You can take plenty of steps to improve your email click-through rate (CTR). You could optimize your subject line, write compelling and concise copy, include high-quality graphics, and much more.
If your open rates are pretty good but your CTR could use some work, adding video to your emails might be the missing ingredient that will help you boost clicks and conversions in your next email marketing campaign.
What is the average CTR from videos?
We’ve found that including a video in your email can improve click rates by 65%.
In fact, including a video in your initial email campaign can boost click rates by 96%.
Boost welcome email open rates by 96% with a video.
Consider that the average email click rate is about 2.69%. Including a video (or link to a video) in your email can boost CTRs up 65%.
However, it also matters which platform you use to upload and share your video. Videos from Vimeo perform best with an average of 8.13% CTR. YouTube comes in second with 6.62% and Break trails behind at 2.41%.
Source: Grey Sky Films
Take advantage of GIFs
The bad news is only 40% of email service providers support embedded video playback. However, there are plenty of workarounds so you can still include videos in your email.
You could create unique video campaigns that target segments of your audience using email providers that support this feature or you could simply use a linkable thumbnail instead of a video.
Another great option is to make the linkable thumbnail a GIF. Including a GIF in your email can improve transaction-to-click rates by 72%. Plus, YouTube and Vimeo have both switched to GIF thumbnails.
How to improve your video click and conversion rate
Where you include your CTA matters. Viewers are more likely to take action if you include your link or button in the middle of the video. The end of your video is the second safest space while CTAs at the beginning do not perform well.
Take advantage of personalization options as well. Vidyard found that customized video for every subscriber improved conversion rates by 500% in many cases. Personalization in video could include the subscriber’s real name, job, or other information.
How to measure the CTR of your emails with videos
Log into your Campaign Monitor account (or other ESP) and click on the campaign you want to track. You’ll be able to check all the important metrics like open rates, click rates, conversions, and click-to-open rates.
Compare the results of your CTRs for emails with videos to campaigns that don’t contain videos.
If your video campaigns aren’t producing the results they should, tweak your tactics a bit. Include videos in your campaigns that deliver the highest open rates like welcome emails, transactional emails, birthday emails, and onboarding content.
Does it really matter?
Yes. Email produces some of the highest ROI of all online marketing tactics. 77% of businesses—mostly small businesses—say email marketing is effective for reaching their goals. However, email is only as effective as the effort you put into it.
Video is an excellent tool for stretching your marketing budget because it delivers some of the highest engagement of all online media.
What now?
Now that you understand the importance of video, you can look for new ways to work it into your email marketing strategy. Remember that while you may be able to embed a video into your campaign through the Campaign Monitor email builder, that doesn’t mean it will play in every subscriber’s email.
Testing is key!
In most cases, you’ll need to include a GIF or static image with a thumbnail and link out to a landing page with the embedded video. Don’t worry. You can still include a CTA link on the landing page and at the end of the video to grab conversions.
Incorporating video into your email marketing strategy isn’t difficult but it does take some special considerations. Learn video basics to get started.