Email marketing earns an average of $36 per $1 spent, according to Litmus. But how do you get more from video emails? We asked marketing experts and business owners what they tested to get more readers watching. Their tests showed lifts of up to 31.2%.

With a video host, you can also collect data on every contact who watches. The video holds the product demo or sales pitch, so contacts who click through and watch the full video are warm leads. For B2B teams, this turns video in email into a sales funnel.

Learn three ways to add video to email, dig into expert-tested results, and track who watched after they click.

Can You Embed Video Directly in an Email?

Yes, but only in some email apps, such as Apple Mail. You can add an HTML5 video to an email, but most email apps, including Gmail and Outlook, block video playback in emails due to potential security risks (such as phishing scams). Where video does play, large video files can load slowly and stall playback. That’s why we don’t recommend sharing a video file directly in an email; instead, use a thumbnail image or GIF and link to your video. 

Does Video Play in Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail?

There are many email clients, but the vast majority of opens occur in Apple Mail, Gmail, or Outlook.

• Apple Mail: Yes, on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. 
• Gmail: No. Gmail shows your fallback image instead.
• Outlook: No, in nearly every version. 

Even in Apple Mail, embedded video doesn’t give viewers the next step and leaves you with no insight into who watched or how much they watched. Plus, you still need a fallback image for everyone reading elsewhere. 

For less common apps, see Can I Email for the full list of clients.

3 Ways to Embed Video in Email

You can embed a video in an email in three ways: with an animated GIF preview, a static thumbnail with a play button overlay, or an email embed code from your video host. 

Each method links your thumbnail to the landing page where your video plays.

The main difference between them is what you can track: a GIF or static thumbnail tells you who clicked, while an email embed code from a host like SproutVideo also shows which contacts watched and how much they watched.

1. Animated GIF Video Thumbnail

An animated GIF preview is a short, looping clip from your video that links to your video landing page. It brings motion into the inbox without embedding the video itself.

GIFs display in nearly every email app. The exception is Outlook for Windows 2007–2019, which shows only the first frame, so choose a first frame that works on its own. To see how animated thumbnails perform against static ones, see the thumbnail test below.

To use a GIF thumbnail:

1. Upload the GIF to your email marketing platform and insert it into the email.
2. Hyperlink the animated poster frame to your video’s landing page.
3. Ensure the video and landing page are ready for traffic, then schedule the email.

Keep animated poster frames under 1 MB so your email loads quickly and displays properly.

2. Static Thumbnail With Play Button Overlay

A static thumbnail is a still image, usually with a play button overlay, that links to your video landing page. Static images provide faster loading times and improve accessibility for readers sensitive to motion. Certain brands may also prefer the stark professionalism of static images.

To use a static thumbnail:

1. Add a play button overlay so readers know the image is clickable. You can do this in your preferred image editor or using your video host. 
2. Insert the image into your email and link it to your video landing page. 

3. Email Embed Code From Your Video Host

An email embed code is the HTML you grab from your video host to add directly to your email marketing platform. This embed code adds your video’s thumbnail or animated poster frame to your email, with a link to your video. Because the host generates the preview, you don’t need to create a GIF or add a play button overlay in other software.

To use an email embed code: 

1. Generate a custom email embed code through your video host. 
2. Paste the code into a custom HTML block in your email.

Using a responsive embed code also ensures your video thumbnail scales to fit every screen. Your email platform determines whether manually added thumbnails resize. SproutVideo email embed codes are responsive by default.

A SproutVideo email embed code also lets you track which email contacts watched your video and how much time they spent watching. See how in How to Track Who Watched Your Email Video.

5 Tests to Improve Video in Email Marketing Results

To improve video-in-email results, A/B test one element at a time and compare results. Repeat each test to confirm the result holds. Once you know what works, the results become standards.

The five simple tests below come from agencies and small businesses that ran them in their own campaigns and shared them with SproutVideo in early 2025. Use them as inspiration for your own tests, rather than industry benchmarks. 

Here’s what experts found when they tested video in email:

• 22% more opens from adding “Video” to the subject line (Bright Force Electrical)
• 18% more engagement from adding intro copy before the video (Medical Anti-Aging)
• 21% higher click-through rate from a GIF thumbnail versus a static one (InboxArmy)
• 15% higher click-through rate from a specific CTA (Pro Coffee Gear)

1. Put “Video” in the Subject Line

A subject line that mentions video tells readers what to expect before they open it and sets your email apart in a crowded inbox.

Test to run: Send the same email with and without “Video” in the subject line. Compare open rates, then compare click-through rates to see whether the extra opens become views.

2. Add Intro Copy Before the Video

Many marketers put the video at the top of the email. A few sentences of context first can give readers a reason to click.

Test to run: Create an A/B test where Version A opens with the video thumbnail and Version B opens with two or three sentences of context, then the thumbnail. Compare click-through rates.

3. Test Animated vs. Static Thumbnails

Motion captures attention, encouraging readers to pause and absorb more of your messaging. Animated or static, your thumbnail should set video expectations at a glance. 

Test to run: Use the same moment in your video for the GIF and static thumbnail to create the cleanest A/B test. Compare click-through rates.

4. Find Your Best Thumbnail

Beyond choosing between animated and static options, the frame you feature determines whether readers click. Pull several strong moments from your video and test them against each other.

Test to run: Keep everything else in the email the same, change only the thumbnail, and compare click-through rates.

5. Write a Specific CTA 

Don’t assume readers know the next step. A specific CTA tells them why they should click.  

Test to run: Compare “Watch Now” against a compelling CTA that describes what the video shows or why they should click. Measure click-through rate. 

None of these tests measures how readers engaged with the video after the click. That data lives with your video host; see the tracking section next for how to capture it. 

How to Track Who Watched Your Email Video With SproutVideo

Your email marketing platform shows who opened the email and clicked on your video. A video host with engagement data, like SproutVideo, shows you who watched the video and how much of it they watched. When your email links to your video landing page with one of the methods below, each viewing session connects back to the contact who clicked.

