Libby Rutkey

As one of the best marketing channels to connect with audiences and build your brand, email continues to serve as a valuable tool to communicate with potential customers and move them further along your conversion funnel. That said, all marketers know that high conversion rates don’t appear out of thin air; it takes quality content that informs and inspires to persuade your leads to make those final clicks.

Adding creative videos to your emails is a great way to achieve this. Not only are you catering to the modern audience that prefers to consume information visually, but also you are positioning your product or service in a highly compelling way!

This post will explore how you can leverage video content in the context of email strategies and take your email marketing campaign to the next level.

Why is video email marketing so effective?

Video has become one of the most popular marketing mediums used today because it delivers information efficiently and without overwhelming prospective customers. More often than not, a sea of text is a deterrent in marketing communications—Who wants to scrutinize long-winded paragraphs to see if an offer is worthwhile? Not us, and definitely not your customers!

The evolving digital landscape has given rise to the creation of artistic, engaging video content—including animated explainers and social ads—that allow marketers to highlight their products, services and ideas without taking up too much of a consumer’s time. Linking to these bite-sized content pieces within emails creates a more enjoyable customer experience while still meeting the company’s marketing goals.

And all consumers have to do is sit back and let your video do the talking.

The best way to include videos within emails

In video-based email marketing, it is important to note that you will not be embedding a video in each individual email sent out—few email service providers support embedded video! Instead, you’ll link back to the landing page on which the video is located.

Begin by writing a short, catchy introduction that describes what your video will cover—the shorter, the better! Let your video be the centerpiece. Next, create a thumbnail image for the video and use a photo editor to insert a play button in the center of the image—the idea is to simulate a player environment we all recognize, even if the video itself can’t play inside the email. Lastly, use your fresh “video player” image as the anchor for the link to the video’s URL, and you’re ready to go!

Best practices when pairing videos with email

While the act of including a video in your email isn’t complex, there are some tips that will  ensure a more seamless customer experience and get the most out of this powerful combination:

1. Enable the auto-play feature. Your customer will click on the thumbnail expecting a video to play. They shouldn’t be redirected to a website where they’ll have to click on yet another play button. The video should play automatically, as any additional step increases the chances of your audience clicking away.
2. Video captions are a must. Some users prefer muted videos for a variety of reasons, so captions are crucial to ensure your message gets across even without sound!
3. Ensure your video is cross-platform-friendly. When viewed from either a mobile device or a desktop, the video should play without any difficulties.
4. Include the word ‘video’ in your subject line. Make recipients aware that you’re sending a video by adding ‘[Video] ‘ to the start of your subject line. It can do wonders for increasing open rates.
5. Compress your video’s thumbnail file size. Large image sizes can trigger spam filters. Put it through an online compressor before adding it to the email.
6. Seal the deal with a persuasive CTA. Include a relevant call to action at the end of the video, providing the necessary steps to move your customer along your conversion funnel.

Engaging video ideas for your campaign

There are plenty of types of videos you can use to engage with audiences. That said, for videos that are part of an email campaign, here are popular styles to consider:

1. Promotional videos and service launches. Videos are great for promoting new launches. Instead of including a static product image, your customers can see it in action. More so, you can create a follow-up email featuring a demo video that shows how to use the product.
2. Newsletter videos. Newsletters have also been used to pass on information to leads in a creative, easy-to-digest way. By adding videos, your newsletters become all the more engaging.
3. Showcasing company culture. Company culture videos have become a great CRM tool that gives customers insight into what your brand stands for and a brand personality they can connect with. These videos also help boost brand credibility.
4. Webinar/ event snippets. Recently launched a live or online event? Keep customers in the loop with a few video highlights.
5. CRM videos. Some customers may get confused or stuck before following through with a final purchase. Instructional product videos that inform them of next steps to take and can reassure them that they’re on the right track.

Video-based email marketing is becoming the new normal. Since video content educates and inspires audiences much more easily than written emails, it can help you nurture more leads within a shorter time frame.

And remember: It is essential to use quality video content that is optimized to be as user-friendly as possible. Including engaging videos within your email marketing campaign strategy can be a game-changer and lead to increased conversion rates.

Contributed to EO by Victor Blasco, an audiovisual designer, video marketing expert, and founder/CEO of the explainer video production company Yum Yum Videos. Besides running the business, he’s a lifelong student of Chinese philosophy and a passionate geek for all things sci-fi.

