Video email marketing is becoming an increasingly popular way to engage with customers. According to a study by Forrester, including video in email increases click-through rates by 200-300%. That’s pretty impressive statistics!

So if you want to spice up your email marketing campaign, consider using video. Embedding a video in an email can be a great way to add a touch of personality to your messages and stand out in your recipients’ inboxes. 

Let’s take a look at some tips on how to send a video through email and make your videos both attractive and effective.

Benefits of Videos in Emails

There are many types of emails you can send out to your clients like promotional emails, newsletters, and announcements, etc. When you send an email as plain text, it’s hard for your recipients to believe that you’re not spamming like a regular bot trying to fill your inbox. Leveraging video in email can build trust with your customers and boost your overall email marketing campaign.

Let’s say you’re a restaurant selling a new creative dish. It will be much more fascinating for your customers to see even a GIF of someone eating that dish than to read a few lines of description and view a photo. Up to 73% of users would rather learn about a product from a short video than text.

How to Email Videos

If we mention methods to embed video in email, there are plenty of them. Ones require coding skills, while others are as simple as copy-pasting a link. Here are some of the most popular them so select the one you think works best for you and implement it into your strategy:

1. Introduce a hyperlink

The first and easiest way is to use a hyperlink in the text of the letter. Note that mail systems dislike “bare” links in the text and consider this a sign of spam. Always wrap the link in the text. Try to write in a way t the user is as clear as possible – clicking on the link will send them directly to your video.

Hyperlinks are also great for running a successful email signature marketing campaign: adding a hyperlink in your email signature is a discreet way to get your recipients interested, which helps to increase the company’s brand identity and drive traffic.

You can add a call-to-action (CTA) button like “Watch Video” or something similar. This will help readers understand that there is a video element to your email and encourage them to click through.

2. Implement a static image

When embedding video in email, it’s important to use a fallback image or “poster frame” that will be displayed instead of the video on devices that don’t support video playback. Your image should make recipients want to know what’s next, so it should have an eye-catching design and represent the content of your video. 

Make sure your thumbnail is clickable, once you’ve chosen it. This means that when someone clicks on the image, they will be taken to a page where they can watch the video. You don’t want them to have to go searching for the video on your website: make it easy for them to find!

3. Use a GIF

GIFs are great for adding some fun and animation to your email. Using GIFs to preview your video content is an excellent opportunity to get your recipients to click and further boost sales.

Creating a GIF from a video is quite simple. If you haven’t created GIFs from your videos before, you can use an online GIF maker to save valuable time and get started quickly. All you need is to upload your video, trim it to the desired length, and you’re done.

You can decorate your GIF and add some relevant hashtags to make it more appealing. Once you create your GIF, you can add it to any email and watch the result.

We assume that a dynamic preview of what’s coming will work better than a static image in an email, but you’ll have to run some tests to find out.

4. Use a third-party service

Not all email clients support embedded videos: great examples are email providers like Gmail and Android, which display a fallback thumbnail image rather than the video itself.

Ensure your recipient will be able to watch your video even if they don’t have the correct software installed. You can add a link to a video hosted on platforms like YouTube or Vimeo. It’s viable if you want to track views and other analytic data.

5.  Add a video as an attachment

Another way how to email videos is to attach one. Make sure the file size is correct so you can deliver it quickly and without hassle. If your video is too large, it may not be able to send properly or may end up in the recipient’s spam folder. 

Most email clients will not accept files larger than 25 MB, with some having 10 MB, so try compressing the file as much as possible. Mind the quality as well, as it can sometimes drastically lower after the compression.
It’s also possible to send your video in the original size. Share it on the drive service and attach it to your email. While this method lets you send larger videos, it works only when both sides use that service. For example, if you and your recipient use Gmail and are familiar with Google Drive.

4 Tips to Make More Attractive and Effective Videos

Once you decided how to embed video in email, it’s time to adjust it to improve overall quality. Here are some tips to make your videos stand out:

1. Headline and subject line

Your headlines and subject lines are the first things recipients see, so make them count. You want to grab the reader’s attention and give them a reason to click through to watch your video.
Keep them clear and concise, and ensure they accurately reflect the content of your email. It is helpful to add the word “video” in the subject line so your recipients know there is a video in the email to watch.

2. Language and tone of voice

Your email is the reflection of your brand. The language in your video should match the overall tone of your email campaign and reflect your target audience.

Build an email list of your existing and potential recipients so you can keep track of their preferences. Don’t forget to sound friendly and approachable without being too salesy.

3. Video length 

When it comes to video length, shorter is better. In general, you want to keep your videos under two minutes. It may seem like a short amount of time, but remember that people have short attention spans when they’re scrolling through their inboxes.

If you still want to include a longer video, you can always provide a link to the video in the email so that recipients can watch it at their convenience.

4. Video format

Make sure to choose a format compatible with most email clients that can be played on all devices, including mobile phones.

We consider MP4 as the best choice to use as it’s widely compatible and comprises both high-quality and small sizes. Use any tool to convert your video to MP4 to make sure your video is optimized correctly.

Wrapping Up

Starting your email marketing campaign, you need to follow current email marketing trends. Videos are an excellent way to increase engagement, click-through rates, and overall ROI, capture the reader’s attention and foster a more personal connection with your audience.
So, why not give it a try? Use these tips on how to send email videos effectively and stand out from the competition and be on top.