What are Video Emails?
Video emails are like regular emails, but with an extra punch of awesomeness. They go beyond the usual text and static images and let you unleash the power of visual and audio communication to deliver your message.
By adding videos to your emails, you can really capture people’s attention, get them engaged, and leave a lasting impression.
It’s like injecting life into your emails and making them shine like a star in a sea of ordinary, often-templatized messages.
Why use video emails in marketing campaigns?
Video emails are much better compared to regular old text emails. Here’s why:
- Firstly, they provide a more dynamic and interactive experience, making your content more memorable and engaging.
- Secondly, videos can evoke emotions and establish a stronger connection with your audience, helping build trust and credibility. Like they say, ‘Show, not tell’.
- Lastly, studies have shown that video emails can significantly boost click-through rates and get people to take action. When used in the right manner; they’re like a secret weapon in your marketing arsenal.
When should you use videos in your emails?
Alright, let’s talk about when it’s the perfect time to whip out those videos in your sales emails. Here are some situations where videos can work wonders:
- Introducing yourself
If you’re reaching out to a new prospect, a video is a fantastic way to introduce yourself. It adds a personal touch and helps you make a memorable first impression.
- Product demos
When you want to show off your awesome product or service, nothing beats a video demo. You can showcase its features, explain how it works, and get your prospects excited about what you have to offer.
- Testimonials and case studies:
Videos are great for sharing success stories. Capture happy customers on camera, let them share their experiences, and watch as trust and credibility in your offer skyrockets.
- Following up
A video follow-up is a fantastic way to reconnect with a prospect. It’s personal, shows you care, and keeps the conversation going. Plus, it stands out from the usual follow-up emails.
Remember, videos aren’t meant for every single email.
Use them strategically when you want to make a bigger impact, grab attention, and engage your prospects on a deeper level. So, choose wisely and let those videos do the talking!
Benefits of Using Video in Sales Emails
When it comes to sending sales emails, adding videos can prove to be a total game-changer. We’ve tried them out in some of our campaigns, and let me tell you, they bring some major benefits.
Here are a few of them:
- Personalized Communication: Video allows you to deliver a more personalized message, addressing your recipient by name and speaking directly to their pain points and needs.
2. Show more than you tell: Videos enable you to showcase your products or services in action, giving your prospects a better understanding of what you offer and how it benefits them.
3. Building trust and rapport: Seeing and hearing a real person in a video builds trust. It’s like they’re getting to know you before even meeting you. This trust helps them engage with your email and seriously consider what you’re offering.
Using videos in emails can boost open rates by 19% and reduce unsubscribe rates by a whopping 26% (according to Campaign Monitor).
That’s some serious trust-building power right there, ain’t it?
4. Stand out from the crowd: In a crowded inbox, you need something to stand out, right? Well, videos are your secret weapon. They catch people’s attention and make your email unforgettable. When you use videos in emails, you’re practically making people sit up and notice you, while also increasing the chances of getting them to perform the desired action.
5. Boost sales: Another clear benefit of using video in your emails is the push it gives to your sales process. In this age of ultra-short attention spans, you can showcase your value upfront with a video message.
Interestingly, Forrester Research’s 10-year-old study even highlights that leveraging video emails can improve the CTR of your campaigns by 200-300%. That’s serious money talk right there!
How to Send Video Emails? – 8 Easy Steps
1. Research your ICP
Before creating your video, make sure you understand your target audience and their pain points. Conduct thorough research to identify your ideal customer profile, their needs, challenges, and preferences.
Who are you targeting? What are their pain points? – Make sure you answer these questions before you get down to making the videos.
This will help you tailor your video content to resonate with them and drive meaningful engagement.
2. Scripting the Video
The process of scripting a video is similar to a cold email, and one must take some time to plan what and how to say in your video message.
Here are a few tips to craft the perfect video script:
- Make sure the script conveys your message clearly and concisely.
- Validate the reason why you’re making the video for them. Highlight your understanding of their pain points and challenges while also underlining your offer.
- Establish relatability by incorporating personalization techniques like addressing the prospect by name, referencing their specific pains or requirements and by demonstrating genuine empathy. This personal touch goes a long way in building relatability with your prospect.
- Dedicate the last 10 seconds to your pitch, highlighting your approach towards solving the prospect’s problems while adding the necessary social proof.
Make sure the video doesn’t go beyond 90 seconds in duration and encourages your audience to engage with the message.
(P.S.- Ask questions, invite them to share their experiences or opinions, and provide avenues for feedback.)
3. Choose the right platform
Once you’ve created the script, it’s important to choose the right video email platform to send out these video messages. When it comes to emailing videos, there are plenty of platforms to choose from.
Personally, our team at CleverViral has experimented with the likes of Loom, BombBomb and Vidyard for our sales emails.
Here are our top 5 recommendations for you to check out:
- Loom: Loom is one of the most popular video email platforms in the market right now. It allows you to instantly record your own screen and the camera, which makes it perfect for cold messaging. You can then share this video as a link or embed it inside your email sequence. In fact, we personally use Loom a lot in many of our own campaigns.
- BombBomb: BombBomb is another powerful tool for video-led emails through which you can shoot, edit, send and track your video outreach campaigns.
With features like virtual backgrounds, branded landing page libraries and mass sending capabilities, this video email marketing tool has quickly become a customer favorite in recent years.
- Vidyard: Vidyard offers advanced video hosting and management features. It allows you to track viewer engagement, gather analytics, and create personalized video experiences.
The tool is ideal for sales and marketing teams to shorten their sales cycle and decrease the emails sent to booked meetings ratio. They also have dedicated templates and other resources to help you craft the perfect video message.
