With email marketing practices changing by the day, marketing teams are always looking for new and better ways to improve their email campaigns. Gone are the days of static emails with just a bunch of text, and in are the days of interactive emails with attractive imagery and even videos.
Video email marketing examples aren’t all that new.
However, it’s always been a bit of a pain to include a fully functioning video in an email, given that they’re much larger in size than standard images and even animated GIFs.
How to use video email marketing to increase views (+ examples)
As technology continues to change, so does the ability of email marketers to add videos to their email marketing campaigns, and recent studies show that it can be well worth the time and overall investment.
Why use video in your email marketing campaigns?
Using videos in your email campaigns is more than just adding something fun to entertain the reader. Video campaigns are a great way to help introduce your subscribers to new services, products, or updates that may be happening with your brand.
They also can be used to create warm, inviting welcome emails for new subscribers, and they can be used to entertain your current subscribers simply.
Besides that, however, there are some statistical reasons as to why you may want to include some video email marketing examples in your future campaigns.
Source: Milled
One reason is the fact that video email marketing leads to more action being taken by your readers. Research has shown that, when combined with email marketing, videos can significantly boost conversions—with click-through rates increasing by 200 to 300%.
It really doesn’t matter if you’re in the B2C or B2B business industry; your consumers prefer videos to standard content. Statistics show that 59% of business executives prefer digesting the message you have for them through a video over written copy, with B2C consumers 4x more likely to watch a video about your product than read about it.
How to use videos in your emails
When it comes to adding videos to your email campaigns, in most email clients, it involves having a solid understanding of HTML5 coding language. While HTML5 is your best bet for embedding videos into your email, it’s not supported by all email clients at this time.
Email clients that support HTML5 video playback in the email itself include:
- iOS
- Apple Mail
- Outlook.com
Email clients that don’t support HTML5 video playback and instead display a fallback image include:
- Gmail
- Android devices
Alternative methods for adding videos to your email campaigns
Since having videos embedded in and playing in the email client can still cause various hiccups, it’s worth noting that there are a few other options for including videos in your email campaigns, without having to embed it directly into the email itself.
Linked video image
This is a popular method used by many companies because it keeps the email file size down considerably and allows users to click on an image or another call-to-action button that’ll lead them to the video on a separate platform, such as your website or YouTube.
Source: Really Good Emails
GIFs
The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) is an excellent alternative to embedding full-length videos into your emails.
GIFs are short video clips made up of a handful of still images that are animated together into a single file. While they’re prevalent on social media platforms, more and more brands are incorporating them into their email marketing.
This is because GIFs are much smaller in size and take less time to load in an email than a standard video. They’re also more widely supported by email clients.
*Note: “info” results indicate that GIFs are not supported by this email client*
Source: Campaign Monitor
Combine the two
Some brands go as far as combining these two methods by providing viewers with a GIF and then link that image to the website where the video will play.
Using video in your Campaign Monitor emails
For those using the Campaign Monitor drag-and-drop email template builder, adding videos to your email campaigns is a breeze.
1. Click on the video content block located to the left of your email template and drag it to the desired section of your email where you want the video to appear.
Source: Campaign Monitor
2. Add the URL of your video into the Link box and add in Alt text, so, if the video fails to load in your subscriber’s email client, they’ll still know what it was you intended them to learn from the video.
Source: Campaign Monitor
Your final product will look a little something like this:
Source: Campaign Monitor
Video email marketing best practices
Choosing to use videos in your email marketing campaigns is a step in the right direction when it comes to increasing your reader’s overall engagement.
However, just like any other aspects of your marketing strategy, there are some best practices that you’ll want to keep in mind, so as to not overwhelm your readers.
After all, the point of these video email marketing examples is to increase engagement, not to put them off to the point they mark you as spam.
Host the video on your own platform
While it may seem easier to simply pull random videos from popular social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook, it’s better to embed or share videos that are hosted on your individually hosted platforms, like your brand’s website.
When you pull random videos off of the internet, you run the high risk of something happening with it, such as:
- Playback issues
- The video being lost or removed from the platform
- The content being blocked
Not only is this majorly annoying for readers who were looking forward to the video, but it makes your marketing efforts look plain sloppy.
If you want to share a video with readers, then you’re better off creating your own or downloading it and re-uploading it to your personally hosted platform. This ensures that you have control over the content and that it won’t mysteriously disappear, for whatever reason.
Turn off autoplay
When embedding videos into your email campaigns, do the subscriber a favor and please turn off the autoplay option.
Not everyone wants to watch your videos, and, when they open your email and are startled by loud music or conversation that they may not have expected, they can be put off and/or put in a bad mood.
Add the video after your text
If you want to include video in your email campaign, it’s best to add it after your copy for the reader.
If the video doesn’t work, for whatever reason, you’ll at least have informed the reader about the topic of the email and they’ll know why they’re receiving it. If you add the video first and it doesn’t load, readers are more likely to delete the message, and you’ll possibly lose out on click-throughs or conversions.
Make the video short and to the point
Short and to the point is the best method of optimizing your video email marketing.
With subscribers spending less than 30 seconds reading your email, you want to keep the video nice and short. It’s a good idea to keep all videos under a minute. Otherwise, you risk losing the attention of your reader.
Keep the file size small
The shorter your video, the smaller the file size will be, which will help keep your email from lagging too much when it’s initially opened. The longer the video, the more time it’ll need to buffer, and, with reader’s short attention spans, you don’t have that time to waste before they throw you email into the trash file.
Stellar video email marketing examples
Now that you know how to insert videos into your email campaigns and how to optimize them for your subscribers, let’s take a look at some quality video email marketing examples.
1. Honda
This example by Honda makes great use of videos in their email to consumers because they don’t simply slap it in there for no reason. The point of this email is to inform the reader of the difference between this dealership when compared to others, and they make that point by taking readers on a journey. Each of the videos is carefully placed along the road and poses as billboards that lead the reader to the Honda Manhattan dealership.
The videos serve a valid purpose and lead the readers on a journey, helping to increase overall engagement.
Source: Delivra
2. Wistia
In this example, Wistia embedded their video directly into the email to announce a new tool. They followed the video best practices and turned off the autoplay option, so it doesn’t start playing the moment a reader opens it.
Better yet, they also added a quick and concise message right above the video, so, if the video in the email doesn’t play, readers still know what the message is about.
Source: Really Good Emails
Wrap up
Email marketers are looking for more and more ways to increase reader engagement, and adding a video to your email campaign is a great way to do just that. Just remember to keep these helpful tips in mind, if you choose to go this route:
- Turn off autoplay
- Keep the video short and to the point
- Keep the file size small
- Consider alternative video methods if HTML5 video embeds don’t work for the majority of your readers
If using GIFs is your choice of video alternative, then make sure you check out our guide to using animated GIFs in your email campaigns.