Do Emails With Video Have a Higher Open Rate?

Marketers often struggle to reach prospects with email. While email is still one of the top marketing resources for businesses, it can be hard to make your messages stand out, let alone get click-thrus once someone has opened your email. However, using video, marketers can increase open rates and get in contact with the right people.

Using video in email increases open rates and conversions

According to a study from Marketo and Clearfit reported by Vidyard, using video for email messages increases open rates substantially. ClearFit used Marketo’s data to determine effectiveness of emails, and found the emails that used video for a direct call-to-action had a 53% higher click to open rate over emails without an obvious mention of video content. Once they had this data, they were able to segment email lists by user and followed up directly with recipients who watched more than half of the video.

Other reports have confirmed these findings. Mention video in your subject line and you can expect more people to open your emails. Research from Experian found that open rates rose from 7% to 13% when marketers used the word “video” in the email’s subject line. On top of that, the videos increased conversion rates by 21%, MediaPost reported.

The conversion statistics were also supported by Marketo and ClearFit. In their data, ClearFit found that 11.4% of leads that engaged with a video made a purchase. The overall average of leads converted was just over 5%. The longer prospects watched the video, the more likely they were to convert.

Most of the time leads don’t convert; that’s just the reality behind sales and marketing. However, with video email, ClearFit was able to re-engage leads that initially passed on an opportunity. Old leads that received the email converted at a rate of 0.29%. In addition, 6.5% of recipients that watched the whole video converted.

Now that you know how video can improve your email campaigns, here are two basic tips:

1. Keep the video short

If you want to make more conversions, the key seems to be to create a video that people will watch all the way to the end. Make sure videos aren’t too long. Executives and other decision-makers have limited time and you’re lucky if you’ve managed to convince them to open your email in the first place. That being said, using animated video, it’s easy to say a lot in a very short timeframe.

2. Be careful with platforms

Some email providers support video and others don’t. Before setting a video to play within the email itself, check to make sure the recipient will be able to view it this way. Until this feature becomes widespread, a better practice is to provide an image that links to a webpage where the video is hosted. ExactTarget suggests using a gif that flashes some images of the video to entice recipients to click.