See Which Contacts Watched Your Video

1. Use an Email Embed Code

The simplest way to see who watched your video from an email is to use a SproutVideo email embed code. When customizing the embed code, select your email provider. When a contact clicks your video thumbnail and watches the video on the landing page, SproutVideo links their email address to their viewing activity in your engagement metrics. 

The email embed code works with more than 25 email marketing platforms, including HubSpot, Mailchimp, Klaviyo, and Marketo. 

2. Add Merge Tags to Your Landing Page Link

If you link your own GIF or static thumbnail, or your email provider isn’t on the list, you can track viewers by adding merge tags to your landing page link. Your email platform provides these tags to fill in each recipient’s details. Merge tag formats vary by platform, so check your email provider’s documentation for the exact syntax. This help doc walks through the setup.

Sync Engagement Data with HubSpot, Zapier, or Make

The HubSpot integration syncs watch milestones (1%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%) to each contact record. You can then use this data in your CRM to determine warm leads and create segmented follow-ups. For other platforms, connect SproutVideo through Zapier or Make.

For example, with SproutVideo’s HubSpot integration, you can trigger a sales task when a contact reaches 75% of a demo video, or send a follow-up email to contacts who stopped before the halfway point.

All marketing integrations are included on every SproutVideo plan. 

Put Viewer Data to Work

Use this data to see which videos and video lengths hold attention. Once you know who watched and how much, each team can act on it:

• Marketing evaluates leads by watch depth and segments lists for follow-up campaigns.
• Sales uses engagement data to prioritize leads and personalize sales pitches. 
• Support reaches out to new customers who never watched the onboarding video.

Video in email works best when the email earns the click and the landing page does the rest. Test what gets readers to click, then use what they watch to decide who to follow up with and what to send next.

Video in Email Marketing FAQs

What types of emails work best with video?

Video works best in emails where watching is the goal, or where the video drives a conversion on your landing page. This might include: 

• Nurture sequences
• Webinar invites
• Demo replays
• Sales walkthroughs
• Onboarding and training
• Feature updates 

In all cases, the video should provide value that copy alone can’t.

Can video autoplay in an email?

Not reliably. Gmail and Outlook don’t play video in the email at all, so there’s nothing to autoplay. For motion that starts on its own, use an animated GIF thumbnail. It plays automatically in nearly every email app and links to the full video on your landing page. Keep the loop short, a few seconds, so it catches the eye without distracting readers.

Does adding video to an email hurt deliverability?

Not if you link to it. Deliverability problems arise when attaching video files or embedding them directly in the email, which inflates message size and can trigger spam filters or size limits. A linked thumbnail keeps the email light. 

Keep animated GIFs under 1 MB, add alt text, and pair the thumbnail with enough copy that the email doesn’t read as image-only.

How do you send a private or confidential video by email?

Link your email thumbnail to a video that requires a password or login to watch. With SproutVideo, login protection gives access only to the specific people you allow, and SproutVideo automatically tracks each viewer’s activity by their email address. 

Password protection also works for simpler sharing. See how to secure and protect your videos for every option.

How do you make a video in an email accessible?

Make your video emails accessible by adding alt text to your thumbnail. Alt text lets screen readers describe it. Additionally, include captions on your video so viewers can watch without sound, and test your email across devices and email apps before you send.

The post How to Embed Video in Email (and Track Who Watched) appeared first on SproutVideo.

There are a few main reasons for this: people change their email addresses, opt out of your newsletter, or simply lose interest. Contacts you added two years ago are less likely to have that “a-ha” moment and suddenly convert to a customer. 

It’s your responsibility as a marketer to keep your mailing lists fresh by adding new contacts, so you can continuously generate leads and drive profitability to your business.

This week, we will give you eight actionable ways to grow your email list and keep in touch with the people that matter the most to your business.

1. Add a Personal Touch

Just because you’re using email for business does not mean you have to use a stern, corporate tone. The recipient of your email is a person after all, so it doesn’t hurt to infuse that human touch into your messaging. With a little bit of creativity and communication skills, you can keep your message professional and still make it stand out from the other emails piling up in their inbox.

If your brand’s identity permits, you can make your messaging entertaining and fun to read. No matter the communication channel, content is always king and should be treated as such.

2. Sort Your Contact List by Buyer Persona

Cold emailing is an age-old practice; sometimes it works, but most of the time it doesn’t. It’s a numbers game that you can’t win unless you are sending out countless emails each day.

A better way to grow your list and increase your conversion rate is by segmenting your contact list by buyer persona. People are more likely to read and act on a message that caters to their specific needs and interests. For instance, instead of sending the same email template to 500 recipients, create five different templates to target your audience based on what they like and where they are in the conversion funnel.

3. Make an Offer They Can’t Refuse

If you have a decent amount of monthly website traffic, you can convert them into subscribers by publishing gated content on your website, such as a free ebook, webinar, or online tool.

Once your visitors identify the value that you are providing, they are more likely to give you their information in order to gain access to it.

4. Use Social Media Giveaways

Social media is a powerful marketing tool that can get virtually anything done — from driving traffic, to boosting conversions or increasing brand awareness. It can even grow your email list.

For example, you can use one of your social media accounts to promote a giveaway contest and allow prospects to participate by using their email address. The prize money doesn’t have to be large; anything that suits your budget will likely work. And you can promote the giveaway not only on your home page, but also across various third-party websites for free. 

LinkedIn is another great place to promote your giveaway. By using a LinkedIn automation tool, you can send invitations to your connections, as well as to other people who might be interested in the contest. 

As far as Facebook goes, you can add a temporary CTA button to your FB profile, which will lead visitors directly to your giveaway page.  

Based on how well you promote the contest, you can potentially pull in thousands of email addresses in a month.

