Data-Centric Digital Media & Email Marketing

Trend on the Horizon: Video in Email

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If a picture is worth a thousand words, says Viwomail, then a video is worth a million. According to DigitalSherpa, Videos increase people’s understanding of a product or service by 74%. Not only as marketers but also as consumers, we spend more time than we should watching those cute cat videos because they draw you in. With marketing videos or rich content shown in videos, it presents the option to not just get information but get it in an easy and entertaining way. With emails now being built in HTML 5 and more email clients updating their platforms, rich content like animated GIFs and video are on the upswing of trends to watch in email marketing.

Dell used an animated gif in their email campaign to introduce a brand new product at that time to the market. The results were

  • A lift in their revenue by 109% compared to their previous emails.
  • 6% increase in open rate
  • 103% increase in conversion rate

Dell Email with Animated GIF

 According to EmailMonks, video in email results in the following statistics:

  • 55% increase in click-through rates
  • 44% more time spent reading emails
  • 41% more email sharing and forwarding
  • 24% increase in conversion rates

The following are some examples of how the best in class brands that are experimenting with video in their emails campaigns.

Video in Email - Example #1 Video in Email - Example #1

Video in email are still not compatible across all email clients. However, where just a few years ago animated GIFs were a huge No-No and hardly supported by any email client, today most email clients support animated GIFs. It’s just a matter of time before more email clients catch up with Apple Mail (and, surprisingly, Outlook 2011) in supporting video.

Here’s a tip: in the examples above, the creative still has the play button, the call-to-action, and the default static image available in the event that the recipient’s platform does not support video. They can then click to the brand website, or YouTube in other cases, to view the full video.

Using video for content marketing can be expensive, but it makes sense for any brand or marketer who has a story to tell. This is especially true when the aim is to introduce a new brand or service, show product usage ideas, or share the tried and true marketing mainstay — the product review. Making sure videos are short and to the point, somewhat entertaining, and of good quality are areas where the top brands that are investing in this eMarketing tactic are excelling.

The final metric for why video is an important trend to watch is ROI. Again from Digital Sherpa, after visiting a video ad, 12% of viewers purchase the specific product featured in the ad.