Email Marketing Strategies: Video Increases Click-Through Rates
One of the best metrics to determine the success of your email campaigns is click-through rates. Click-through rates mean that your subscribers are interested in the content you're providing, and, ultimately, that they're interested in your company. It's a way to measure engagement, which is vitally important to the success of small business email marketing. One relatively easy way to increase click-through rates in your email marketing efforts and drive traffic to your website is to incorporate video into your marketing mix.
So Easy a Kid Can Do It
Microsoft released Windows 7 last year, and one of their commercials features a child making a slideshow from all the phrases on her dad's PC with the number 7. Both PCs and Macs usually come pre-loaded with a basic video editing program. One quick and easy way to make a video for your next email campaign is to take pictures of your business. Load them onto your computer and then open the pre-loaded video editing program. Follow the simple instructions the program provides and create your video slideshow. These programs also allow you to place a music bed in your video. Be careful when selecting music. Your favorite song by Kenny Chesney probably isn't a good choice because his music is copyrighted by his record company. Here's one website where you can download music without paying a royalty.
Now The Easy Part
So, you've created your video slideshow complete with music. Now what? You need to upload your video to the web, and it's super easy with YouTube. Go to YouTube and create an account. Again, simple steps that anyone can accomplish. Follow YouTube's steps to upload the video. Once the video is uploaded and processed, you can grab the code to link to the video. Now, go back to the email that you want to use with the video. Create a link to your video on YouTube and prepare to watch your click-through rates go through the roof!
Client Success
Farmers Citizens Bank, a community bank in Ohio, started using video in their email campaigns in October 2009. Their click-through rates increased 273% from their August 2009 email (73 unique clicks) to the October 2009 email (199 unique clicks). The bank's email campaign unique click-through rates increased another 118% from October 2009 (199 unique clicks) to January 2010 (234 unique clicks). Get the picture? Here's the video used in the January 2010 email, which Rock Solid Media produced for Farmers Citizens Bank.
Now, go forth and email!