5 Keys to Successful Video Email Marketing Campaigns

Are you utilizing video in your email marketing campaigns yet? Sales consultant and author Jill Konrath shares five tips for getting started and boosting your engagement.

Video can go a long way toward enticing your email recipients to engage with your brand. A report by Web Video Marketing Council and Flimp Media found that 72% of marketers who use video in email marketing say prospects are more likely to convert. However, it’s no small task to work in video seamlessly, and producing high-quality, effective videos is often easier said than done.
Internationally recognized sales expert Jill Konrath is no stranger to successfully utilizing video in B2B email marketing campaigns (see her popular series of sales tips videos and watch the examples below). In a conversation with OpenView she discussed the secrets behind her own video marketing process and shared five tips to help companies launch more engaging campaigns of their own.

1) Leverage your company’s existing resources

With video equipment and video production tools and software more accessible and affordable than ever, it can be tempting to go the full DIY route. But rather than spending the time and effort to develop entirely new skills, Konrath suggests concentrating on your strengths, and leveraging the people and resources around you.
You may not have Steven Spielberg on staff, but chances are a member of your design team or a friend of yours (or, in Konrath’s case, a neighbor) is a decent photographer and probably knows her way around editing and uploading videos. Enlist her help in getting the right equipment and shooting good quality videos. Or, if you can budget it, hire a professional videographer to do the shoots for you.

2) Record multiple videos at once

Once you’ve locked down your camera person, the next important tip Konrath provides is to get as much accomplished as possible with every shoot. She encourages you not to record just one or two videos, but rather a whole group, with multiple takes.
“First of all, you get on a roll and you get better on screen as you get into the videos, Konrath says. “Secondarily, it is a real productivity saver.”
If you are planning a series of videos and you are only shooting a handful at a time, then you are going to be dealing constantly with the stress of planning new shoots. Instead, save yourself the stress and money (think of it as buying in bulk) by knocking out 15 short videos in an afternoon and then roll them out over time.

3) Avoid the hard sell

Your viewers will be turned off by a sales-y tone, so remember that your goal is simply to share information.
“My whole perspective on these videos is that I’m here to give good information on the issues and challenges that my target market are dealing with,” Konrath explains. That should really be your primary focus.

Know what your audience is looking for and provide them with helpful information that helps them achieve their goals.

4) Drive further action

Always include a quick call to action in your videos and direct viewers to engage more. Whether you are pointing them toward your blog or a specific landing page on your site, now that you have them there, they are much more likely to consume more content, engage with you, and eventually convert.

5) Share and promote

In addition to including your videos in your newsletters and other email blasts, be sure to upload them to YouTube. But Konrath also encourages you not to let the promotion stop there. Start tweeting about your videos and sharing them on LinkedIn. For Konrath, those are the two primary channels where you can inform your target audience that there’s new content they’ll find valuable.
Konrath also underscores the importance of clearly laying out exactly how your videos will help viewers with the specific challenges you know they face on a regular basis. If your video tackles how to deal with people who only want to talk about price, draft your subject line, tweet, or headline so that your followers immediately know which issue the video can help them with.
Here are two examples of effective videos from Konrath’s “Fresh Sales Strategies” series:
How Often Should You Contact Prospects?

Don’t Ask Your Prospects This Qualifying Question

 
There’s no doubt about it — video is how people want to consume content today. In fact, 56% of all web traffic in 2012 was video, so take Konrath’s advice and make sure your company is keeping up.

Do you agree video content can make email marketing campaigns more successful?