5. Use Video to Grow Your Email List

Whether on social media, YouTube, or videos you host on your own site, videos can be a powerful tool to grow leads.

If you post videos regularly, try using the custom post-play screen feature to direct your viewers to your sign-up landing page featuring a free ebook, giveaway, or anything that is worthy of trading in an email address.

You can also enable lead capture if you’d like to require your viewers to provide their information before watching your content.

Finally, in-player calls to action are a great way to reach out to your audience at any point in your video you choose, and direct them to a landing page, lead capture form, or to more information.

6. Build a Thought Leadership Blog that People Want to Read

Blogging is one of the proven ways to improve your website’s ranking, build readership, and command authority in your niche market. Having a blog on your website gives you the opportunity to showcase your knowledge, while offering tips that your readers can actually implement in real life.

Blogging just for the sake of it won’t do you any good. Therefore, make sure your content either solves a problem or provides useful information. The bigger the problem the information in your blog helps solve, the more people will seek out your website. And if they like what they see, the more likely they’ll submit their email address for your free newsletter. 

7. Create a Customer Review Page on Your Website

Whether product- or service-based, your business needs customer feedback in order to improve and grow. Creating a customer review page on your website will get you the feedback you need. Unfortunately, you should prepare yourself for some inevitable negative reviews as well. In order for your customers to leave a review, they must provide their email address, so not only will you receive new contacts, but this will also be an opportunity to address your customers’ concerns and learn to better assist them in the future.

8. Handle Unsubscribers the Right Way

This may sound counterintuitive, but you must let your subscribers go if they want to. Don’t make them go through a series of questions or feedback forms after they click the unsubscribe button. Maybe they are trying to declutter their inbox; forcing them to stay will only make them more determined to leave.

After they unsubscribe, you can retarget them with an offer that might change their mind. For instance, you can extend a store credit, free ebook, or a premium membership for the next three months. Remember, this might be your last chance to win them back, so make it good.

Conclusion

You can use any of the methods above, or even try different combinations to approach your prospects from different angles to increase your odds of success. Once you have new email contacts in your database, you can nurture them with attractive offers and close without much struggle. 

The post 8 Simple and Effective Ways to Grow Your Email List appeared first on SproutVideo.

1. Event Landing Page

Online events require a website, microsite, portal, or a simple landing page. Usually, they contain information helpful to viewers as they locate and view the live stream.

The event page itself contains the live stream player, and usually the name of the event and a brief description of the event. Of course, you can get much more creative than that!

You can create your event landing page in many different ways. If you have an existing website or blog, a simple solution would be to add a new page or a new blog post dedicated to your event. You can also use popular landing page tools to create a custom event page. For example, we use HubSpot, but there are numerous marketing platforms and landing page providers out there. 

When planning your live stream, this is usually one of the first pieces of the puzzle you need to put into place. After all, it’s likely to be where you’ll send viewers to register for and eventually view the event.

2. Viewer Registration

Unless you have an existing list of attendees (e.g. for an employee event), you’ll need a way to register your viewers so you can communicate important information leading up to the event. Making sure you have a way of messaging your attendees is crucial for sending event reminders and calendar invites to help ensure they’ll know when to tune in.

Most landing page providers have options for creating forms you can use to gather viewer information. Or, you can gate your live stream with a form that requires viewers to enter their information in order to watch. 

Be sure to create a new segment or list for your registered viewers to make it easy to send event information to the right people.

3. Sizzle Reel

What better way to promote a live video than with, you guessed it, more video? A sizzle reel is a type of teaser video that will hook your audience, but leave them wanting more. It should showcase your topic, speakers, and insights, or anything that would motivate someone to sign up. 

You can share your sizzle reel on your event landing page, social media, or in blog posts promoting your live stream. It’s an effective way to engage your audience and get them excited about the main event.

To help drive event signups, you can use in-player CTAs or a post-play screen to link to your registration form.

4. Social Content

To help promote your event, you’ll need plenty of content to share on social media. The right platform to choose depends on where your audience can be found. Each platform has slightly different formatting constraints, so be sure to refer to our guide to optimizing your videos for social media when planning your content.

A mix of images and short videos will add variety to your content and help grab your audience’s attention. Be sure to change it up and feature various aspects of your event to appeal to different people. And, work in the date and time to ensure everyone knows when it’s happening.

You’ll need at least two weeks of content in order to effectively promote your event. Depending on the scale and frequency of your event, you may choose to promote it on social media for longer than two weeks. 

5. Email Campaigns

For most types of events, email campaigns will drive a substantial portion of your registrations. Coordinate your email content with the images or videos from your social media campaigns to help it feel cohesive. 

Incorporating video into your email campaigns can help improve campaign performance. To help increase click-through rates, you can use an email embed code to easily add the poster frame for your sizzle reel to your email campaign. Including an image with a video play button has been shown to improve click-through rates, and the word “video” can improve open rates.

Like your social media posts, the timing of the promotional emails depends on the nature of your event and how often you typically reach out to your audience. Still, you’ll likely want to start promoting your event at least two weeks out from when it kicks off.

Email Reminders

Be sure to build event reminder emails into your campaign planning to ensure registered viewers will show up when the time comes. Typically 24 hours prior to the event, and the day-of, these are crucial to driving attendance.

6. Paid Promotions

Online ads are one of the best ways to reach beyond your owned and earned audiences and find new targeted prospects for your event. From promoting posts on social media, to podcasts, or search and video ads, there are many options worth exploring. 

The right choice depends on your budget and your goals for attracting attendees. Larger events, like conferences or concerts, usually have significant ad budgets for online campaigns. To help weigh your options, consider the demographics of the users, and the popularity of each platform. 

Your ads should be designed to send traffic to your event landing page or event registration form. Be sure to add UTM parameters to your campaign URLs, and enable conversion tracking, if possible, to help evaluate campaign performance.

Suggested Timeline

Depending on your internal resources, the scale of your event and audience, this timeline could look really different. Still, the essential structure is likely to be fairly consistent even if the timing shifts.

