Have you ever stopped to wonder how many work emails are sent or received by people around the world? DMR estimates that the average office worker gets over 121 emails every day! Depending on the industry that number can go much higher. That brings us to the obvious question- how do you stand out among the hundreds of emails your prospect receives every day? That’s right, with a video email signature!
What is a video email signature?
A video email signature is a powerful way to give your emails an extra level of personalization. This type of signature displays a thumbnail that, upon clicking, plays an embedded video. You can use this video email signature to inform your contacts about you, your company, or your work in a visually engaging way.
Continue reading the following blog post to learn everything you need to know about video email signatures.
What kind of videos can I include in my video email signature?
There are lots of great video options to embed in a video email signature. You should choose the one that highlights the most important thing that you want to showcase to your email recipients. Here are some of the ideas for video email signatures that you can include in your video signature:
1. Introductory video
Most professionals include a photo of themselves in their email signatures, but it is difficult to develop a connection with just a photo. A better idea would be to include a short and sweet introductory video in your email signature to build that human connection and trust with the recipients. This also helps you showcase all the important information that you want to highlight in just a couple of minutes.
2. Special promo video
Video email signatures are a great way to promote your new product or an upcoming special event. You can increase the hype about your upcoming product or event among all your email recipients just by embedding a special promotional video into the email signature. This is especially beneficial if your whole team embeds the promotional video into their email signatures.
3. Product tutorial video
Adding a product tutorial or demo in your email signatures can help your recipients learn how to use your product efficiently. It is also a great way to highlight the effectiveness of your product to new potential clients. It is an essential part of the video-powered sales process. If you include a product tutorial video in your email signature, it will save your recipients the time and effort of navigating to the same information on your website or other resources. Besides, highlighting the top features is the fastest way to grab attention.
4. Explainer video
With this type of video, you could include in your email signatures is an explainer video. These videos help your email recipient learn more about the product or service that you offer. Keep it to a few seconds so you can simply highlight the important features and tell your prospects precisely what they need to know about your business.
5. Testimonial Video
As B2B salespeople know quite well, customer testimonials can make all the difference in swaying a prospect’s mind in your favor. In fact, top sales performers always incorporate the best elements of customer anecdotes to persuade their leads. The most impactful way to convey these stories is to let the customers tell them themselves in the form of a short video.
Benefits of embedding video in email signatures
It is difficult for anyone to have a real human connection through a block of text. On the other hand, if they can see your face and learn more about you via video, they are probably more likely to develop that bond and conduct business with your company. Some of the benefits of embedding a video in email signatures are mentioned below:
1. Personalisation
With people receiving lots of emails on a daily basis, it is quite possible that they might get lost because of monotonous texts. This is why, with personalized videos, studies have found a 35 percent higher retention rate. Hence, it is recommended to personalize your emails using video signatures because it helps your email stand out from the rest of the crowd.
2. Boosting brand recognition
Did you know that about 62 percent of business owners and marketing specialists use their email signatures to promote their brands? Generally, professional employees include a company logo alongside their email signature to boost brand recognition. A more efficient way to boost brand recognition via email signatures would be to include a video signature that talks about your brand. It will enable the email recipients to hear about your brand rather than just look at the company logo.
3. Call to Action
A video email signature can also help you convert your email recipients into potential customers. You can do this by embedding a short product tutorial video or an explainer video in your email signature. Finally, you can add a link to the product page with a clear call to action. You need to make sure that your product video is short, concise, and not too pushy or salesy.
4. Promote special events
As explained earlier, you can also create a promotional video to promote an upcoming event in your professional circle. This event could be a new product launch, webinars, new campaigns, AMA sessions, etc. For this, you need to create a specific promotional video where you highlight all the major details about the event, such as time and venue, the chief guest, speakers, the purpose of the event, etc.
How to create a video email signature?
If you send a video email signature that is linked to a video on YouTube or other public platforms, there is a chance that your clients might get sidetracked by your competitors’ videos. Hence, you might have to create a landing page with your video. Furthermore, there is no way to track how many people clicked on your video email signature to get to the landing page.
