4 Ways Video Makes Email Marketing More Profitable

Email marketing is a key function to any serious online business.  An email marketing list is one of the top 3 assets of any online business.  However, the inbox is a crowded place as more marketers tap into this “free” marketing medium.  Getting in the inbox is important, next is getting the email opened, and then taking the action (click) that leads to profits for your business. Since email marketing has strong ROI potential, it is something marketers should always be testing and improving.

4 Ways Video Makes Email Marketing More Profitable

This post discusses the various places to incorporate video on the front end of your email marketing to increase delivery rates and profits.

1 – Make a Clear Offer

What: On your lead capture page, use video to inform the web visitor what it is they get, and how their life will be better as a result of being a subscriber to your site.

Why: The last thing that people need is more email, what they want to hear is the value they will experience as a result of being a part of your crowd.

Example: FollowupAdvisor.com is a lead capture page, for another site I manage.  It has a video giving a clear understanding of what they get as a result of signing up (special report), and that they will save a ton of time doing research if they read the report and the product matrix it contains.

2 – Double Opt-in – Confirmation

What is it? Process by which a web visitor confirms their signup by clicking a link that was sent to their email inbox after filling in a web form.

Why? Delivery.  Security.  Recipients indicating that they really want a marketers email. Marketers more likely have real people in their list, not bots that are opting in to harvest email addresses of marketers. Protects email address holders from having their address used maliciously.

It has been debated whether or not to use opt-in confirmation or not.  The naysayers have been loosing ground as email delivery rates continue to plummet.  In most cases it makes sense to require confirmation. Not only does this increase delivery rates and reduce spam for marketers and recipients alike (see here), but many email service providers are now requiring it.

3 – Thank You Page Video

What: This is the first page subscribers see after submitting an opt-in web form.
Why: This becomes more important when requiring confirmation.  In my experience, only 60% complete the confirmation process, the thank you video becomes essential to communicate what the subscriber should do next to complete the sign-up process.

Example: At MarketingProfessor.com, the thank you page video demonstrates completing the confirmation process by talking subscriber through my Gmail account and clicking the link.

4 – Confirmation Page Video

What: When a subscriber clicks the opt-in confirmation link found in their email they end up on a confirmation page.
Why: This is often overlooked, but important to provide a consistent experience, especially if they are getting a newsletter, or regular content from you in their inbox.  This is a great opportunity to congratulate them, encourage them to check their email for the promised information, as well as remind them what they signed up for, setting expectations (again) and giving intrigue as to what they’ll get next, and when they can expect to hear from you.

All of This is Useless

Email marketing strategy is essential for any online business.  However, unless you do something, at least part of what is presented here, you will continue to experience the same delivery rates and profits with your email marketing.  Consider implementing these ideas incrementally over a couple weeks. It will give you more traction with your market while benefiting your bottom-line.

Testing is key. Your results will vary based on the market and approach, so consider testing various elements of your opt-in process for optimization.

Thoughts, additions, questions, feedback on this post? Be heard in the comment boxes below.
Image Credit: picadillywilson