Even without video, email marketing earns an average of $36 per $1 spent across industries. But add video? Click-through engagement triples. To leverage the power of both, we asked marketing experts and business owners to share their tips. 

Use this short guide to fuse the power of video and email for seamless delivery, higher click-throughs, and results you can scale.

The Do’s & Don’ts Of Embedding Video In Email

What Not To Do

Do not directly share a video file in an email. Most email clients do not support video playback within emails because of potential security risks (such as phishing scams) and slow email loading times due to large video files. 

“Many email clients don’t fully support embedded videos, which can lead to deliverability issues, slow load times, or playback failures. A well-designed thumbnail grabs attention and encourages recipients to click without risking technical hiccups.” 

Linn Atiyeh, CEO, Bemana

What To Do Instead

Share a thumbnail preview (whether static or animated) that links to your landing page or website. This approach allows you to insert a video into your email campaign while providing a superior user experience. 

“Instead of embedding the video directly, we used a thumbnail with a play button that linked to the video on our website. This not only preserved the design of the email but also funneled traffic to a landing page where users could take immediate action.” 

Alexsandr Borkin, Co-Founder, Coastline Gutter Pro

You can also create a branded experience, share videos securely, and track engagement insights by integrating a video host with your email marketing platform. 

3 Ways To Embed Video In Email Marketing Campaigns

Regardless of the method you use, the video thumbnail in your email will direct traffic to the landing page where your video resides.

1. Animated GIF Preview As Video Teaser

Brands that use animated GIFs in email often see a higher return on investment, jumping from $18 to $37 for every dollar spent. Furthermore, GIFs are supported across email clients (except for Outlook 2007-2019), making them a highly engaging way to catch viewer attention and entice click-through engagement. To use a GIF in your video email marketing: 

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. 

You can use SproutVideo to generate poster frames (animated and static), then download the thumbnail (JPG or GIF) alone or with a custom-colored play button overlay. 

2. Static Thumbnail with Playbutton Overlay 

Static images provide faster loading times and improve accessibility for some readers. Certain brands may also prefer the stark professionalism of static images. In general, it’s best practice to test and see which type of poster frame performs with your audience. 

The process for using a static image is the same as uploading a GIF. You can also overlay a play button on the thumbnail to distinguish it as a clickable video thumbnail. 

Learn More: How To Generate A Video Thumbnail With a Custom-Colored Play Button

3. Embed Code via Video Hosting Platform

Simplify the process with a custom email embed code. Skip creating a GIF or adding a play button overlay with external software. Instead, you can easily generate your static or animated poster frame, add a brand-colored play button (or hide it), and add your destination URL. Insert the generated embed code into the email and you’re done!

Additionally, using a custom embed code allows SproutVideo to track email contacts and display their viewing data in your engagement dashboard. 

How Experts Turn Video Views Into Profit

Tired of videos that feel like a rigged carnival game? Discover expert strategies for turning video into a growth engine across any industry.

Get Real Video Results—Just Press Play

Best Practices To Embed Video In Email

Now that you know how to execute video in email with flawless deliverability, let’s cover more expert-backed best practices to help you generate repeatable results.

1. Test Animated vs Static Video Thumbnails

“I use a short looping motion graphic (2-3 seconds) as the email thumbnail, paired with a play button overlay. It tricks the brain into thinking, “This is a video,” but technically, it’s just a lightweight GIF or APNG. When clicked, it leads to a landing page where the actual video plays–no rendering issues, no lag. I tested this animated poster frame against static thumbnails and saw a 21% lift in click-through rate” 

George Pettigrew, Creative Director, InboxArmy

Build curiosity and showcase the video’s value with a teaser thumbnail. “I always recommend choosing a clear, high-contrast image with a strong focal point–whether it’s a person, a product, or an eye-catching scene,” shared Yaniv Masjedi, Chief Marketing Officer for Nextiva. Choose the most engaging frames from your video for the thumbnail image, whether static or animated.  

2. Optimize For Mobile

“One critical factor is to ensure that your email design and embedded video are responsive, meaning they are mobile-friendly and customized for different devices for an enhanced experience.” 

Aaron Whittaker, VP of Demand Generation & Marketing, Thrive Digital Marketing Agency

Ensure your video thumbnail and email design scales across screen sizes. Known as responsive design, optimizing for mobile is crucial for replicating the same viewing experience, whether your audience views the email on a phone, tablet, or computer. 

An email embed code ensures your image scales properly because the HTML is responsive. When you add a static or animated thumbnail directly to your email builder, its responsiveness depends on your email template and platform.

Note: Email embed codes generated through SproutVideo are responsive by default. 

3. Use A Video Host For Smooth Playback 

“Use a video hosting site such as YouTube, Vimeo, or SproutVideo—some email clients do not support embedded video files or may experience deliverability issues. These platforms track viewer behaviors, too; therefore, they provide video performance data in addition to ensuring smooth playback.” 

Tristan Harris, Sr. VP of Marketing, Next Net Media

A video host allows you to provide a fast, buffer-free viewing experience, gain in-depth engagement data, and easily protect your intellectual property.

