Adding video to your affiliate marketing newsletter is one of the hottest trends in email marketing this year. Think about it. Videos are extremely cost-effective and all you need is a camera, some video editing software (which you can get for free), and a few spare hours.
An entertaining, informative video that puts you and your affiliate products in the spotlight may be all you need to turn prospective clients into repeat customers. Videos grab the audience’s attention in a way that clever copy and fancy photos can’t, so here are a few things to consider when creating your own marketing videos.
Keep It Simple
The most effective marketing emails have one clearly defined call to action – one. If you include too many calls to action, you risk splitting your audience’s attention. When you include a video into your email newsletter, the goal is for your audience to watch the video. So keep it simple. Emails that have a video should focus on the video.
Don’t waste time
Speaking of simple, another way to make your videos stand out is to keep them short. The sweet spot is usually somewhere between 30 seconds and 2 minutes. Again, the idea here is to hold on to your viewers attention long enough to get your point across, but don’t tease them too long or they may lose interest.
Give Them A Choice
There are two ways to add videos to your marketing emails. The first is by embedding the video directly into the email. Your other option is to embed a linked thumbnail of your video into the email that leads to your site (I prefer the second option).
Whichever you choose, it’s always best to let your audience choose to watch the video as opposed to starting the video automatically. Auto-playing a video can come off as irritating, and a loud-playing video can be especially embarrassing, particularly if your subscriber is at work or another quiet venue.
Compare And Contrast
While adding videos is a sure-fire way to make your marketing emails more interesting, it’s important to remember that not all videos will have the same effect. It all depends on your audience.
Test a few different types of videos over a time and see which ones get the best response. With video analytics you can track how many people actually open the video and whether or not they watched the video all the way through.
Plan Ahead
It’s always good to have a backup plan. A lot of people are checking email on their smartphones and other devices, not all of which can play videos. It’s important that your email does its job, regardless of whether the video plays or not. Your call to action should be clearly defined in both the text of your email and in the video.
There are a number of different types of videos that can enhance your marketing emails. Testimonials, reviews and how-to videos are just a few examples. Remember to always keep your audience in mind and your video-showcasing emails are sure to be a success.
Any one that can create an email video like you described is basically respecting people’s time.
Keep it short and sweet but say a lot. Really good read. Thank you!