Best Practices for Adding Video to Email Campaigns

• 12 years ago

Marketers are raving about video in email.  In a recent survey 88% of marketers who have used video in email marketing indicated that integrating video with email marketing has had a positive effect on their email marketing efforts. In addition, 72% believed that buyers were more likely to purchase or convert after viewing an email campaign that incorporated video. The survey was conducted by the Web Video Marketing Council in conjunction with Flimp Media in Q4 of 2011. The study queried more than 270 interactive marketing professionals.

According to Wayne Wall, CEO of Flimp Media,  aggregate data collected on more than 1,000 video email campaigns since 2008 shows that average viewer engagement is 1.3 minutes, response rates average 23 percent and click thru rates are well over 30 percent. The complete study results can be downloaded here.

More than half of marketers surveyed use video email marketing

With the popularity of video email growing (51% of respondents in the survey use video email marketing) here are some best practices gleaned from email marketing providers such as Silverpop and Constant Contact.

1)     Video needs to be relevant to your product or service.

2)     Use the video as the primary visual element in the email – nothing below the fold.

3)     Keep the length of the video between 15 and 45 seconds.

4)     Turn off the audio – the sound may be viewed as unwelcome.

5)     Include graphic links that provide strong calls to action: “Click here for audio” or “Click for full video.”

6)     Test different versions of your video email: 10% of your list gets version A, 10% version B, 80% gets the version with the best response.

7)     Mention “video” in the subject line.

8)     Tag your videos with relevant keywords so they will be found by search engines.

What are your plans for using video in email marketing in 2012?