Marketers know how well video increases engagement when used in connection with online marketing efforts, like sharing on social media and embedding them into blog or web pages. But video also drives loyalty and revenue when incorporated into your email marketing campaigns. Your target audience loves viewing videos, with 4 billion watching on Facebook alone in 2014. Emails with the word “video” in the subject line earn a 65% higher click-through rate – and can be up to 200% higher when video content is central to your campaign. Plus, those who watch videos stay on a site two minutes longer on average.
Integrating video into your email campaigns can help you achieve a range of marketing objectives, no matter where in the sales funnel you’re targeting. Here’s a look at how to do it effectively.
- Top of the Funnel: In this stage of the sales funnel, you want to generate interest and capture leads. But before you grab your camera, establish a clear objective that you want to accomplish, such as raising awareness or driving traffic to your website; this will drive your call to action. Then, develop your topic around these points, draft an outline and choose a channel for embedding your video. You might consider embedding the video on your website or post to Facebook, YouTube or Vimeo.
Ideas for incorporating video to your email campaign here might be how-to content, a trouble-shooting topic or a customer/fan interview.
- Middle of the Funnel: Your goal with this group of prospects is to qualify them and move them further along on the buyer’s journey. Central to this goal is obtaining the contact information for leads so you can send them more focused content. In order to unlock premium content, you’ll want to have them fill out a basic form that collects their name and email address.
The data you gather can be used for re-marketing and follow up efforts, which you’ll send over time as a drip campaign. Your analytics are important at the middle of the funnel, so you need to track video viewing choices that indicate prospects are getting closer to buying.
- Bottom of the Funnel: By now, you should have enough information on a prospect to deliver targeted videos to help them make purchasing decisions. These videos should be focused on specific subjects and finely tuned to your buyer personas. Some suggestions might be a product demonstration or customer testimonial. Potential customers at the bottom of the funnel want to see your company’s products or services in action and hear from those using them.
You can see how incorporating video can help you improve your email marketing campaigns, at all stages of the sales funnel. Video helps you gain customer loyalty and satisfaction, as it guides your potential customers closer to making a purchase. If you’re looking for ways to boost the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts, including video in the subject and the body of messages is a smart move to make.