(Please tell me someone got the Dire Straits joke from the title. But, on to more pressing matters…)
Video in email has gotten more and more popular. Just a few years ago, a survey showed that video increased click-through rates by 96% in some cases. VideoRetailer found that including the word ‘video’ in your subject line increased opens by 20% over subject lines without that word.
One of our own customers, Tim Carter (from AskTheBuilder.com), uses video in email to grow his list. Using direct calls-to-action for people to sign up to his newsletter in his videos, Tim saw a 38% growth in his list.
As you can see, video can have a positive effect on subscriber activity in your emails. But how do you go about creating a video, much less getting one in your email? Well, when creating your video – then getting it in your email – you want to consider the following:
What Should My Video Be About?
Subject matter is important, but is actually quite easy to come up with. What do you talk about on your blog? That could be video right there. Everyone has something to say about their business, and here are some quick topic ideas for your next video:
- A brief description of your business
- A demonstration of your product
- A testimonial from a client/customer
How Long Should My Video Be?
From personal experience, 1- to 2-minute videos work best. You may record more, but during the editing process you’ll pair it down significantly. Speaking of creating and editing a video…
How Hard Is It To Make A Video?
Have a computer? Then the hardest part of making a video is over.
Other than that, a microphone (if you don’t have one already built in to your computer) would be handy (here’s a good mic that is easily affordable) and some recording software.
While there is free software out there, I’d recommend investing in one of these programs for better quality — the program you choose just depends on the computer you use:
Both programs run about $100. These will give you the options to not only to record desktop audio/video, but also some light editing features like cutting, splicing or adding text and call-outs.
Getting Your Video In Your Email
So, should you embed the video directly into your email? You could, but it may not be the best idea.
Why? Certain tools that allow you to embed video directly can cause your email to be blocked by some ISPs, or cause the video to not play correctly in someone’s inbox. Don’t risk that. Linking your video to an image is better a better option.
We have a handy guide to adding video to email using the ‘linking’ method, but you can also check out this quick video that walks you through those steps.
What Videos Have You Included In Your Emails?
Feel free to share your own experiences with video in email below — whether you’ve put video in your own emails, or times when you’ve received an email containing a video.