Of course, not all live online events will require all of these components to be successful. It comes down to the nature of your event and your connection to your audience.

How far out do you start marketing your live streams? Any extra tips to share? Sound off in the comments below.

The post Your Live Stream Event Marketing Plan appeared first on SproutVideo.

The sale is definitely not closed when the buyer has parted with their cash; in fact, it’s only the beginning! In this blog, we share 11 exciting videos that will keep your company on your customers’ radar.

1. Like this? Then you’ll love that!

Retaining an existing customer is easier than finding a new customer and building a new relationship with them. One way of retaining customers who have already purchased is to tell them about the other products or services they could buy. Create a video showing them about the exciting features and helpful aspects of your other offerings.

2. How to use your new product better.

A post-sales marketing video lets your customer know that you still care. Share some tips on using the product to help them maximize the potential of their new purchase. A customer who is excited about their new gadget is more likely to evangelize to others, meaning more sales for you!

3. Speedy, efficient answers.

In the event that your customers need to contact you with an issue or a question, make it a positive experience. Create a series of detailed instructional videos to help them resolve problems. Your customer service team should be trained so that they are familiar with the content of each video. This way, they will know exactly what video to send to customers. Check out our tips for producing this type of video in 6 Types of Self-Service Videos that Drive Online Sales.

4. Happy holidays!

Although this video isn’t selling anything, you can still use product placement (if appropriate). It’s an opportunity to gently remind customers that you’re still there. A behind the scenes video showing a seasonal message from everyone in the team will makes your company appear friendly and approachable.

5. Crisis management.

Many businesses will have to deal with bad PR at some stage. It’s how you reach out to disgruntled customers or the media that makes the difference between a business that goes under and one that survives. A video featuring your CEO addressing the situation openly and honestly is the best way of reassuring your customers. Head over to our blog 23 Tips and Tricks for Projecting Your Best in Front of Camera to ensure your video is faultless.

6. Upgrades or add-ons you need.

A video up-selling the customer’s current purchase is an easy way to persuade them to spend more money. They already know how great your products are, so a video focusing on the clever features you have developed is a no-brainer. Or, try a customer testimonial where the speaker shares the details about the particular product or service you want to sell.

7. The way to someone’s heart? Through their stomach, of course!

If your organization is in the well-being, health, fitness, or food sector, then you need to get into the kitchen with your camera! The huge success of Buzzfeed’s Tasty food videos makes it clear that people love this type of video.

Our post Filming Food: What You Need to Know tells you everything from the video equipment you need, where to stand, lighting, and essential shots. Bon appetit!

8. Thank you video.

It never hurts to say ‘thank you’. Customers will not only love receiving a heartfelt video message from your organization, they’ll remember it.

Be inspired by our favorite corporate and charity thank you videos in The Ultimate Guide to Saying ‘Thank You’ in Your Videos.

9. Personalized video.

You’ve probably heard of personalized video being used by salespeople before making a sale. There’s no reason why it can’t also be used after a sale. In fact, it’s a great way of solidifying the B2B connection.

In this type of video, the salesperson or customer service rep records a short video following up on the sale, and introducing themselves as the main point of contact in case they have any questions.

10. Buy more!

If you’re selling a product that has parts which run out (for example, a coffee machine that uses paper coffee filters), video can help you sell more of the replacement parts.

Create a series of videos that you can send to customers at appropriate intervals reminding them to purchase more. A video that pitches itself as a helpful reminder will be more effective than a hard sell.

11. Press release.

Getting the word out about exciting new developments – whether it’s a new product, a change of direction, or even a new CEO – can be challenging. Getting the press to pick up your story often depends on who you know. Share your story using video, and you’ll get noticed by more news outlets. Be sure to read How to Charm Your Audience if you’re sending out a video-based press release soon.

Take post-sales marketing seriously.

You’ve probably put a lot of time and effort into marketing your brand using video. We recommend making the post-sales video marketing process just as important as pre-sales. It means you build on existing customer relationships, recruit ambassadors who willingly share their experiences with others, and consolidate your brand as a leader in its sector.

Put together a post-sales team with expertise in customer service and marketing. Use our list as a springboard to put together a video campaign with an emphasis on an efficient, friendly, helpful customer experience.

Feeling inspired? Share your post-sales video marketing experience below or on Twitter!

The post 11 Post-Sales Marketing Videos Guaranteed to Increase Repeat Customers appeared first on SproutVideo.

SproutVideo now integrates with a total of ten different marketing platforms. Keep reading to learn about the new marketing integrations we’ve added, and how you can leverage them for your business.

New Marketing Integrations

We previously added support for Constant Contact, Mailchimp, Drip, Aweber, and Infusionsoft. To that list, we’ve just added Campaign Monitor, Act-On, Hubspot, Intercom, and Vertical Response.

All of the supported platforms work in a similar manner with SproutVideo’s lead capture tools. With an integration setup for your account, and email capture enabled for the video(s) of your choice, you can send leads directly to your email or marketing platform.

How to Setup an Integration

Enabling a marketing integration for your account couldn’t be easier. The process to set one up is the same for all supported platforms within your SproutVideo account.

If you don’t already have a SproutVideo account, you can open a free trial today (no credit card required) to test out different integrations.

Navigate to Account Settings, and select Email Integrations on the lefthand side of the screen.

There, pick your preferred platform, and click Connect.

You’ll be prompted to enter your credentials for that provider. Then, you’ll be redirected back to your SproutVideo account. You can finish configuring the integration by selecting a list, among other options.

Going forward, any video with email capture enabled will send leads straight to that list. No more exporting and importing!

Details on The New Integrations

Although the basis for all of these integrations is the same, each one is a little unique. Here are the details on the differences between them.

Act-On

Because of how their platform works, SproutVideo will create a list for you within your Act-On account. Then, when your email-gated videos generate leads, we’ll send them automatically to the list we created.