- Dubb: Dubb offers a comprehensive, AI-driven video mailing platform, including video emails, screen recording, and video messaging. It integrates seamlessly with various email platforms and allows easy tracking for metrics throughout the campaign.
Dubb also offers intuitive analytics tools for insights into video engagement to refine marketing strategies.
- Sendspark: Sendspark is a cutting-edge video mailing platform that revolutionizes communication through personalized videos.
With a user-friendly interface, it enables individuals and businesses to create and send engaging video messages directly to recipients’ inboxes.
Sendspark offers a range of impressive features, including customizable templates, screen recording, and interactive call-to-action buttons.
4. Filming the video
Okay, let’s talk about filming the video. Most people think you need to have high-end equipment or video cameras to start filming video for your sales emails.
Having sent over 1000 video emails using basic tools, I can vouch for the fact that you don’t need to be Steven Spielberg to get this right.
Here are a few simple methods I’ve found to be effective while running our own campaigns:
- The first one is using your smartphone. It’s quick, easy, and you probably already have everything you need in your pocket. Just prop it up, make sure the lighting is good, and start recording. Remember to look into the camera and not at your screen – it makes the viewer feel like you’re talking directly to them.
- Another option is using a webcam. This can provide a slightly better quality, and is great for recording straight from your computer. Most of the video email platforms I mentioned earlier have built-in webcam recording features.
- Lastly, if you’re going for a more professional look, you could consider using a DSLR or mirrorless camera. This will give you the best quality, but it’s also the most complex and expensive option.
Remember, the most important thing is that your message comes across clearly – don’t get too hung up on the quality.
5. Embed the videos in email
One way to do it is to copy the HTML code from the video platform and paste it into your email. This creates a clickable thumbnail that links to the video.
If HTML feels alien to you, don’t worry. Most platforms generate the code for you, so you just need to copy and paste.
Another method is to create a GIF thumbnail of your video. It’s a neat little trick where you turn a short section of your video into a moving image, which you can easily embed into your email.
It’s like a sneak peek of your video, and it really grabs attention.
The only downside of this method is that GIFs don’t have any sound, due to which you might need to include a link to the full video in your email.
You can use the GIF as a teaser before eventually redirecting the prospect to the full video.
Remember, email clients can be a little finicky about videos, so it’s usually best to include a direct link to the video as well, just in case the embed doesn’t work.
(Note: If you want to know more about creating GIFs from scratch, here's a quick guide by SproutSocial for you to check out.)
You can also check out this really quick video to get started with adding video to your emails.
6. Review the video sequence
Before you hit send, do review your video once. Watch it as if you were the customer. Does it flow well? Is the messaging clear? Is it engaging enough?
Make necessary adjustments until it looks ready to go.
7. Send the emails
This step is pretty self-explanatory. Simply click that ‘send’ button once you’re done shooting and reviewing the sequence as you see your video emails go out into the world. Make sure your subject line is catchy to increase open rates and ensure that people are reading your emails.
(????Pro-tip: Using words like ‘video’ can actually help you increase open rates.)
8. Track Your Performance
Most email marketing and video messaging platforms offer analytics features that provide in-depth insights about your video message.
Some of the metrics you can track here include: email click rates, CTA click rates, watch rates, reaction rates, and the average percentage of your video that has been watched (5 to 10% is the sweet spot).
That being said, there are a few factors that’ll influence whether people end up watching your video or not:
- Email Deliverability/Did the email get delivered?: Imagine you made the coolest paper airplane and wanted to throw it to your friend who’s standing far away. If you make a good throw, it reaches your friend, but if your throw is bad, it may land somewhere else or even crash. That’s how email deliverability works.
If your email is well-made (doesn’t look like spam, comes from a trusted sender, etc.), it’ll land in your prospect’s inbox. If not, it might end up in the spam folder.
According to a study by Return Path, only about 85% of emails make it to the recipient’s main inbox. So, before anyone can watch your video, they’ve got to receive your email! - Open Rate/Did the email get read?: Let’s say you hand your friend a letter. They might look at it and open it right away, or they might ignore it and stuff it in their bag to read later, or maybe never. That’s the open rate – the percentage of people who actually open your email to read it.
According to a report by Campaign Monitor, the average open rate for emails is about 18%. The trick is making your email interesting enough that your prospect can’t help but open the email to read it further. - Clickthrough Rate/Did they click on the video?: So let’s assume that your email landed in the prospect’s inbox and they even opened it. But will they actually do what you’ve asked in the letter? Maybe you’ve asked them to check out your offer. Will they?
That’s what this is about. In email marketing, it’s whether they click on the link or the video you’ve shared. So your challenge is to make your video look so exciting that your prospect can’t wait to click on it.
4. Viewer Retention/Did they watch?: Great, so now your prospect has opened your landing page and wants to know more about your product or offer. But will they stay to actually watch you explain yourself further?
Or will they leave halfway through because they’re bored? That’s the final step here. It’s not just about getting people to click on your video, but also about making sure the video is interesting enough for them to stick around and watch the whole thing.
Remember, these percentages vary a lot depending on what kind of email you’re sending and who you’re sending it to, but they give you a basic idea of what you’re aiming for.
All these factors kind of add up to help you figure out whether someone is actually going to watch the video you sent them.
Make sure that all of these aspects are taken care of as and when you get started with video emailing.
Start leveraging video emails for your cold outreach now!
Phew! There you have it, a step-by-step guide on how to send video emails. Trust me, once you start using video in sales emails, you’ll see how they take your marketing efforts to the next level.
It adds a personal touch, boosts engagement, and increases your chances of conversion.
So go ahead, get creative, and start leveraging the power of videos in your email marketing campaigns.
You’ll be amazed at the results.
(P.S. – If you are looking to leverage personalized video cold outreach for your B2B business, feel free to drop a line and we’ll get in touch with you ASAP!)
