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Here’s a line you probably heard before- Men are visual creatures. But to surprise you, it never ends there, as women and all humans generally like pictures and video more than any source of information- Including Kids!
And, even if you are not a TikTok aficionado, you often don’t mind sparing a few minutes to watch something that looks interesting online.
How about opening a video with an exciting subject line that pops up in your Gmail account? Doesn’t sound like a lot of work as it is proven that many prefer a video over skimming through a prose of text from an anonymous sender.
It’s now the new norm in cold email marketing. Companies have realized its cardinal role in marketing because of this propensity of information to flow more fluidly over video than any other mode.
In this article, we’ll elaborate on ways marketers have learned to exploit this general human behavior to convert leads.
We’ll also tell you how to tackle some of the biggest hurdles in a video email marketing campaign- Like how to send large video files, attach a video link, and much more.
Master the art of sending videos via email with this comprehensive guide, covering all the essential information you need.
Anytime clients and prospects enroll for your newsletter, they expect great and entertaining content, and you have to live up to the billing; otherwise, they’ll quit.
We don’t mean you should try creating comic content, as we understand you’ll fail terribly if you are not a natural comedian. But find a way of getting more out of the audience the clients have offered you.
First, have an element of surprise to keep them guessing what you’ll send in your next newsletter. If you bombard subscribers with volume upon volume of text, you’ll bore them to death and have yourself to blame when they take off and flag your emails as spam.
When you send videos via newsletters, you achieve several things:
What better way to announce yourself to your customers than following up your first video with multiple videos in the future?
And this is how you create a cult of followers- People who are at peace to open your email even while standing on a train as they’re sure it will be exciting yet short. And to make it even more interesting, don’t appear like you’re outright marketing to them.
Simply pick a topic that relates to your product and connects to the people.
Like, say you’re in the solar panels' sales business. You can do environmental conservation videos or simply full videos showcasing how tapping in solar power has helped a formerly underserved population.
You need to spice up your cold email campaigns and improve the open rates by sending the prospects a video.
The effect will be as we have highlighted above; it’ll spur the prospect into taking action, and they’ll be hungrier to see what you’re bringing them instead of sending plain texts.
With a video file, you can simulate a side-by-side conversation with the lead if you communicate with them in real-time.
And immediately they hit the recipient’s email address, you stand a better chance of conversion than using conventional marketing of simply texting.
It is not without challenges, but sending videos via email can be a breeze if you find a way to fix the issues associated with this practice. Let’s list them below and also provide the remedies you should undertake.
Most email service providers have measures to shield their users from spam emails. So you need to tread softly, as attaching video files is a recipe for flagging. This is the primary problem when you link a video to your cold email campaign.
You must address it as if you’re flagged, it's kaput for your email campaigning campaign, and this will keep happening until you do the necessary- stop sending video attachments. But this means returning to the bland email marketing of long text stories that no prospect wants to hear.
So is there a way out of it? Definitely, we’ll check it out in the next section when we discuss how to send videos through email.
Most of the popular email services Outlook and Gmail, protect their email clients by disabling playback support for video and for a reason. They know senders are likely to exploit it, and if you don’t take the proper measures to overcome the hurdle, your video attachment will be useless.
This can be highly detrimental as if the video carried the bulk of your message to the client, it means they won’t know what you were saying. And that means they won’t downright respond to you because what exactly do they respond to?
An email ought to be one of the easiest things to respond to; with a simple click stroke, the email client should have everything ready for viewing. But a large video makes this all but a wild dream.
The video file size is a critical area to consider especially when it affects the initial loading of the email. Prospects range from disgruntled people who have had a bad day at work and don’t have the energy to wait for a cold email to open- to those using significantly slow internet.
Others simply don’t have the size in their mailbox to accommodate large video files.
So as a marketer, you need to have everyone on the same page by checking on the file size limit of your email service.
Everything phenomenal has a price; thus, you must pay top dollar for high-quality videos featuring excellent messages. This is in monetary terms and the time you invest in creating the videos.
But it’ll be all worth the sacrifice, so don’t fret at the burden of video emails over conventional plain text video emails.
Now here’s the challenging part. How do you include a video in your email without it sounding intrusive to the recipient? Also, this balancing act includes optimizing the video to ensure that it doesn't infringe on the size limits.
So below, we bring you the top five great video-sending ideas on an email that will boost your leads conversion campaign and keep clients dying for more.
Would you like to send large video files and are afraid that they are above the sending limits of your email service provider? The easiest way out is to create a YouTube channel under your company name and upload the video there.
Next, copy the link to the email and attach it to your email message. It is that simple. And what’s more, you won’t need to spend a dime to set this up, as opening a YouTube channel is free.
Also, you’re not limited to YouTube videos because there’s an extensive range of other video hosting services to explore. Most importantly, set the video access to private so that it is exclusively reserved for those you’re reaching out to via cold email.
But make sure you grant access in your video settings when sharing so that the recipient can access it directly.
So when should you opt for this option? There’s no right or wrong time, as it is a generic way to reach your customers. But, if you’re sending larger files via Gmail or Yahoo, then this is the best approach, as these limit the maximum size of attachments to 25 MB.
However, one of its limitations is that you cannot personalize a video for the specific client you’re sending to unless you create multiple videos for all. But this hurdle is nothing compared to the mountains that the option helps you overcome.
Using a thumbnail is not, after all, a bad thing despite the negativity around click-baiting the respondents to click on your post. It is one of the most effective ways to send large video files, and there are three means to do it.
First, you can create a GIF file using online converting tools for the part you want to feature on the email. There are plenty of tools, so this should be real quick. Next, attach the GIF to the email, then hyperlink it to the actual video posted elsewhere.