If you’d like to set up welcome emails or opt-in emails, you can do so within your Act-On account. This integration is great for growing your list.

Campaign Monitor

Once you’ve setup the first part of the integration, you simply need to select a list to which you’ll send your leads. All email-gated videos will now direct the leads they generate to this list.

Since you can pick a specific list, you could potentially create a custom workflow within Campaign Monitor for new subscribers added to your list.

Hubspot

The Hubspot integration is very straightforward because it happens on the backend. Lead generation magic happens when you enable the Lead Capture option within your SproutVideo account. 

First, whenever a viewer watches one of your email-gated videos, the title of the video as well as email and contact information, is added as a Contact in HubSpot as a timeline event. The record also includes how much of the video they watched in increments from 1% to 100%. You can click on the contact’s name to get a detailed view of all the videos they have watched. Using that information, you can create multiple campaigns segmented by different viewing behavior.

In addition, your SproutVideo video library is accessible in HubSpot. You can add emails, and landing pages, and choose which videos to sync. 

Check out our Knowledge Base to learn more about integrating SproutVideo and HubSpot. If you’re looking for tips on using video as a conversion tool, check out these five ways to leverage video and HubSpot to generate demand and leads.

Intercom

The Intercom integration is similar to Hubspot because we are able to handle a lot of it on the backend. Every time a video generates a new lead, we pass it to Intercom as a contact. Then, we’ll automatically register any viewing activity as events in Intercom.

You can use those events to run targeted marketing campaigns. For example, if someone watches a product video, you could use that event to trigger an email with a special offer.

Vertical Response

With the Vertical Response integration enabled for your account, we automatically create a new contact every time a video generates a lead. You can also pick the list within Vertical Response to which you’d like to direct leads.

Once the integration is setup, you can start growing your list with your videos.

Are you using a marketing integration with your SproutVideo account? Curious how you might be able to use one? Ask away in the comments below!

The post Update: Marketing Integrations Galore appeared first on SproutVideo.

In this blog, we look at the different stages of the sales funnel and share tips for making videos that will move the viewers along it at each stage.

The sales funnel – A quick recap

Before we look at how video can help turn your followers into buyers, it’s useful to set out the various stages of the sales funnel:

• Awareness phase – prospects become aware of the product
• Interest phase – prospects inform themselves about the product
• Evaluation phase – prospects look at what else is out there that might meet their needs
• Decision phase – prospects make a decision and start negotiating
• Purchase phase – prospects pay for product
• Re-evaluation phase – customer decides whether or not to repurchase, or in the case of a contract, to continue paying for service as the contract comes to an end
• Repurchase phase – customer pays for the product or service again

In this blog, we’re going to focus on five of the phases: awareness right through to decision, then skip ahead to re-evaluation.

“I’ve never heard of that product!” – The awareness phase

This is when you have to work hard to get viewers’ attention. With so many other new products on the market – each shouting about how great they are – you’ve got to pull out all the stops to gain their initial interest. What would make them stop and pay attention?

At this stage, it’s all about the big picture – forget about the detail. Your video needs to catch viewers’ attention and hold it.

The type of videos that will be most successful at ticking these boxes will be entertaining, shareable and engaging. In other words, videos that are fun and memorable – the essence of the viral video.

If you take a look at videos that went viral last year – check out Adweek’s The 20 Most Viral Ads of 2016 –  you’ll get some great ideas for videos that are not just attention-grabbing, but also evocative. Our post Viral Video Marketing – Who and Target and How will give you lots of practical pointers on creating shareable video.

“I’m intrigued, tell me more!” – The interest phase

Now that your audience is aware of your brand, the next step is to create a video that shares more information about the product or service you’re offering. Think explainer video, but with added share-ability. The aim of the video is to tell viewers about the amazing features that are available, and to engage with them on a deeper level.

Pinterest worked with breadnbeyond, a video production studio specialized in animated videos, to create an effective explainer video. It’s informative, but fun. Detailed, but not too long. It’s hard not to be charmed by this video and want to engage with the platform:

If you’re on a budget, no problem! Head over to our post How We Produced an Explainer Video for Under $4k.

A story about how someone has used your service and how it has changed their life is an effective type of video for this phase. It’s important to show that although the product is essential, it’s really the video’s protagonist who is the hero. The product is simply the mechanism that helps them reach their potential.

“What else is out there?” – The evaluation phase

Congratulations! By now, you’ve moved the viewer along to the stage where they recognize the benefits of your product and the difference it could make to them.

But, as every sensible customer knows, never buy the first thing you see. They will shop around, do some research, and make sure they buy the best product for their needs. The video you make at this stage should show them your brand’s offering is the simply best.

Research is imperative at this stage so you can be aware of what your competitors are doing. Evaluate their products and highlight where your product or service excels. Watch their videos and adopt an approach that ensures your video stands out.

With your video, you want to show that you’re different from your competitors: you understand customers’ needs better. 

“I think I’ve made up my mind” – Decision phase

By now, viewers have almost committed to your brand. The video you create at this stage will be a gentle nudge to finally persuade them to purchase.

The most effective video will likely be a customer testimonial. It will resolve any remaining doubts or questions they may have, and help bring them to their final decision.

A good customer testimonial video will be relatable and engaging. It will briefly tell the story of how the customer benefited from the product or service. Try working with a number of customers to maximize the types of stories you can share. Remember to include a clear, compelling call to action at the end, with links to the purchase page on your website.

For a twist on the customer testimonial, we love Intel’s Meet the Makers video. It’s an inspirational look at how real people use Intel products.

If you’re interested in learning more about making a video that humanizes the concepts behind your produce, you’ll love the interview with Maker and Wearable Marketing strategist at Intel, Emma Hitzke.

“Welcome back!”: The re-evaluation phase

By now, you will probably have your customer’s email address. In other words, video marketing gold. Most people check their emails several times a day, so what better way to connect with them?

