Video email software is an asset for sales and marketing professionals alike. Whether you are the CMO of a Fortune 500 company or a solopreneur that is just getting your business off the ground, you can be confident in the power of video email software. In fact, it can be one of your best tools to reach your goals and build much stronger relationships with your audience members, customers, and fans.
Having said this, one of the more frustrating things about video email software is choosing the best software for you. There are plenty of options out there and they all offer their pros and cons.
Chances are that you see the sheer value in including video in your emails. This can include everything from emails for specific sales, emails for broader business development, and sending emails to brand new leads. Including video in an email will build trust, help you develop stronger relationships with your audience members, and generate more sales.
In this post, I want to talk about how you can find the best video email software for you. While you may have some very specific wants and needs, you can follow the tips and tricks in this post to make a great decision.
Are you ready to jump into it? Let’s do it!
Table of Contents
Some Requirements in Video Email Platforms
An Alternative to Attaching Videos
Video Landing Pages
Compelling Recording Options
Easy Access
Activity Reporting
AI and New Technologies
Video Email Software and Recording
Follow A Structure
Crafting Your Emails
Getting Started on Your Journey
Some Requirements in Video Email Platforms
To kick off this discussion, I want to talk about some of the requirements that you should identify in video email platforms. I am assuming that you know what video email platforms are. Perhaps you have used several of them. Regardless, video email platforms are fantastic tools to help you create and send video emails wherever you’d like. While this is at the core of every video email platform, they are not all created alike.
I recommend that you keep these baseline recommendations in mind as you look at video email platforms. They can help you separate at least some of the video email platforms out there so that you can move forward and more closely consider several video email platforms.
An Alternative to Attaching Videos
This is one of the more important baseline requirements. The last thing that you want to do is find video email software that only lets you attach your videos to your emails. Why, you may ask?
Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that many email providers don’t like large attachments. Video files are inherently large, so there is a major risk that your attached video gets blocked or viewed as spam. This means that even if you have the best possible video email, your target recipients won’t be able to see it.
If this happens to you, it can be really disappointing. You may have made a sales or marketing video that could lead to countless numbers of sales. You may have put multiple hours into creating the video. The video may be stellar, but if your intended audience can’t see it, most (if not all) of your work will be for naught.
Consequently, I urge you not to attach your videos to your emails. By doing so, you are essentially shooting yourself in the foot.
So what should you do instead?
All of us at Dubb recommend that you leverage video landing pages and insert animated GIFs into the bodies of your emails. Don’t worry: it isn’t as complicated as you may think.
What will end up happening is that you will create your video and upload it to your video email software. From there, your video email software will automatically create a three second animated GIF of your video. This GIF is normally taken from the first three seconds of your video, but it can also be a three second clip from another part of your video. From there, you can simply copy and paste the GIF into the email and go from there.
So where does the GIF lead viewers? It takes them to video landing pages, which deserves a discussion of its own.
Video Landing Pages
If you are looking at video email software, I encourage you to pick an option that lets you have video landing pages.
Video landing pages, if you haven’t yet heard of them, are central hubs for each of your videos. You can think of them as dedicated homepages that are built to help you accomplish your sales or marketing goals.
Video landing pages are so great because they are so customizable. As a starting point, you can include things like your company logo, brand colors, and fonts on your video landing pages. But more than that, what they can have is your video prominently displayed in the middle and then several call to action buttons below the video.
This is the key feature of video landing pages. These call to action buttons help your viewers get from point A to point B. In other words, they are designed to help you move your viewers through your sales and marketing funnels. Compared to something like YouTube (which we will discuss later), video landing pages are specifically designed for salespeople and marketers.
So what types of call to action buttons can you include? There are many options, but some of our favorites are:
- Schedule a call: What you can do is embed your calendar on any (or all) of your video landing pages. From there, your viewers can watch your video and then schedule a time where they can speak with you (or a colleague) on the phone. This is a great way to educate brand new prospects about your product, service, and/or company.
- Complete a form: This is another top of funnel call to action that can help you learn much more about your prospects and viewers. Essentially, you can create a form asking for all types of information and offer some sort of lead magnet (like a free eBook) in exchange for completing the form. This call to action option can help you learn more about your audience so that you can better understand their wants and needs.
- Reply with video: The reply with video option is one of our favorite calls to action. Basically, this allows your viewer to respond to your video with a video of their own. This is an extremely easy way for your viewer to start a conversation with you. But beyond that, the reply with video option is a great way to gather video testimonials. Video testimonials generate social proof and you can use them to spread the word about your company.
- Visit a website: This is one of the more flexible call to action buttons. Here, you can direct your viewers to virtually any website. Because it is so versatile, this is a good call to action for virtually any viewer in your sales and marketing pipelines.
- Make a purchase: Finally, this is the one call to action button that we can all appreciate. You can program a button to direct your viewer to a purchase page. While this is obviously ideal for viewers who are lower in your sales and marketing funnels, it can be an option for any of your viewers and leads.
These are just some of the call to action options that you can leverage. Whichever you choose, it is critical to include at least some below your videos on your video landing pages. They will help you build stronger relationships with your leads and help you generate more sales.