Alternatively, you can create an Image Thumbnail (again, there are tools and plugins for this) and then hyperlink it to the video in the newsletter. Finally, you can take a screenshot of the video using a snipping tool, paste it on the email then link it to your full video.
Any of the methods work just fine, and they significantly reduce the video file size allowing you to send any size video. Also, a GIF or Thumbnail is captivating and draws the respondent to open it.
You can still send the full video as you intended despite the size limitations by simply compressing it to a smaller size. There are numerous third-party video compressing tools online, many of which are free.
If you’re using Windows, consider converting it to a zip file, as it's straightforward and barely affects the quality of the video. But there are other available compressing tools as good as the Windows converter, such as HandBrake.
Next, after compressing it, simply attach the video to the email and send it. No matter how large your file is, this method will work. But beware of sending huge files as they may only easily download if the recipient is on a fast connection.
Also, your prospects may be skeptical about opening a seemingly large file, especially if they’re on cellular data. Remember our earlier advice- Keep everything short, concise, and to the point.
The Google Drive method works perfectly when sending a large video and is all straightforward to use. Upload video to Google Drive, and it’ll create a shareable link that you can simply attach to your email.
If you’re using Gmail, this is arguably the most convenient means to share that favorite video with your prospects. This is simply because Google owns the two, so they are compatible.
But you can still send a Google Drive video via email services like Yahoo and Outlook. Also, remember to enable access to the Google Drive video link to ensure your recipient can check out the video immediately.
Any downsides?
There are not many, but if you’re on a free plan, Google Drive has a limited storage capacity. Hence, the solution is to use the paid version for large-size videos or simply reduce the size via compressing, as explained above.
Other options for creating video links include:
Like any other cold email strategy, you must primarily boost the chances of hitting the target the first time you message the customer. You’re in this for the conversion, so there are things you must get right to optimize the number of new customers you win for your company.
Hence, we bring you some of the tricks to getting it all right below. Check them out.
Are your emails reaching the intended prospects without a hitch, or are they ending up in the client's spam folder? The success of a cold email campaign lies in the numbers- so if you send numerous emails, this translates to a high conversion rate.
But emails with attachments such as video links can be flagged by email service providers' filters to shield their users from unscrupulous people. This can be so damaging to an email marketing campaign as people barely read what’s in the spam box.
So what’s the way out of this? Sending test emails does the trick, and it comes with numerous upsides that include the following:
Email testing sounds tedious but is worth everything because it helps you thresh out the finer details, ensuring you optimize the open rates and lead conversions. Primarily, there are three main types of test emails you should perform:
Here you send two types of emails with different subtle changes to see if there’s a difference in performance. For instance, you can create two subject lines but retain the body of the messages, then check out the open rate.
This helps you know which one will perform better.
At which time are prospects most likely to open cold emails? Sending test emails helps you to choose an optimal time to send the actual email. You can also schedule emails to send at that particular time.
Email providers will categorize emails in different categories depending on their content. It can be classified as promotional, primary, or social. So where are your cold emails landing? You can check out this by sending test emails.
No man is perfect, so you need to consult before sending cold emails lest you sink your cold emailing ship. Ask your business partners what they think about the stricture of the emails. Do they find it interesting enough to thrill your prospects?
After asking, work on the feedback to improve the bits that need tinkering. Also, consider seeking feedback from people outside your work team, such as family and friends.
The more critical they are, the better because they’ll call out what doesn’t sound right and help you fix it before it's too late.
Is it right to do generic cold emails to everyone on your list? Rather do you have a particular class of an audience that you target when doing cold emails?
Segmentation matters more than anything because it's the only way to reach the right audience and boost the open rate. For instance, if you’re selling baby products, sending cold emails to a list of young men in college would be futile.
Instead, it makes more sense to target young mothers and pregnant women. These will find immense value in the email, and there’s a big chance of making multiple conversions. So take time to know who you’re reaching out to.
Don’t shoot in the dark. It is the easy thing to do, but it's a recipe for failure in a cold email marketing campaign. Also, it will be wasteful to your marketing efforts and disheartening to receive low volumes of responses despite sending emails to thousands of recipients.
The golden rule of cold email marketing is to personalize the content as much as possible so your communication doesn’t smell like a cold email. So make a video email that sounds like it was fundamentally reserved for the particular prospect you’re reaching out to.
The groupings of recipient email address synonymous with cold emails may not work in this case. But find a way of personalizing even if you go the old-school way of sending one email message to many.
More is not always good; this best applies to the length of your video emails. The length is one of the parts viewers check out subconsciously, even before opening any video. And the case is more precarious for marketing video pages.
Few have the patience to watch a large video out of nowhere explaining a business offer they didn’t even ask to hear about first place. So do away with long videos. Two minutes are enough to cover everything you want to tell the client.
And make it quite thrilling that they are left wanting more, as this is how they’ll be compelled to click your CTA.
You’ll get all your efforts down the drain if you make a superb and exciting video page but fail to captivate the respondent to open the email primarily. So the best part to concentrate on above everything is getting an eye-catching subject line that speaks volumes about what's in the email.
Also, finish as strongly as you started, and by this, we mean that you need a catchy Call to Action that guides the prospect on what to do next. Once again, this part can make or break your business lead, so it should be phenomenal.
Why should the client reach out to you? Why should they book a second meeting?
Think of a case whereby you’re scrolling on the internet, and a video preview captures your attention. Is it captivating? We can bet 9/10 that you’ll click the video.
This is the whole idea behind sending videos in emails, especially for cold marketing. We have highlighted the various ways to make the videos ready for sending.
Follow our timeless guide on how to successfully attach videos to email, and all shall be well. We have more tips on sending cold emails to your prospects. So check our blog for more insights into this great yet tricky marketing hack.