Videos in Email result in 20% more opens - Netiquette for email video

In maintaining a blog for Netiquette email and in writing a book on email etiquette, I am always trying to assist my readers, whether they are job seekers, email marketers, students or business professionals, with bringing their email skills to higher levels. One story which recently captured my attention is the one below. If one item can result in 20% more email opens while maintaining good Netiquette it is worth noting. Read on and good Netiquette to all!


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Jason Moore AWeber 2/5/2013

Video In Email: Exposure For Something And Clicks For Free

(Please tell me someone got the Dire Straits joke from the title. But, on to more pressing matters…)

Video in email has gotten more and more popular. Just a few years ago, a survey showed that video increased click-through rates by 96% in some cases. VideoRetailer found that including the word ‘video’ in your subject line increased opens by 20% over subject lines without that word.

One of our own customers, Tim Carter (from AskTheBuilder.com), uses video in email to grow his list. Using direct calls-to-action for people to sign up to his newsletter in his videos, Tim saw a 38% growth in his list.

As you can see, video can have a positive effect on subscriber activity in your emails. But how do you go about creating a video, much less getting one in your email? Well, when creating your video – then getting it in your email – you want to consider the following:

What Should My Video Be About?

Subject matter is important, but is actually quite easy to come up with. What do you talk about on your blog? That could be video right there. Everyone has something to say about their business, and here are some quick topic ideas for your next video:

A brief description of your business

• A demonstration of your product
• A testimonial from a client/customer

How Long Should My Video Be?

From personal experience, 1- to 2-minute videos work best. You may record more, but during the editing process you’ll pair it down significantly. Speaking of creating and editing a video…

How Hard Is It To Make A Video?

Have a computer? Then the hardest part of making a video is over.

Other than that, a microphone (if you don’t have one already built in to your computer) would be handy (here’s a good mic that is easily affordable) and some recording software.

 While there is free software out there, I’d recommend investing in one of these programs for better quality — the program you choose just depends on the computer you use:

Screenflow for Mac

Camtasia for PC

Both programs run about $100. These will give you the options to not only to record desktop audio/video, but also some light editing features like cutting, splicing or adding text and call-outs.

Getting Your Video In Your Email

So, should you embed the video directly into your email? You could, but it may not be the best idea.

Why? Certain tools that allow you to embed video directly can cause your email to be blocked by some ISPs, or cause the video to not play correctly in someone’s inbox. Don’t risk that. Linking your video to an image is better a better option.
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 About Netiquette IQ:

My book, "Netiquette IQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email" and the Kindle version are now available on Amazon. Please visit my profile at:

 www.amazon.com/author/paulbabicki

My other sites of Netiquette resources include:

www.netiquetteiq.com - website

www.blogtalkradio.com/netiquetteiq - radio show
 

www.tabularosa.net Internet products and services website.

 Paul Babicki and Frank Kovacs are co-authoring a new book on Netiquette IQ for jobseekers, recruiters and employers (no official title as yet!). This book is a follow up to Paul’s current release. This book will be a part of the forthcoming Netiquette IQ compendium featuring a series of books on specific areas of Netiquette; education, sales, social media, etc. We would desire and encourage feedback from anyone who would like to contribute their thought ideas, even a segment to include in the book.

We wish to have the book to cover as many pertinent topics as possible for the job seeker, recruiter and employer. There will be an acknowledgement page in the book listing those whose ideas or suggestions are used. The persons with the five top ideas will be sent a complimentary signed copy of my current book and a copy of the new one. Comments will be closed on 1/31/2014. Kindly submit your suggestion(s) to my blog post of 12/26/2013 in the comment field.