Book a Demo
Blog Marketing

How to include video in your email marketing campaign

March 5, 2022
The switch to video reduced costs for classroom training per hour per participan
Video in emails is becoming a new frontier for marketers, with more than 81% leveraging it as an advertising tool in 2021. More than 54% of email subscribers prefer video to text in their inboxes, and it has the potential to increase ROI by nearly 280%. Of all the various methods of reaching consumers, a video email marketing campaign strategy is one of the best for omnichannel success. Including video in an email marketing campaign is relatively straightforward. Videos can be easily incorporated into newsletters or customer experience campaigns to provide information, entertainment, or persuasion about a product. They are typically short in nature, less than 2 minutes long at most. Importantly, they are focused on recipient experience above all else, empowering them to make their own decisions. However, no matter how large your email campaigns are, it always pays to A/B test. Create small variations in video delivery, and optimize moving forward. Videos in emails have a surprising number of use cases, including:
  • Introducing yourself to leads through a cold email marketing campaign
  • Offering personalization and communication touchpoints
  • Sharing company announcements or training materials
  • Providing how-tos or tutorials to new clients
  • Showing off product features or functions
The number of ways you can use video in your email campaigns is virtually limitless. But you still need to have an effective strategy in place and use them in line with best practices — let’s take a look at some ways you can effectively leverage video in your emails.

Top 5 video email best practices

If you decide to implement videos into your email workflow, keep these best practices in mind.
  1. Keep your videos short. Aim for a length of 2 minutes or less, if possible. 
  2. Introduce it. Make sure recipients are aware of your video content. If they don’t know, they won’t click!
  3. Make the video high-quality. Aim for clear audio, good lighting, and lively talent.
  4. Add personalization. If possible, incorporate meaningful details about the recipient e.g. their name, their title and their company name. But make sure it’s all spelt and pronounced correctly! Nothing switches a customer off faster than bad personalization.
  5. Highlight the CTA. Be sure it’s obvious, pointed and relevant to the customer.

Start putting video in emails with Shootsta

From tutorials and how-tos to holiday specials, you can create videos your leads will love with Shootsta by your side. Create instantly sharable video messages that reach customers in seconds, polished with seamless edits from our highly trained team. Stand out and stand tall with help from a suite of tools, integrations, and personalizations.

Interested in simple, fast and effective video?

Shootsta can help. To find out more about how we can help you with your video needs, please enter your details below. We’ll get in touch as soon as possible.

"*" indicates required fields

Hidden
Terms and Conditions*
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Related News & Blog

View All News & Blog
View All News & Blog

Learn more

Discover more about how you can use video in your email marketing…

How do I start an email marketing campaign?

The composition of email marketing campaigns generally depends on company intentions. In all cases, it’s best to start by creating a target persona for groups of recipients. What do they expect from you? What can you offer? Cold emails should be quick, simple, and brief. Refrain from writing more than just a few sentences, and end with a strong call to action. Depending on your industry and writing style, you can expect anywhere from a 14 to 28% open rate. Strong, non-spammy subject lines should be incorporated to drive interest and attention. Refrain from adding too many exclamation marks, emojis, or words in all caps — these can get you picked up by spam filters.  Emails to preexisting leads should be approached differently. Choose to start the campaign with a welcome email, tapering into newsletters, cart abandonment messages, and more.

How can I improve email marketing campaigns?

There are two major factors that improve a customers’ reception of email marketing campaigns: personalization and timeliness. The vast majority of leads expect to see some type of personalization in their email messages. Whether that involves their name in the subject line or data-driven product selections, 55% of customers believe that customization makes their emails more enjoyable. It should be noted that personalization leads to enormous profit gains over time, potentially increasing email revenue by 760%. It’s also a good idea to time the market, improving your chances of cutting through the clutter. The best time to send an email varies according to industry and niche, although 9 AM to 11 AM is a safe bet. Be sure to do additional research and A/B testing to narrow down other dates and times.

Can you embed video in email marketing campaigns?

Unlike websites or hosting platforms, it can be tricky to embed videos directly into email campaigns. Not only do they obliterate inboxes, but they can be less practical at scale. Some videos can even interfere with your ability to send them in the first place. For this reason, you have three primary alternatives:
  • Using an animated gif
  • Using a link (CTA button)
  • Using a thumbnail image
Use smaller embeds with gifs to drive traffic to the full video, saving space and providing valuable metrics.

