Text vs Video: Why Video Emails are Driving More Sales

It’s hard to argue against the impressive efficiency of email marketing. According to Campaignmonitor, the 4400% ROI speaks for itself. With the number of worldwide email users rapidly growing, the productivity of emails is increasing quickly. Depending on your industry, the open rate varies between 15.22% and 28.46% says  mailchimp.com

How can you take full advantage of such a powerful weapon for your promotional needs? By following the latest trends and digging deeper into the clients’ needs.

Text emails have been around for decades. However, their power is dwindling. Let’s look closer at why it’s time to replace text emails with something more efficient: video messages.

Blast from the Past: Why Text Emails Are Losing Their Touch 

Text emails have been around since 1971 when Ray Tomlinson developed a system to send messages from one computer to another. In 2.5 decades, thanks to Microsoft, the system evolved into what we are used to today.

Source:Guinessworldrecords.com

It was Tomlinson who decided to use the now-ubiquitous “@” symbol to separate the recipient’s name from their location – to indicate that the user was “at” some other host rather than being local. As much as the format of emailing has changed over the past 44 years, “user@host” remains the standard for email addresses that we all continue to use today. (source:guinessworldrecords.com)

Back then, text emails were the only option available to users for two reasons. The internet connection was extremely slow (compared to what we have today), and hardly any software existed to create high-quality images and videos.

Age-Old Struggle of Email Marketing 

Email marketing appeared in 1978 when Gary Thuerk sent a cold email to 400 users via Arpanet. The move resulted in $13 million worth of sales. It’s a crazy ROI, isn’t it? More than half a century passed since then. Hardly anyone managed to repeat the trick because the novelty was gone.

The world’s oldest spam was sent at 12:33 EDT on 3 May 1978 by Gary Thuerk (USA), then working for Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC, USA). It was sent to 397 email accounts on the ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) of the US Defense Dept., inviting them to a product demonstration of the DEC SYSTEM-2020, 2020T, 2060 and 2060T computers. ARPAnet is regarded as the predecessor to the internet. The original email still exists” source: Guinessworldrecords)

Cold emails are the most exploited form of sales emails today. Their desired effect heavily depends on their ability to impress.  

Impressing the recipient is becoming harder and harder by the hour. The old and good text emails are quickly losing their ability to shock, excite, and convert. This is especially true for cold emails, which must have the strongest effect on the potential client.

While content is still king, its wrapper is old and boring. Why are text emails losing their efficiency?

• Lack of empathy – while the text may be packed with style, excitement, and value, on the surface, it’s still lifeless. Unless readers put some extra work into it, the words don’t sound emotional in their heads
• No personalization – even though marketers work hard to add personalization to text emails, they still tend to sound somewhat generic.
• Time issues – even if an email grabs their full attention from the start, many people still aren’t ready to waste their precious time reading the text.
• Attention span – with an overwhelming number of emails cluttering their inboxes, recipients tend to skim over the message without seeing its value. Meanwhile, long emails end up in the trash folder faster than light.
• Spam filters – with spam filters becoming more and more powerful, salesy emails are taking a hit. Many high-quality text messages fall victim to automatic filtration.

Five features to sanitize your email :

The New Era is Here: Video Emails are Highly Efficient 

According to Brainshark’s research, simply putting the word “video” in the subject line works wonders. It increased the open rate by 19%, boosts the click-through rate by 65%, and decreases unsubscribe rates by 26%.

Impressive, isn’t it? Now imagine what the video itself can do for your conversion rates, especially considering that viewers retain 95% of the message when watching a video compared to 10% when reading it in the text according to Wordstream.

Videos are gaining popularity quickly. In 2019, according to Marketing charts, an average person watched 84 minutes of online videos. The number keeps rising. Meanwhile, according to HubSpot, 92% of marketers say that video is an integral part of their marketing strategy.  

Vidoes can also be a great weapon to use in place of signatures to quickly spell out relevant details and include a personalized thank you :

source: technsmith.com

Video emails do so well because they do no bank on scripts. They establish personal connection because they are authentic, raw and is as close to having a person in front of you talking to you. That is why brainstorming ideas work so well before you send out a video email to a prospect.  

According to BluLeadz “Companies noticed a 36.9% higher close rate when using personalized videos with email!”

Why You Should Choose Video Content for Your Cold Email Template

Statistics aside, let’s talk about several important reasons why video content can be a powerful weapon for your cold email strategy.

1. An impression of Physical Presence

When you record a personalized video message instead of typing it, you create an impression of physical presence. It closes the distance between you and the recipient and turns the email into an interaction, making the prospects feel special.

Psychologically, it’s harder for the person to say “no” to another person than to click the “delete” button. 

2. Efficient Personalization

People are always responsive to genuine communication. By incorporating personalized data tailored for the intended recipient into the video email, you can get your point across quicker and easier. 

When you are speaking (rather than writing) directly to clients, you are making them feel special and taking a better hold of their attention.

3. Quicker Engagement 

Since our brains process video information much faster than text, you can catch the clients’ attention quicker. Meanwhile, you can pack much more information in a short video that you can in a text email.

When recipients see a long email, they are likely to send it to the trash, or worse, spam folder immediately. If they see a video, the same people are highly likely to check it out before making the decision.

4. Simpler Descriptions

You must have heard a gazillion times that a picture is worth a thousand words. When it comes to email marketing, the old proverb takes on a new meaning.

If you start describing numerous benefits of your products, your text email will get boring once you get to the second sentence. Showing the same benefits in a video takes less time but makes a much better impression.

5. Trust Issue

A half a century worth of worldwide email marketing efforts did an excellent job making your target audience highly suspicious of any sales messages. No matter how many marketing tricks you employ, the trust issue remains on the agenda.

With a video, you can break the suspicion barriers by establishing a “face-to-face” contact with your audience and create a precious emotional connection.  Check here for video email best practices and tips

What are the benefits of video email?

Videos inside emails can improve prospect engagement and drive them to take action helping you build more connections and increased results. 

Businesses want  to highlight the key differentiators from their competitors in order to capture the prospects attention. With videos, they can show that they truly differentiating the way they project information – that exudes a human-to-human experience and the one that establishes trust. 

They can be a great aid when you want teach different audiences about your business. 

It is by far the best medium that commands attention and provides information in a format that will stick. 

How Salespeople can use video to qualify leads?

Measuring prospect engagement when using videos emails and also taking steps to make improvements to your sales videos is another biggest advantage. You can understand how long your vidoes are being viewed, how many times they are replayed using heat maps in your report. 

Using interactive elements such as forms, relevant CTAs can be a great way to disqualify junk leads from your sales funnel. 

With a very concentrated and intent driven audience it is easy to test a variety of content by further segmenting them based on their interest level. 

What should a sales video include?

• The sales video you create should tell a story in a way that your prospects can relate to their pain points. 
• Your sales video should aim to shine on the benefits that your prospect would gain if they choose to pick you. 
• Your sales video needn’t be expensive but expressive. 
• Showing authenticity and accommodating minor mistakes ( in terms of articulation or a dog barking behind) without editing it out. 
• Should always have a clear ask – be it a question or a cta or more information about your prospect. 

Integrating Videos into Your Cold Email Strategy 

Since the new age of email marketing is here, it’s time to consider taking full advantage of videos. These new and improved emails can create a novelty effect, build fruitful relationships, keep clients engaged, and boost your conversion rates tremendously.

By taking advantage of our Hippo Video platform, you can make your cold emails memorable and creative, turning them into efficient weapons for conquering your target audience.