Video content has become a vital component of digital marketing campaigns for any business of any size these days. Videos are fun, informative, and can drive conversion rates. But, with email marketing, not everyone understands how to embed videos into emails. In this article, we’ll walk you through how to embed video in email.
Video in Email: Why It Matters
Video can improve the readability, clickthrough and conversions of emails. Syndacast found that videos can increase click-through rates by 200-300% for emails. Additionally, videos can help convey ambiguous things clearly and intuitively, which makes them a great resource for product demos, tutorials, and testimonials.
How to embed video in email problems:
Regardless of the advantages of using videos in emails, there are a few hurdles that businesses have to navigate. The biggest problem is that not all email clients embed videos. Outlook, the most popular email client, doesn’t support video embedding. That is, if a company sends an email with a embedded video to someone who uses Outlook, they will not see the video.
One more issue is that emails with embedded videos are spammed by email filters. This is because videos in emails are bigger than non-video emails and filters may consider them to be spam.
How to Add Video to Email:
Two major ways to embed video into email are by the use of a video hosting service or an animated GIF.
Using a Video Hosting Platform:
The best place to embed video into an email is a video hosting service like YouTube or Vimeo. Rather than embed the video inside the email, businesses can host the video on a video hosting platform and include the video’s thumbnail in the email, referencing the video hosting site. This approach has the advantage that most email clients have it, and it also minimizes the email size.
Businesses can do this when they want to embed a video in a video hosting service:
– Submit the video to a video hosting service.
– Embed the video embed code.
– Copy the video’s thumbnail
– Add a link on the thumbnail to the video hosting site.
– Attach the hyperlinked thumbnail to the email.
Using an Animated GIF:
A different method of embedding video in email is animated GIF. This method is to generate an animated GIF that includes a part of the video and then insert the GIF into the email. When the recipient clicks on the GIF, it opens a landing page that shows the entire video.
Businesses can use these instructions to embed a video with an animated GIF:
– Make an animated GIF using a GIF tool.
– Upload the GIF to an image sharing site.
– Generate the GIF’s embed code
– Include the GIF in the email.
– Add a link on the GIF to the landing page where the full video is shown.
Embedding Video in Email Best Practices:
When embedding video in emails, businesses must use the following best practices:
Make It An Overwhelming and Inspiring Thumbnail.
Businesses should be using a professional-looking, high-resolution thumbnail to show what the video is about when they embed a video into an email. The thumbnail should be enticing and big enough to draw the recipient’s eye towards it and encourage them to click and view the video. Businesses can also use animated or scrolling thumbnails to grab the attention of the recipient and differentiate their email from others in their inbox.
Make The Video’s Content Relevant and Valued.
If a business wants to add a video to an email, it should consider the recipient’s relevance and usefulness before incorporating it into the email. The video should appeal to the recipient’s interests, needs, and expectations and provide them with information, storytelling or entertainment. By making the video content valuable, companies can maximize the likelihood that the recipient will watch the video, take action on the call-to-action, and ultimately convert.
Run the Email through Other Email Clients.
The internet is filled with so many different email clients, you need to be able to test the email on all those platforms and make sure the video can be seen and viewed. Enterprises should check their email in Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, Apple Mail and on mobile email platforms. This testing can reveal any problems with video embedding, such as videos not rendering correctly or being blocked by the email client’s default configuration. Businesses can ensure that everyone receives an optimal and predictable experience by correcting these concerns before the email goes out.
Use a Clean and Simple CTA (Call-to-Action).
You should embed a video in an email to give the recipient some clear benefit like selling a product or letting them know a story or learning. In order to motivate the sender towards this goal, companies must include an effective and succinct CTA within the email. Your CTA should stand out in visual appearance and contain action verbs like “Watch Now” or “Learn More” to entice the viewer to watch the video. By having an explicit CTA, businesses can make sure the recipient watches the video and does the desired action.
Monitor Email Engagement Metrics
When businesses want to evaluate the performance of their video email marketing campaign, it’s important to pay attention to the emails engagement metrics, such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. By measuring these measures before and after the video is added to their emails, businesses will be able to measure the impact that video has on engagement as well as determine what videos are the most popular for the company. That information can then be leveraged to influence future video email campaigns and ensure campaigns have the most impact possible.
Conclusion:
Watching video in emails can be an effective way to increase response, clicks, and sales. Yet, businesses should be able to overcome the difficulties that come with video embedding and do the right thing so that their videos function well. Utilizing a video host or animated GIF and adhering to the recommended practices discussed in this paper, companies can benefit from the video for email marketing.
