With email being a highly effective marketing tool, it is unsurprising that so many businesses use it. While it’s popularity signals positive news, it also means that it is easy to get lost in your recipients’ inboxes; if you want to stand out from the rest it might be time to try something different.
While consistency is important in email marketing, repeating the same type of content email after email can be a mistake that results in them becoming bored, no longer interested in opening your emails, or even unsubscribing. Keep the consistency where it matters the most – in timing, branding and tone of voice – aside from those, experiment away! There are a few things that you can try to spice up your email campaign including surveys, pols and GIFs, but this blog will focus specifically on how to embed video in email and whether it is worthwhile doing so.
Why use video?
Video content in email campaigns can make for a different and engaging email. They draw attention immediately, engage visual learners, and are processed and remembered in a different way to text meaning they will stand out more in your recipient’s memory.
Merely including the word ‘video’ in your subject line can increase open rates by 19% and click-through-rates by 65%. As well as increasing your key metrics, including video in email has also been shown to reduce unsubscribes by 26%.
How to use video
The obvious options if you are looking to use video in your email campaigns are either to use an image for users to click, navigating them to a video hosted elsewhere (this could be YouTube, Vimeo, or embedded on your website), or to embed video actually within the email – let’s look at both.
All signs point to click
Choose an eye-catching thumbnail image that viewers can click on to watch the video. Include a play button over the image to emphasise that this is a call-to-action to watch a video – you could even use a GIF instead of a still image as your thumbnail if you are keen to draw extra attention. As another measure towards achieving those all-important clicks, include some text in the email telling readers to click to watch.
Embed it
Embedding video within your email is naturally appealing as it reduces the friction for the user, however it can be tricky and you’ll need a good knowledge of HTML5 (don’t worry, we’ve got your back). Not every email client supports embedded video, but those that do (Apple Mail, iOS, Samsung email etc.) make up more than 50% of the market share; for the remainder, you should create a default fallback so that your recipients aren’t just presented with an unplayable video.
Check out this detailed guide on how to embed video in email here
Need help with your email development? Get in touch and we will be happy to help.