Re-establish the relationship with your customer using a video in email. Share what’s new about your product or service. At the end, include a link that sends customers through to revamped pages on your site that highlight and discuss those recent changes in detail.

Or, if you haven’t made any major changes, try creating a video that addresses questions customers commonly ask you, or a personal thank you message just for them. You could also use your video email to share exclusive discounts for existing customers.

If you want more information on email marketing using video, check out our post How to Leverage Video in Your Email Marketing Strategy.

Conclusion

Content that moves viewers along the sales funnel will be hugely effective at helping you reach your end goal – more sales. Your videos should aim to acknowledge and address the questions that your audience is asking. By understanding what they’re thinking at key moments in the purchase process, you will be able to produce videos that communicate with them on a much deeper level.

Share your tips for using video to turn followers into buyers with the SproutVideo community on Twitter!

The post 5 Types of Video to Turn Your Followers into Buyers appeared first on SproutVideo.

When you’re back at the office you could send them an email, but that’s hardly going to set their world alight. Video mail, on the other hand, is a surefire way to get their attention, tell them more about your service, and take your business relationship to the next level.

In this post, we’re going to look at the most effective ways to use video to get your message across.

Creating your video messaging strategy

Welcome to the future, everyone! If it’s not possible to speak face to face to someone these days, we’ve got email, text, instant messaging, and voicemail (but does anyone really like voicemail?). And now, there’s video mail. 

The type of video you might include in an email campaign is different from video you might place on a homepage, in a blog post, or on a product page. It also requires a specific approach to get it right.

Importantly, email inbox providers do not support video playback in the inbox yet. If your campaign requires animation, use GIFs which are more broadly supported.

Since video playback is not supported in the inbox, your goal is to get email recipients to click through to a landing page containing your video. There, they can interact with your video, content, and calls-to-action, depending on the type of campaign you’re running.

How to set up a video e-blast strategy

1. Decide what you want to achieve with your video message campaign. It helps to be specific and focused. For example, you could go with lead generation, more website visitors, or more sales.
2. Brainstorm the most effective ways to achieve your objective. This is where you will think carefully about the type of video content that your recipients will respond positively to.
3. Shoot the video. If that sounds daunting, we recommend familiarizing yourself with the points in our post A Crash Course in Video Production Management.
4. Show the video to your colleagues, get feedback, then incorporate it.
5. Consider what you want viewers to do after watching your video. A customizable post-play screen can help drive traffic to a landing page, capture leads, allow the audience to download content, or even display special offers. If you want to learn more about post-play screens, there are lots of useful tips in our post Four Smart Ways to Use Customizable Post-Play Screens.
6. If you are aiming for lead generation, integrate with your email marketing platform of choice. SproutVideo makes email integration easy!
7. Use the email embed code we provide to place an attractive image in your email campaign that links to your video landing page.
8. We recommend aligning the copy in the email with your campaign, and staying focused on your goal. One email, one purpose is a good rule to stick to.
9. Hit the send button!
10. Measure engagement and use the results in your next video messaging e-blast. If you use a video platform like SproutVideo, it’s possible to tag and track every viewer, viewer location, device and IP address, total time watched, and average viewer engagement.

How to use video mail in your organization

Incorporating video messages in your marketing strategy is simple. If you feel that video is the best way to communicate, then go for it! Here are some suggestions to help you get started.

A word from the CEO

When it comes to communication, CEOs have a multitude of ways to talk to their staff. If you need to share important information with your team, video mail is an ideal choice. The personal touch is bound to resonate, and can help build a rapport, even with remote employees.

Perhaps you want to provide guidance on responding to media inquiries, or give your employees an explanation of the month’s financial results. Creating a video message will enable you to make your points concisely and memorably. Furthermore, the video can be watched whenever and wherever your employee wants.

For more information, check out these fifteen tips on leveraging video for internal communications.

How to’s

If you sell products or services, chances are that you regularly receive emails or phone calls from customers in need of crucial information. For instance, they might need to know how to assemble the stand for their Moses basket, or what to do if their device needs to reset. You’ve probably put together support documentation that you can quickly send out, but is that good enough?

It’s the little extras like a how-to video mail that make a business stand out and gain a reputation as one of the best. What’s more, you can use your video message to up-sell customers on additional features and services that they might find useful.

Organizations that sell a service typically need to update existing customers about new features. It’s certainly advisable to upload these videos to your website and share them on social media. But what about customers who don’t regularly check your site or don’t follow you on social media?

Use a video message to let them know about the great new features and how they will make a difference to the way they use your service.

Not sure how to get started? Here are ten tips on making a product video that doesn’t suck.

Customer testimonials

Fact: people respond to people. That’s why customer testimonials are so effective. When it comes to showing prospective clients the difference that your business can make for them, the account of a real customer is extremely persuasive.

A video mail featuring a satisfied customer is even more compelling than a traditional text-based message. Moreover, it will ensure it is authentic and relevant. Showing a customer using the product reassures prospective buyers that they’re getting a good deal. It also demonstrates to them that it meets their needs.

In order to create an effective customer testimonial video mail, we recommend holding a pre-shoot meeting with the customer. This will prepare them for what will happen. It will also ensure they are relaxed and behave naturally on camera.  For more tips on spreading the word about your service using video, check out our post 5 Tips for Awesome Customer Testimonials.

Video mail is yet another great marketing tool to enable businesses to reach out to customers. Once you have learned the basics, video messages will become an important element of your video marketing campaign strategy.

Questions about making killer video messages? Get in contact with the SproutVideo team below or on Twitter.

The post You’ve Got (Video) Mail appeared first on SproutVideo.

We now offer three different types of embed codes (responsive, email, and lightbox embeds), custom post-play screens on SproutVideo landing pages and video websites, and we changed how some of our most popular security features work to make them more flexible. We also gave the video detail page a serious facelift, and updated the appearance of the rest of the app as well.