While your email marketing platform provides data on email open rates and click-through, a video hosting service can tell you the percentage of people who pressed play on the video, how much of the video they watched, and much more. It also allows you to protect the video content you share. 

Learn More: 7 Reasons Businesses Use Private Video Hosting Platforms vs YouTube

4. Add Play Button Overlay To Encourage Clicks

“Adding a play button overlay to the thumbnail is a strategy that worked. With the play button overlay, the video thumbnail looked like a directly embedded video, even though it linked to our site. That small change increased video clicks by 31.2%” 

Daniel Roberts, Chief Executive Officer, Lava Roofing

Focus your audience’s attention on clicking through to the video with a play button overlay. The play button is an additional cue to your audience that the image is a clickable video thumbnail rather than just a static or animated image within the email.  

Using the SproutVideo platform, you can easily add a play button with your custom brand color. You can download the thumbnail (JPG or GIF) with the custom play button overlay, or grab your custom email embed code to simplify the process. 

5. Refine Strategy with Performance Tracking

“Track performance. Click-through rates, engagement, and conversion data will tell you if your video works. If people aren’t clicking, tweak your thumbnail, subject line, or CTA. Testing different formats can help you refine what resonates most with your audience. Video can bring your emails to life, but it has to be seamless, engaging, and actionable.” 

Josh Bluman, Co-Founder, Hoppy Copy

Use the combined power of your email marketing analytics and video engagement insights to determine what’s working and where you can improve.

For example, you can integrate your email marketing platform with SproutVideo to see what email contacts watched your video and for how long. Then, you can use this data to determine the most engaging video lengths, find your warmest leads, and segment your list to personalize their experience. 

6. Include “Video” In The Subject Line

“Seeing “Video” in the subject line sets an email apart and suggests a more dynamic experience, making recipients more likely to click. We tested this with one of our email campaigns. When the subject line included “Video: How to Handle Electrical Emergencies,” the open rate jumped by 22% compared to previous emails on the same topic. This increased engagement and led to a 15% rise in service inquiries that month.” 

Daniel Vasilevski, Director & Owner, Bright Force Electrical

Experts across the board agree that including “video” in the subject line of emails with video helps to boost open rates. This makes sense! After all, 78% of consumers prefer to learn about a product or service through short videos over ebooks, text-based articles, and sales calls. 

7. Don’t Overlook Accessibility 

“Add alt text to the thumbnail for screen readers and include captions or transcripts for the actual video. Test your email across multiple devices and clients to confirm the thumbnail or GIF displays properly. This approach boosts click-through rates without risking broken elements or huge load times in the inbox.” 

Salman Saleem, Marketing Strategist, Rapyd Cloud

Accessibility goes hand-in-hand with frictionless deliverability and a seamless user experience. Salman Saleem, Marketing Strategist for Rapyd Cloud, provides a great checklist:

• Add image alt text: Ensure your thumbnail message is conveyed in every scenario.
• Include captions in your video: Allow viewers to watch the video without sound.
• Test email across devices and clients: Use a tool for email client testing. 

It’s generally recommended that you test your email before each campaign—or, at minimum, after updating the design or making significant changes to your template. 

8. Experiment With Video Placement

“When the video was placed at the top, we saw a 12% increase in click-through rates. But when we placed a short introduction first and then the video, engagement went up by 18%. That small shift gave people context before they watched, making them more likely to take action. The way people interact with content varies, so testing placement helps fine-tune the experience.” 

Ann Monis, CEO & Co-Founder, Medical Anti-Aging

Video placement is important to optimizing click-through engagement. Most experts recommended placing your video at the top of your email, but every audience and business differs. Run your tests to figure out what performs best. 

9. Include A Call To Action

“We ditched the generic “Watch Now” CTA; instead, we tried “See How We Dialed In This Brew” to tie it to our story—our open rates jumped 15% when we got specific.” 

Wes Wakefield, Founder & CEO, Pro Coffee Gear

Don’t assume readers know the next step they should take. Choose a CTA that makes it clear why they’re clicking through to your video. Additionally, consider experimenting with plain text hyperlinks versus buttons to see what your audience gravitates toward. 

Storytelling Is King In Video Email Marketing

“Email marketing is a tough game, and video makes it even trickier. The biggest mistake? Forcing a “watch now” moment. Customers rarely click just because a video is there. They click because the email makes them want to see more. The trick is writing the email as if the video doesn’t exist. If the copy can’t sell the idea on its own, the video won’t save it.” 

Jay Soni, Founder and Director of Sales and Marketing, Yorkshire Fabric Shop

It may be tempting to rely solely on your video content when adding it to emails. But every element—from the subject line and video to design and copy—should work in concert toward your business goals.

Video is a highly effective tool in email marketing. However, sparking curiosity and providing actionable value are required for repeatable results. Continue learning with our other resources on video marketing:

• Video Marketing for Real Estate: Ideas from a 30-Year Industry Veteran
• 10 High-Impact Ways to Repurpose Video Content
• 7 Reasons Businesses Use Private Video Hosting Platforms vs YouTube

The post How To Embed Video In Email: Expert-Backed Best Practices 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.