Use Video to Best Effect in B2B Email Marketing Strategy

Video content effectively captures the audience’s attention, especially when used in B2B email marketing strategies. It also complements other content types to comprehensively convey the message.

This article discusses how videos elevate B2B email campaigns, as well as strategies on how to use them:

• Choosing the right type of video content.
• Crafting an engaging video thumbnail.
• Optimizing video for email compatibility.
• Balancing text and video content.
• Personalizing video content.

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Elevating B2B Email Marketing through Video

Video marketing is one of the emerging digital trends especially for B2B markets for the following reasons:

• Videos are highly engaging. They capture the audience’s attention more effectively than static content. In B2B industries, this content format helps explain complicated products and services, maintains viewer interest, and more accurately conveys essential information.
• They help tell compelling stories, humanize B2B brands, and promote trust and credibility. For example, they might feature the company’s origins, values, organizational culture, challenges, and achievements.
• Videos provide an excellent platform to demonstrate the products’ functionalities through tutorials, case studies, and live demonstrations.
• They complement mobile app development. More B2Bs consume content on mobile devices. Videos work because they are accessible, easy to understand, visually appealing and engaging, and well-supported by hardware and software.
• Videos increase your brand’s visibility. They are highly shareable on social media platforms, and the channels’ algorithms seem to prioritize them when displaying results.

The benefits of video content highlight the importance of incorporating them in B2B campaigns. However, video production and marketing are challenging. How do you effectively integrate it into email marketing?

Consider these tips:

     1. Choose the Right Type of Video Content

Aligning the video type to the audience significantly improves engagement and conversion. For example:

• Demonstrations showcase the product’s features, even live or in real time. They are specifically beneficial in explaining technical benefits because the audience easily absorbs the explanations.
• Testimonials feature satisfied customers discussing their positive experiences with your products or services. This builds trust and credibility.
• Explainers are animated or live-action videos that explain a product, service, or process. They are useful in introducing new features and simplifying technical concepts.
• Behind-the-scenes help your brand connect more deeply with the audience. It showcases your production process, introduces key team members, or provides insights into your company’s daily operations.
• Virtual webinars position your company as an industry authority. They also make excellent lead magnets. Record the sessions and offer them as free content in exchange for your leads’ names and email addresses.

Always provide value when incorporating videos into B2B emails. In addition, include a clear call to action (CTA) to guide recipients on the next steps after watching your content.

     2. Crafting an Engaging Video Thumbnail

An eye-catching thumbnail boosts video engagement. In email marketing, it increases click-through, open, and conversion rates.

Follow these tips for designing visually appealing video thumbnails for emails:

• Make the thumbnail clear and relevant to the video. Misleading images lead to disappointment and a negative user experience.
• Use high-resolution images to maintain a professional appearance. Blurry or pixelated thumbnails convey a lack of quality and attention to detail.
• Use bold and contrasting colors to make the thumbnail stand out. This helps catch the viewer’s eye despite the many emails in the mailbox.
• Incorporate clear and concise typography. Choose readable fonts and use bold large text to highlight essential elements.
• Maintain consistency with your brand colors, logos, and overall visual identity to reinforce your brand image.
• Avoid clutter. A clean and straightforward design often works best because subscribers quickly grasp the thumbnail’s point.

Create a thumbnail that attracts attention and accurately represents the content. Striking a balance between creativity and relevance improves the impact of B2B videos in emails.

     3. Optimize Videos for Email Compatibility

Embedding or linking videos in emails is a powerful way to engage your audience, but it also comes with several technical considerations.

These include the following:

• Know how email platforms present videos. HTML5 videos generally provide better quality, and they are easy to embed into emails. However, not all email clients support their playback. For broader compatibility, consider animated GIFs.
• Provide a fallback option in case the video fails to load properly. Either supply a preview or thumbnail image that links to the full video or insert a clickable text link pointing to the full video URL.
• Design your email to be responsive by adapting to different screen sizes and devices. Use media queries in your CSS to adjust the video size and layout based on the screen size.
• Test your emails across various clients (Outlook, Gmail, Apple Mail, etc.) to determine if the videos correctly display. Different clients have different levels of support for embedded videos.
• Choose widely supported video file formats such as MP4. Ensure that the content comes with proper codecs for maximum compatibility.
• Host the videos on YouTube or Vimeo and provide a link or a thumbnail instead of embedding the content directly into the emails. This improves deliverability and avoids potential issues with specific email clients.

Make your email videos count. Avoid potential technical issues by using these tips.

     4. Balance Text and Video Content

While videos are engaging and visually appealing, the text provides context, details, and accessibility. Balancing both content types allows you to leverage the strengths of each medium for optimal engagement.

Here are ways on how to use text to complement video content:

• Provide more information about the videos. Write a summary, highlight the content’s essential points, or add captions to the steps.
• Be descriptive. Some recipients access emails on devices with limited data plans, slower internet connections, or smaller screens. Clear, concise video descriptions help them understand the video’s primary points.
• Personalize the text. Address the recipient by name and provide context relevant to their business needs before directing them to the video content.
• Craft a persuasive CTA to guide your audience seamlessly from the email to the video content.
• Implement A/B testing to analyze the effectiveness of different combinations and placements of text and video.

Combining text and video makes B2B emails more accessible, practical, relevant, and engaging. They also widen your audience by reaching out to people with disabilities, poor internet connection, and low-quality mobile devices.

Summing Up

B2B email marketing heavily involves enticing your audiences to pay attention to your content. Incorporating videos into the plan opens up many possibilities for putting out appealing and relevant content, increasing the overall success of your campaigns.

Need a partner in creating visually attractive and effective email marketing strategies? Contact Digital Authority Partners (DAP) today to schedule a free consultation.