Keep reading for all the details on what’s new!

New Embed Code Options!

SproutVideo now supports multiple types of embed codes, which will make your life a lot easier if you are using our platform to host your video content. We now support basic in-line embed codes, responsive embed codes, lightbox embed codes, and email campaign embed codes. For each type, we offer powerful customization options, and the ability to create presets or defaults to save you time when working with lots of content. Here are the details on all the new embed codes we now offer:

Basic In-line Embed Codes

These are the embed codes you know and love if you have ever used our platform. Our standard iframe embed codes allow you to quickly and easily publish a video on a webpage hosted by a third party like WordPress or Squarespace. Even our basic embed codes are heavily customizable, and allow you to change the player colors, show or hide controls, autoplay or loop your video, and display a custom post-play screen after the video concludes.

Responsive Embed Codes

This is a major change to our standard video embed codes: with the check of a box, you can now generate a responsive embed code! It’s now as simple as copy and paste to ensure that your videos will always be the right size for the screen on which they are being displayed.

LightBox Embed Codes

Even fancier than responsive embed codes are our new lightbox embed codes! These allow you to place an image representing your video on a webpage that, when clicked, launches a video player overlay on the page.

The video player that launches will autoplay by default, and both the image and the player overlay are responsive by default. The same awesome customizations for our regular and responsive embed codes are available for lightbox embed codes too, with the added bonus of being able to easily configure the size of the image and the player overlay.

Email Embed Codes

An email embed codes is a short snippet of code you can place into an email campaign in order to include an image linked to the landing page of your choice in that campaign. The image we automatically generate for you will have a play button on it, you can customize the size of the image, and it will be responsive by default. We also will capture the email address of your viewer when they click to view your video automatically, and track their viewing session in your video engagement metrics.

To generate an email embed code, it’s as easy as selecting your preferred marketing platform, making any necessary customizations, and copying and pasting the code to your email campaign.

Custom Post-Play Screens For All!

Previously, custom post-play screens were only available for embedded videos. Now, you can leverage this powerful marketing tool for videos on your SproutVideo website or landing pages as well. It’s as easy as checking a box to enable the post-play screen, configuring it as you’d like, and clicking the button to enable the post-play screen for your video site.

Changes to Privacy Settings

Allowed domains and allowed IP addresses are two of our most popular video security features for keeping your content secure. Allowed domains ensure your video embed codes only work on websites you specify, while IP address restriction prevents viewers not on approved connections from accessing your videos.

Prior to this feature launch, both these settings were account-wide (meaning they applied to all the videos in your account), but now, you can specify allowed domains and IP addresses on a per-video basis. Any video-specific settings will overwrite your account-level permissions for these two video security settings. This change greatly enhances the flexibility of these settings and how they can be used.

Changes to Download Permissions

Similar to allowed domains and IP addresses, download permissions can now be set for individual videos. Previously, download permissions applied to all videos in your SproutVideo hosting account. With these changes, you can now specify which videos can be downloaded, and which versions of those videos (HD, SD, or the source video file).

Any download permissions set for individual videos will overwrite account-wide settings. If you leave downloading disabled account-wide, you can now set downloading permissions for a handful of select videos, or vice versa.

We really hope you love these new features, and enjoy putting them to work! Don’t already have an account? Open a 14 day free trial account to test these new features out today.

If you have any feedback or questions, please let us know by contacting us or leaving a comment below.

The post Our Holiday Gift to You – Tons of New Features! appeared first on SproutVideo.

The phrase ‘content is king’ has gone undisputed for several years now, and for good reason. Inbound marketing and SEO strategies have been very successful for many companies. However, customers today expect marketing to be timely, personalized, and helpful. If you miss the mark, you might not get another shot to capture their attention.

Not surprisingly, many companies are choosing to automate their marketing campaigns to ensure they are on target with their messaging to consumers. To stand out from the competition, and engage their audience, many are also finding video to be a really important tool in their arsenal.

If you’re looking to engage more prospects and drive a higher ROI, keep reading to learn how to enhance your automated marketing campaigns with video.

What is Automated Marketing?

In its most basic form, automated marketing refers to a system that ensures timely actions are taken in response to specific behavior exhibited by a prospect or customer. It can be as simple as sending a follow up email after someone signs up for a service online. Or, it can be a sophisticated, multi-layered approach to nurture leads and move prospects through the different stages of a purchase decision.

Automated marketing offers many benefits compared to traditional, hands-on marketing. A major advantage is that when an automated campaign is setup correctly, fewer leads will fall through the cracks. Theoretically, that means more people will ultimately purchase your products.

It also takes tremendous time-pressure off of marketers. After the initial campaign creation, minor tweaks and revisions are all that is required to keep the marketing machine ticking along and building on past successes. Campaigns that are created on a one-off basis are also arguably more prone to human error when compared to a system that is designed, tested, and refined over time.

How Video Can Accelerate Automated Marketing Campaigns

Automated marketing campaigns can be used for many different aims. A popular approach is to target messaging to prospects as they move through different stages of your sales funnel. Typically, the stages are described as awareness, consideration, decision, and retention.

Brand Awareness

For content intended to increase brand awareness, light-hearted, shareable videos on social media are best. A video that your targeted prospect will enjoy and repost that they uncover on your Facebook page, for instance, would be perfect.

How does video accelerate this stage? It’s all about reach, and being present where your prospects are hanging out when they aren’t actively seeking something your company offers.

Social Media

Most people spend lots of time on social media every day. By designing video for different platforms, you can target your prospects on those platforms.

Social media giant Facebook recently made changes to their algorithm to increase the reach of video. And, Facebook is continuing to launch features that bring it into closer competition with YouTube, which will only increase its importance in terms of web-presence and reach for most companies. Further, content featured in Twitter’s new Moments is particularly eye-catching when it’s an autoplaying video in the feed. Across the board, video is playing an increasingly central role on social media.