All of this comes together extremely nicely. After creating your video, you can insert your animated GIF into an email. That animated GIF will then lead the recipient to a video landing page, where you can offer an experience that is both informative and engaging. Your call to action buttons naturally lead to better relationships with your viewers (and potentially more sales).
This offers an extremely optimized experience for your viewers and audience members. No matter where they are, they can watch your video on their device, click on the call to action buttons below your video, and develop a stronger relationship with your company. Pretty great, right?
Finally, one additional point here. You may prefer to host your sales and marketing videos on YouTube. If so, you’ll want to look for video email software that lets you import a video from YouTube, include it in the body of your email, and then direct it to a video landing page.
I would argue that video landing pages are more effective ways to host your sales and marketing videos. Instead of competing against countless numbers of other YouTube videos, you can keep your audience’s attention on your video. That said, even if you don’t want to use video landing pages for every single one of your videos, I’d still encourage you to look for this feature. Once you try it, I’m sure that you will see its power (and convince you to use even more video landing pages).
Compelling Recording Options
Next, I want to take a deeper dive into how you are actually creating your video content. Sure, distribution (especially through video landing pages) is extremely important. That said, video email software is in the business of sending videos.
One of the great things about videos is that they let you tell stories in so many different ways. As humans, we are naturally attracted to stories. Ever since we gathered around campfires thousands of years ago, we have been compelled by others sharing stories about virtually anything.
Video takes this to another level. Using the power of video, you can tell stories in so many different ways. No matter where you are, you can create a video that educates, informs, and inspires your audience members.
Because of this, when you are searching for video email software, you’ll want to make sure that you can record all different types of videos. For instance, you can record things like:
- Webcam videos: These are videos that you can easily record from your computer’s webcam. They are great options for when you want to record from your office or home. All you need to do is fire up your computer and start recording.
- Screen recording videos: Screen recording videos are a great way to show off a digital product or service. You can create all sorts of videos here, including walkthrough videos, tutorial videos, and more. Even better, using an annotation tool, you can underline, strikethrough, or highlight parts of the screen that you want to emphasize.
- Mobile phone videos: These are videos that you take with your smartphone. The beauty is that you can create compelling content wherever you are. Whether you are going to work or are at a business conference, you can use your video email software to record awesome videos.
You can create an infinite amount of videos using just these three formats. However you choose to proceed, I recommend that you select video email software that gives you the most possible flexibility. Ideally, you would be able to record in all three formats.
Easy Access
Once you are finished recording your video, you’re going to want to make sure that you can easily access those videos. The best video email software lets viewers find and watch their videos wherever they are. This can include email options like Gmail, Outlook, and more.
It may seem like a small thing, but it is actually really important. Using video email software that has a cloud library makes your life that much easier. If, for example, you are recording a video from your phone or computer, you should be able to access that video whenever (and wherever) you are sending an email.
For instance, if you become a Dubb user, you’ll be able to easily access your videos wherever you are. The magic comes from the Dubb Chrome extension. Once you do so, you will start to see a little Dubb icon in major email platforms like Gmail and Outlook. Upon clicking that icon, you’ll be able to quickly insert your video (or even create a separate video right away).
This is extremely convenient. Instead of having to click through many windows to find your video and insert it into your email, you can just complete the task in one fell swoop. Combined with the Dubb mobile app and the Dubb desktop app, you can make creating and releasing your videos that much easier.
Activity Reporting
Video emails are powerful in and of themselves. But having said this, they can become even more powerful if you know how they are performing.
It’s like a coach managing a sports team. If that coach isn’t looking at the performance of their team, it is going to be that much more difficult to improve. However, if that coach frequently looks at the statistics, they can make minor adjustments that will improve the team’s performance.
In the context of video emails, you will want your video email software to offer a wealth of data at your fingertips. This includes metrics like open rates, clickthrough rates, how much of the video your audience watched, and whether they clicked on any call to action buttons. Understanding these key metrics from a macro level can help you better create and deliver your video emails.
It gets better, however. Some video email software lets you get all of this data on an extremely granular level. For instance, using Dubb, you can pull up your activity tracking and see how individual viewers or prospects have interacted with your video emails. You can see whether they opened a certain email, whether they watched the video, how much of the video they watched, whether they clicked on any call to action buttons, and more.
This is extremely powerful. You don’t need to guess whether a specific viewer or prospect is engaging with your content. Instead, you can pull up your analytics on Dubb and actually see what is happening. From there, you can best decide how to engage with that particular prospect.
With this type of detailed activity reporting, you can pursue smart actions. If, for instance, your goal is to have them watch a video and you see that they haven’t, you can quickly send a follow up email. Remember that it can take some time for people to act. In fact, there may need to be six to 12 touchpoints before your prospect takes a certain action.
Ultimately, don’t get discouraged if you are looking at your metrics and not seeing the traction that you want. It may be as simple as making a slight change to your video content strategy and sending more follow up emails.
The bottom line? You want your video email software to include granular analytics so that you can keep experimenting. By actively experimenting and reviewing the data, you will be well on your way to reaching your video sales and marketing goals.