Should you include video in emails?

Adding emails to your marketing campaigns can have a powerful impact on your KPIs. Email gets more engagement than any other type of marketing medium, while video is considered to be the primary source of information for 2 in 3 people.  Despite their incredible impact, videos aren’t always the perfect solution to every situation. Professionals in the marketing video production space typically recommend:
  • Not overusing videos
  • Using gifs or static images to reduce load
  • A/B testing often
Measure your video email campaigns frequently to check the response of your recipients. If audiences without videos respond better to those with embeds, you may want to consider optimizing your strategy.

How do you introduce a video in emails?

This very much depends on the subject of your video. If you’re opening things up to stakeholder communications, preface the video with a short description of the content, it’s purpose, and a call to action. For example: “We’re excited to have you on board as we enter a new chapter at our business. CEO John Smith explains our recent acquisition. Click to watch the video.”  You might also want to highlight the video in the subject line of the email. Buttons and other CTAs should emphasize the video’s importance (i.e. ‘Watch Now’). Videos that exist just as gifs, backgrounds, or product demos can be embedded without context.

How effective is video in emails?

Including just one video in the body of your email can have dramatic impacts on campaign performance. According to research, video in email can:
  • Boost open rates by 19%
  • Increase click-through rates by 65%
  • Reduce unsubscribe rates by 26%
Using highly developed tools like Elevate, you can easily create personalized videos for email and beyond. From sales videos to learning development opportunities, it’s a simple and effective way to grab consumer attention and boost customer retention.
Read more

Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest updates on our solutions

Subscribe

Before you leave, why not download our virtual selling toolkit?

You’re one step away from free video tips, tricks, product guides, & templates to kick start your video strategy.

Download Now

Never see this again!

Download our Virtual Selling Toolkit for Free

You’re one step away from free video tips, tricks, product guides, & templates to kick start your video strategy.
Download Now

Never see this again!

Privacy settings

Decide which cookies you want to allow. You can change these settings at any time. However, this can result in some functions no longer being available. For information on deleting the cookies, please consult your browser’s help function. Learn more about the cookies we use.

With the slider, you can enable or disable different types of cookies:

This website will

  • Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting
  • Essential: Allow session cookies
  • Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms newsletter and other forms across all pages
  • Essential: Keep track of what you input in a shopping cart
  • Essential: Authenticate that you are logged into your user account
  • Essential: Remember language version you selected

This website won't

  • Remember your login details
  • Functionality: Remember social media settings
  • Functionality: Remember selected region and country
  • Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken
  • Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number
  • Analytics: Keep track of the time spent on each page
  • Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions
  • Advertising: Tailor information and advertising to your interests based on e.g. the content you have visited before. (Currently we do not use targeting or targeting cookies)
  • Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location

This website will

  • Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting
  • Essential: Allow session cookies
  • Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms newsletter and other forms across all pages
  • Essential: Keep track of what you input in a shopping cart
  • Essential: Authenticate that you are logged into your user account
  • Essential: Remember language version you selected
  • Functionality: Remember social media settings
  • Functionality: Remember selected region and country

This website won't

  • Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken
  • Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number
  • Analytics: Keep track of the time spent on each page
  • Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions
  • Advertising: Tailor information and advertising to your interests based on e.g. the content you have visited before. (Currently we do not use targeting or targeting cookies)
  • Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location

This website will

  • Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting
  • Essential: Allow session cookies
  • Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms newsletter and other forms across all pages
  • Essential: Keep track of what you input in a shopping cart
  • Essential: Authenticate that you are logged into your user account
  • Essential: Remember language version you selected
  • Functionality: Remember social media settings
  • Functionality: Remember selected region and country
  • Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken
  • Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number
  • Analytics: Keep track of the time spent on each page
  • Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions

This website won't

  • Advertising: Tailor information and advertising to your interests based on e.g. the content you have visited before. (Currently we do not use targeting or targeting cookies)
  • Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location

This website will

  • Functionality: Remember social media settings
  • Functionality: Remember selected region and country
  • Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken
  • Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number
  • Analytics: Keep track of the time spent on each page
  • Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions
  • Advertising: Tailor information and advertising to your interests based on e.g. the content you have visited before. (Currently we do not use targeting or targeting cookies)
  • Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location

This website won't

  • Remember your login details
Save & Close