For inspiration, companies doing a great job with brand awareness campaigns are GoPro and Home Depot’s YouTube channel.

The gamble with top-of-funnel marketing is that people will actually think of you when it’s time to shop for your products or services. Taking the Home Depot example, if their entertaining DIY videos instill enough confidence in their audience, the next time one of their viewers needs to buy a specialty tool of some sort, that person will likely think to go to the experts instead of another store.

Importantly, organic social reach often needs to be bolstered with paid social ads, and this is also true for video content. Platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have introduced new video ad formats with powerful targeting options in response to the growing demand for these formats from marketers looking to extend their reach.

Attracting More Inbound Traffic With Video

Especially with B2B products or services, the first direct contact with a potential customer might not end in a sale. The internet is full of window-shoppers, so providing content that will be helpful to those doing targeted research around products or services you offer is a great way to plant the seeds of brand affinity.

Including rich content, like video, on pages with information about products or services is a great way to improve on-page SEO to help attract organic search traffic to your site. Tools like SproutVideo’s video sitemaps will tell search engines where to locate and index that content, while visitors to the page are more likely to stick around longer, and visit more pages compared to those arriving on a site with no video.

All of those factors send positive signals back to search engines about the visitor experience on the page, as well as the relative value of your content compared to others, helping to move your site up in the rankings for relevant search terms.

Capture More Leads With Video

Once targeted traffic is arriving on your website and poking around for more information about your products and services, you now have opportunities for lead capture, and video can help with that as well.

Depending on the video, two great options are email-gating your content, or using post-play screens to capture leads or drive traffic to another landing page.

To determine which option might be best for your campaign, you always have to consider the context and positioning of your videos. If you are a professional services firm, and one of your marketing pages includes premium content, such as video interviews with industry thought-leaders, then email-gating might be a great option for some of those videos. People interested in your space are likely to be willing to exchange some personal contact information for some exclusive words of wisdom from an expert in a given domain.

That same approach, however, wouldn’t necessarily work for a product demo video. Say you sell B2B machinery, and the products you offer are large, expensive, and complex. A video is likely the best way to showcase the power and functionality of these tools, and you’ll want as many people to see that video as possible. For that reason, gating your content might not make that much sense.

In the B2B machinery case, a customized call-to-action at the end of the video would help continue the conversation with the prospect. You can display a signup form to capture their contact information, or link to another landing page with more resources or ways to contact your company.

Either way, when capturing contact information, be sure to tag the viewer with identifying information, such as the title of the video they watched, to help you improve the targeting of future campaigns you might send them. If you’re curious to test this out, SproutVideo’s integrations with Drip and Infusionsoft, two great marketing automation platforms, support viewer tagging.

For instance, if they watched a video about an upcoming conference, an email campaign with more information about the speakers, or a special offer on early bird tickets, would be very appropriate. If they were shopping for machinery, and filled out a contact form after watching a specific video, you can create a campaign to send more documentation or pricing information for that specific item.

The best part is that all of this can happen without any manual intervention beyond the initial setup.

We’ve barely scratched the surface of the many ways marketing automation campaigns can be used, and we’d love to hear your take on it. Have you implemented video in your automated marketing campaigns? Let us know in the comments below, or on Twitter!

The post How To Accelerate Your Automated Marketing Campaigns With Video appeared first on SproutVideo.

Since we are huge proponents of using video in email marketing, we analyzed the impact video had on one of our recent campaigns, and came up with some killer takeaways for other small businesses tackling the same challenges of subscriber engagement, open rates, and click-through rates. Keep reading to get the details.

Benchmarking

There is no shame in admitting that you can do a better job with something. In fact, that’s one of our biggest motivations: to continue to set new high watermarks for performance in all areas of our business, including marketing. As the saying goes, if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it, so let’s start with some base data for comparison.

Our email campaigns typically perform fairly well. Our overall open rate for campaigns is around 30%, and clicks per opens is between 7-8%.

Through experience, we’ve found that highly segmented lists and targeted messaging really drive campaign performance. It’s definitely a lot of work to produce all that content, but the bump in traffic is worth it.

That being said, we had yet to specifically analyze the impact video has on our campaigns, and were curious to see if it made any difference beyond our standard list segmentation. We always assumed it had a positive impact, but you know what they say about assuming things…

The Results

Adding video to our email campaigns absolutely made a big difference in performance. For example, we looked at a recent campaign that promoted the official release of our video website features, and were astonished at what we found. All credit to any improvements in the open rate have to go to the relative genius of the subject line, since nothing about it indicated that the email contained video, but that’s something we’ll test in future campaigns.

In terms of CTR, however, we saw an improvement of roughly 60% over our average – it went up to nearly 12% per open! And to think, we achieved that just by including the poster frame for our video in our email as the headline image, with a link to watch the video. Here’s what it looked like:

More than one person out of every ten who opened the email wound up on our website. We had anticipated a boost, but definitely underestimated it going into this analysis. If you want to see the video, you can watch it here.

Even better, that email campaign drove more than twice as many free trial signups than campaigns without video. Using our video engagement metrics, we can see that video in particular has an average engagement rate of 82%, meaning someone watching the video is likely to watch it almost to the end. Apparently, that video is pretty effective at convincing those curious about our video websites to test those features out for themselves.

It’s worth noting that this analysis isn’t totally scientific. The subject line happened to be a real winner, and the design of the email itself deserves some credit for the campaign performance too. In an ideal scenario, we would be working with data from classic A/B tests of campaigns with video compared to identical campaigns without video. That type of analysis would allow us to arrive at a much more definitive conclusion on the impact of video in email marketing. However, the results we achieved in our example above are still pretty exciting.

If you could boost the click-through rate of your video campaigns by as much as 60%, wouldn’t you want to do it all the time? If you’ve tested video in email marketing before, let us know how it went in the comments below.

The post What Happened When We Added Video to an Email Campaign appeared first on SproutVideo.