AI and New Technologies
Finally, let’s talk about the 800 pound gorilla in the room. You can’t go far without hearing much about AI and how it is going to revolutionize our lives. While the technology still has some ways to go, some video email software is already using it to make creators more efficient and productive.
For example, I think that one of the more natural applications of AI and video emails comes from scriptwriting. At Dubb, we have created an AI assistant called IRA that can help you easily create scripts (and other types of text) that you can use in your videos. Like any AI assistant, you don’t want to take the script as-is and use it in your videos.
You will definitely want to add your own style and voice to it. At the same time, an AI assistant like IRA can be a fantastic way to get started. It can help you generate ideas and distill ideas down into manageable chunks. AI assistants can make your content concise, captivating, and conversion-focused. There are already plenty of benefits and there will be plenty more in the future.
Therefore, I recommend that you search for video email software that lets you leverage AI. Whether that is in scriptwriting, script analysis, or something else, using AI in this way can speed up your workflows and help you create more compelling videos.
Video Email Software and Recording
We spent some time talking about features that you’ll want to identify when recording your video emails. All of these requirements are critical as you leverage the power of video sales and marketing.
To better illustrate this, I want to close up this post by sharing some best practices when you are recording videos with your video email software. Discussing this will not only help you record better videos, but will also show why all of the requirements discussed above are important.
Follow A Structure
Whenever you are creating video emails, you will want to make and follow a structure. Sure, you can pull out your smartphone and speak extemporaneously to the camera. Some great video emails were done this way. But with that said, I think it is more effective (and efficient) to do some planning.
Structuring and planning your videos ahead of time will make them more concise and actionable. You will know exactly what your objective is and how you are going to accomplish it. I recommend that you start with a hook in your videos. Basically, this is a simple question or statement that is used to grab your audience’s attention. The last thing you want is for your audience members to get distracted and not make it through the entirety of your video.
From there, you’ll want to add value to the meat of your video. Whether that means your video is fact-based, educational, or even entertaining, you want to meet—perhaps exceed—your audience’s expectations. Get inside their heads and deliver them the content that they want.
Then, from there, you will want to offer a call to action. To be clear, I mean a call to action in the video itself. You can then include call to action buttons below the video (and even point down to them as you are recording your video). To reiterate, calls to action are really important, so don’t forget this step.
Planning your content in this way will help you avoid some unforced errors. You will be focused on delivering value and moving your viewers through your sales and marketing funnels. No matter what your specific objective is, I recommend that you follow this structure.
Crafting Your Emails
Now, let’s talk about how you are actually going to craft your emails. Yes, the video itself is important, but you also want to ensure that your emails themselves are compelling. You may have the most interesting video, but if your audience member loses interest in the email, they will never get to the video.
Luckily, there are several things that you can do here.
For starters, use the word “video” in your subject line.
This may seem like an innocuous thing to do, yet it can be really effective. Studies have shown that using the word “video” in your email subject line can increase email open rates by 20%. There could be many reasons why, but the good news is we don’t need to know why. Because open rates can increase with this extremely easy method, I highly encourage you to include the word “video” whenever you are sending a video email.
From there, keep your email concise. Like your videos, you want to emphasize conciseness when you are writing your emails. Always reference the video below (here, it is the animated GIF that the reader will click).
Just think about it: the whole point of video is to replace text. Think about how many people watch YouTube videos versus reading blog posts. Today, TikTok videos and Instagram Reels are about 15 to 60 seconds. Our attention spans have decreased so we need to immediately capture our audience’s attention and respect their time.
It is the same with email. I encourage you to be brief with your copy and to frequently reference that there is a video below. It’s a great way to both preserve your audience’s time and tease the video that you created.
Then, make sure you are choosing a compelling thumbnail. This thumbnail is the three second animated GIF that we were talking about. Using a tool like Dubb, for instance, you can create a three second GIF that really entices your audience members.
If you want to include an image of your screen, for instance, make sure that there is something valuable on the screen. If the thumbnail includes an image of your face, don’t hesitate to move your hand, smile, make a gesture, give a thumbs up, or something else. The last thing that people want to see is a blank screen or sad face. Avoid these things and you will be in a much better position for your email recipients to click on the thumbnail and watch your video.
Finally, don’t hesitate to add personalization text above your thumbnail. Like including “video” in the subject line of your email, this is a quick and painless way to make your video emails more compelling. Using a tool like Dubb, you can easily include personalization text at scale.
Including personalization text in this way makes the context clear. It shows that the video is for them and only for them. That signal is powerful and it can make it much more likely that the recipient will actually open your email and watch your video.
Getting Started on Your Journey
Ultimately, I wish you the best of luck as you get started on your video email journey.
I believe that video is the future of content. By investing in video email software, you are definitely on the right path. As long as you stay concise, consistent, and value-focused, you will be well on your way to accomplishing your sales and marketing goals.
Finally, I encourage you to check out Dubb. Dubb is a video communications platform that can help you get the most out of your video email work. If you want to learn more about Dubb, click here. You can also click here to get a free 14-day trial of our premium plans.
No matter which video email software you choose, I wish you the best of luck!
Leave A Comment