To solve all these problems, you could use a video hosting platform like Hippo Video to record, save, host, and also track the videos’ overall performance. The steps for creating email signatures with Hippo Video are detailed below.
Step 1: Record a customized video
To record a video using Hippo Video, follow the following steps:
a. Login to Hippo Video using your registered email address.
b. Click on the “+Create” button and then select Camera Only.
c. If you have a lengthy video script, you can utilize the in-built teleprompter.
d. Click on the red circle to start recording your video, and click on the red square button when you are done recording.
Using Hippo Video, you can personalize the video by adding the name of the person, their designation, and the name of the company in the video. You can also add the company logo, a screenshot of the person’s LinkedIn profile, or the company website too.
Step 2: Create a video thumbnail
After you are done creating the video, you need to create a video thumbnail. With Hippo Video, all you have to do is click on the thumbnail option on the preview page to get it done in seconds.
Step 3: Include your video in your email signature
Below are the steps to follow to include your personalized video in your email signatures on some of the most popular email applications.
a. Adding Signature in Outlook
- Go to File > Options.
- Go to the Mail tab and click on Signatures.
- Click on the Insert Image icon to add your video thumbnail.
- Next, highlight the image and then click the Link option.
- Paste the video link/URL for your hosted video Hippo Video
- Click on OK to save your settings.
b. Adding Signature in Gmail
- Go to Settings > See all settings.
- In the general tab, you will find the Signature option.
- Click on the Insert Image icon and then select the video thumbnail.
- Then, highlight the image and then click on the Link option.
- Paste the video link/URL for your hosted video Hippo Video.
- Click on Save Changes to save your settings for the Gmail signature.
c. Adding Signature in Mail (Mac)
- Go to Preferences and click on the Signature tab.
- Copy and paste the video thumbnail.
- Then, click on the thumbnail image and click on the Edit option.
- Select Add Link option and paste the video URL or your hosted video Hippo Video.
Best tips to record a video signature for email?
Now you know how easy it is to create a video email signature. Below, we have also mentioned some of the best tips that will help you improve the quality of your video signature.
1. Short videos with a proper script
There are many studies that conclude that the longer the video, the shorter the engagement. Hence, it is recommended to use short videos for video email signatures. Different types of videos should have different recommended lengths.
2. High-quality video
Even if you create a video with the best content, people will probably stop watching it if the quality is not up to the mark. Therefore, it is recommended to use a high-quality video for email signatures. Make sure you check that the video has optimal lighting and sound quality as well.
3. Do not forget to add a link to the thumbnail
This is more of a reminder rather than a tip. Make sure you add the link to the thumbnail, or else it will be just a static picture on your email signature (oops).
Which industries can use a video email signature?
Video email signatures will be beneficial for you and your business, regardless of which industry you belong to. You just have to make sure that you have followed all the important steps and tips mentioned in this blog post. Here are some examples:
1. Real estate
As a realtor, you can put video signatures to good use by giving the prospect a crisp video highlighting a property they would like. You can also send the testimonial of a customer who is happy with their purchase.
2. Sales
If you want to connect with your prospects, a photo will no longer suffice. Personal intro videos are an opportunity to tell your story and build trust as a salesperson.
3. Insurance
Since insurance is all about 100% engagement, nudge your recipients by leaving them a video email signature that showcases a recent 5-star customer review, the latest company news, a PR release, or even a video that introduces you, the insurance agent, to the viewers.
Final thoughts!
Video email signatures are a great way to sign off on an email. It can be simply done by embedding a link to a hosted video in an image and then adding the image to your email signature. The video could be a self-introduction video, a promotional video, a demo video, etc. These best email signatures can be used by people from all kinds of domains, be it marketing, product development, creative, etc.
Hippo Video is an ‘all-in-one” interactive video messaging platform for GTM teams to replace traditional formats of business messaging with videos. You can create engaging and personalized video email signatures with Hippo Video.