Video support in email is quickly becoming the hottest topic in email marketing circles.
HTML5 Video is supported by 58% of email clients, Holy crap!
7 awe
inspiring
business
advantages
of video email

Video Email Marketing offers a return 280% higher than traditional emails.

Stand out of the crowd
Using video in email gives you the first mover advantage and helps you stand out from the competition.
Video has humongous scope
Relevant, educational, engaging and problem solving videos can consistently motivate the interest and involvement of employees, customers, suppliers and business partners.
Increased ROI
Research has shown that video email receives a better response in terms of open rates and very high click-through rates compared to traditional emails. 
Video Creates Buzz
Ease of distribution over the internet allows video emails
to go viral. 
Better Branding andSearch Results
Using video email leads to increased website traffic, increased conversion rate, brand awareness, and more referrals in turn.
Cross Selling Opportunity
Adding strategic clickable links can direct the recipient to certain web pages or video channels, thus enabling cross-selling or up-selling opportunities for your business.
Matches Human Touch
Videos with quality content and that
“human touch�? adds to
strategies. In fact, they can even
replace physical salesmen.
marketer’s view of video in email
Marketers Use of Video in Email Marketing
Marketers 1
72%
Have Used
25%
Haven't Used
Plans to Use Video in Email Marketing
Marketers 1
25%
very likely
55%
somewhat likely
20%
not likely at all
Which videos are better salesmen?
According to Video Explainers and Wistia, using video in email for training courses will be the most effective use of video email.
Video Salesman
Video Email Best Practices
Tactics
Unambiguous Video Proposition:
Ensure the player controls are visible and have a fallback
image in case it can’t play in the user’s browser.
Encourage the sharing of video with social sharing and
forward to a friend options.
Use the word “video�? in the subject line and highlight the
nature of the video content in the subject line.
Segment subscribers that have previously
watched video or opened emails featuring video.
Sound for auto-play videos is ‘off’ in the email by default.
Use appropriate length video content.
Restrict promotional videos.
Highlight the value of video within the email copy.
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Benefit
Having fallback images and proper buttons, there
will be more user interaction leading to an
increased conversion rate.
It helps creating a buzz and brand.
Audience consuming video content becomes more receptive.
Improves the email opens and click through of
the targeted segment.
Auto-playing video without sound on can reduce the
complaint and unsubscribe rates.
Ensures the subscribers stick to viewing entire video
resulting in better sales. Remember, less is more.
State explicitly in the email copy
why the subscriber should choose to watch the video.
Mythbusting
USING
MOTION IN
EMAILS CAN DISTRACT
USERS FROM YOUR
CALL TO ACTION.
Rigorous testing of content has
indicated that using motion
within emails correctly
increases engagement.
DELIVERABILITY
ISSUES USING
3RD PARTY PLUG-IN
ARE PREVALENT.
This was resolved a long time
ago with the invention of
HTML5, which enjoys
widespread support across the
major email clients.
Certain Email
Clients don’t
support
video even today!
Your video email will play
properly for 58% of users, 42%
will see the fallback images
instead. Android native clients
and Blackberry 9930 will
neither show fallback image
nor play video.
Video in email
causes rendering
problems.
Today, marketers can deploy a
single code snippet in their email
campaign to cover 100% of the
entire database while ensuring
that no one receives a broken
experience.
Lighter
emails mean
faster downloads,
and video files
are not light.
Video files, no matter how small or how
short, will always end up heavier than
email best practices recommend.
However, using progressive playback, we
can allow users to begin to watch a
video without requiring them to
download the entire file.
How can you integrate Video in Email
Product/Service Demonstration Video
Demonstrations are very powerful, especially for
product based companies.
Customer Testimonials
Include some video testimonials from the customers.
Walk - through Videos
Walk-through video emails will work wonders, especially for
industries like real estate, architecture and civil engineering.
Video Commercials
Instead of creating lengthy promotional email text, you can link to a commercial for your product/service.
Educational Video Series
Create an educational video series with proper CTA and release
these videos through an email campaign with supporting text
surrounding each video.
A Personal “Thank You�? Video
Involve video in your welcome email: Have your CEO or the
face of the company record a thank you message and share in
your welcome emails.
Not convinced? Drop by at our monastery and
we will send you our sample video email
Sources:
  • Gartner Research (Stream Send Report 2013)
  • Email On Acid
  • Streamsend
  • Live Clicker
  • Benchmark Email
  • Getresponse
  • Constant Contact
  • Campaign Monitor
  • Wistia
  • Reel SEO
  • Ezine Articles