For more insights and inspiration from today’s leading entrepreneurs, check out EO on Inc. and more articles from the EO blog. 

Elon Musk recently declared an end to remote work at Tesla, announcing that all Tesla staff must return to the office full-time, according to an email sent to executive staff and leaked on social media. Musk said those who don’t want to come to office should “pretend to work somewhere else.” This strict, top-down approach rooted in mistrust and false assumptions goes against best practices. It speaks to an illusion of control that will undermine employee productivity, engagement, innovation, retention, and recruitment at Tesla.

False assumptions drive mandates

One of Musk’s false assumptions involves the idea that employees “pretend” to work from home. In fact, research using both surveys and behavior tracking from the early days of the pandemic has shown that remote work resulted in higher productivity. More recently, academics demonstrated a further increase in productivity in remote work, from 5 percent in the summer of 2020 to 9 percent in May 2022. That’s because companies and employees grew better at working from home.

Yet despite this easily-available evidence, Musk wrote in another leaked email that those who work remotely are “phoning it in.” He highlights the importance of being visible and cites his own notoriously long working hours as an example.

Such a focus on visibility in the office speaks to a highly traditionalist leadership mindset underpinned by the illusion of control. This cognitive bias describes our mind’s tendency to overestimate the extent to which we control external events.

It’s especially prevalent in executives who want to control their employees. They believe that having employees present in the office guarantees productivity.

What research shows

In reality, research shows that in-office employees work much less than the full eight-hour day. They actually spend anywhere from 36 to 39 percent of their time working. The rest, according to these studies, is spent on other activities: checking social media, reading news websites, chit-chatting with colleagues about non-work topics, making non-work calls, and even looking for other jobs.

Musk’s desire for control is not simply unrealistic. It also goes directly against what we know is critical for productivity, engagement and innovation for information workers: the desire for autonomy.

Studies show that we do our best work through intrinsic motivation, which involves autonomy and control over our work as a fundamental driver of effectiveness. Employees are most engaged, happy and productive when they have autonomy. A key component of autonomy in the post-pandemic environment involves giving workers flexibility and self-control of where and when they work, rather than trying to shoehorn them into the pre-pandemic “normal.” And though Musk claims that forcing employees to come to the office under the threat of firing will help Tesla develop and make “the most exciting and meaningful products of any company on Earth,” a study of 307 companies finds that greater worker autonomy results in more innovation.

Musk’s obvious lack of trust in his employees contrasts with the much more flexible work policies of other organizations. That includes manufacturing and tech companies where Tesla’s employees might go. Consider the manufacturing company 3M’s approach, which the company explicitly calls “trust-based.” The company allows employees to “create a schedule that helps them work when and where they can most effectively.”

The “Excellence from Anywhere” approach

As a behavioral scientist, I’ve also personally worked with organizations that show the promise of alternatives to the Musk Way. Applied Materials, a high-tech manufacturer, has developed an “Excellence from Anywhere” modality. Rather than a top-down approach, Applied has a team-led model, where team leaders work with team members to figure out what works best for each team and employee. Applied is adopting best practices to facilitate innovation in remote and hybrid work such as virtual asynchronous brainstorming to sustain a competitive advantage.

Another client, the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California, has adopted research-driven approaches to put itself in what it calls “a leadership position in terms of figuring out how to do hybrid work.” Its approach focuses on maximizing flexibility and autonomy for its staff.

Study after study after study shows that 40 to 60 percent of employees would look for another job if forced to come to work against their wishes. And I would gladly eat my hat if we don’t see increased quit rates at Tesla as a consequence of a forced office return. After all, there’s a reason why a member of the executive staff leaked Musk’s emails on returning to the office.

Indeed, we immediately witnessed pushback against Musk’s demands for an office return by employee representatives in Germany, which has the first worker’s union across the whole of Tesla. Those without union representation will vote with their feet. Indeed, my sources suggest that recruiters are already using Musk’s words to target desirable Tesla employees. Musk’s illusion of control and false assumptions will result in serious losses to Tesla and a gain for companies that are innovating about the future of work.

Contributed by  Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, who helps tech and insurance executives seize competitive advantage in hybrid work by driving employee retention, collaboration and innovation through cognitive science as the CEO of the future-proofing consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts, and authored the best-seller Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams: A Manual on Benchmarking to Best Practices for Competitive Advantage.