your video should have a more informal tone as well.

This is another way of integrating videos into your emails:

As we mentioned in the previous phase, it is very important to know what is the goal of the newsletters. So, what would be the goal of your new, better and improved newsletter that has video in it? Do you want to engage your customers more? Do you want them to have all the information about your products or services in their email inbox without having to search for it online? Make sure you set up the goal before you start sending newsletters. Otherwise, you will not be able to measure the success of your email marketing campaign.

VIDEO INTEGRATION TIPS:

1. Decide on which video platform to use.
2. Consider all the elements for placing the video in the newsletter.
3. The words in the video need to match the words in the rest of the newsletter.
4. Set up the goal for your future newsletters.

Never stop improving

When the first email campaign has been launched, keep in mind you will always have to review it for improvement. Communication and all of its types are always changing and evolving, so you will have to measure the success of every newsletter you have sent and test various options. Some ideas will prove as successful, some not. There are no rules in this game, and this is why you have to test everything and track it once you’ve sent it.

You can always ask directly for feedback. After all the updates in your newsletter, add the section where you invite recipients to send you their feedback and ideas. It will show you want to hear what they think and customers always love the feeling of being important to companies. After all, that relationship has been and always will be bilateral. You can even record a video of yourself or your coworkers in which you invite the newsletter audience to send their feedback. Let them know why it is important to you and let them know once you of the suggestions. It has been said a million times: People buy from people they trust. And trust cannot be achieved overnight; you have to work for it. Luckily for you, the video is easy to use and implement, and it will provide you with numerous benefits. One of these benefits is trust.

As your email marketing strategy should be focused on the story and not the sales, the video should also be focused on the story. Don’t annoy your customers with general promotional, marketing and sales terms. You are not communicating with them via email to sell your products. It can be one of the consequences, yes, but it can’t be the reason for sending newsletters. Always remember who you are sending it to because that is what matters in the end – your customers. Simply focus on the value you are providing them with and make sure each newsletter is valuable and interesting to them. If you want to create appealing video content, you have to think about their needs and interests as well.  Almost 97% of marketers say the video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service. You don’t want to miss out on that opportunity!

Check how to integrate videos into your Gmail account:

The length of your videos doesn’t have to be too long. In fact, try to keep them as short as possible. In your videos, say those things that would be valuable to your recipients because most people will not spend a lot of their precious time going through your latest newsletter. If you want to get their attention, you should start the video by asking a question, so you raise the audience’s curiosity. But don’t think that any question will work because it won’t. That question at the beginning of the video should immediately convey its value and let the viewers know why they should watch it until the end.

Don’t forget about the humor

There is also one more element that will help you engage your customers, whether through the text or the video and that is the entertainment. People love to laugh and to feel good about something. During or after a stressful day at work, you should be the one that will put the smile on their face because they will definitely remember that. Creating a boring video is worse than not creating a video at all. You have all of these options to achieve your goals through video communication, your colleagues will spend hours or, even worse, days to create that video, and when the customers receive your newsletter, they will simply ignore it because you didn’t raise their attention with your content. This would be called an email marketing fiasco. Don’t let it happen to you! If you are scared to take a risk with using humor in your communication, you should start with small steps. You don’t have to create a video that will turn out to be a stand-up comedy, but throw in something smart and funny. After a few of those small steps, you will be ready to make your newsletter audience laugh and enjoy your content.

People are craving personal experiences and what is more personal than a video? It is gradually integrating into all aspects of our lives, professional and private ones. People love watching videos!  According to WorldStream, more than half of the world’s population watches at least one video a day, and 45% watch more than an hour of video a week. Make sure your video is the one they will remember!

If you are using video email software Covideo, you can even choose your own template:

Covideo provides video email software that helps businesses and individuals communicate more effectively, build relationships faster and reinforce their brands with easy-to-make personalized videos.

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