Email marketing is alive and well even in the age of social media and texting—you can probably tell that email marketing is still significant from your own inbox. And yet email marketing only works if you make it compelling and effective, since your audience gets a huge number of such emails and can only afford the time to open a few of them. This is yet another place where video can be helpful to you.
Tactics for email marketing subject lines include video
According to Constant Contact, 47% of consumers say that subject lines determine whether they open an email. The only factor that’s more important is who the message is from. Subject lines act sort of like a book’s spine—the itty piece of your email marketing that sticks out, seeking attention. Or like bait for a fish.
So how do you create great subject lines? Some quick tips include:
As reported by Future Fundraising Now, use first person pronouns (my) instead of second person pronouns (your). It might sound a little strange to refer to your reader in the first person, but the results in one study were quite dramatic.
Keep it short–5-8 words or less than 50 characters.
Articulate the immediate reasons for opening an email.
Keep it simple–don’t sell what’s inside, tell what’s inside.
On that final point, a tasty bit of bait you can have for your hook is the promise of a video inside.
Video can improve your email marketing subject lines
Along with ReelSEO, an authoritative blog for online video, Experian Marketing Services predicts that as much as 50% of email traffic may contain video by 2014. This makes sense because of the results it is producing in the email channel—starting with subject lines.
In fact, Experian Marketing Services reported in 2012 that referencing a video in your subject line boosts open rates 7-13%. Adestra also reported a boost to open rates from the word “video.” Video in your email marketing drives a 21% higher conversion rate, too!
The same Adestra study saw a boost from the word “interview,” so consider an email that includes a “video interview” for added subject line benefit.
See the table below for some good and bad options in word choices for email subject lines, also according to Adestra.
Some terms that will boost your open rates
Some terms that can lower your open rates
first names, “thousands,” or “millions”
“video” and “exclusive”
“newsletter,” “research”, “report,” “forecast,” and “intelligence”
“give”
“appeal” and “donate”
“profit,” “revenue,” “turnover,” and “referral”
“B2B”
“sale,” “% off,” and “new”
“coupon,” “half price,” “free”
It’s no surprise, of course, that video would improve email marketing—it’s so clear that people really love to watch video.
What techniques do you use to improve your email marketing campaigns? Let us know in the comments!
Comment Contest Winner
And the winner of a free YouTube Channel evaluation and improvement consultation from our March comment contest is….
Shira Oler, Director of Gift Planning, of JSSA (Jewish Social Service Agency). We look forward to meeting with her and her staff in May and helping JSSA with its growing YouTube presence! Please keep commenting on what interests you.
If MiniMatters can help you with business video, fundraising video, association video, or other video production needs, we’d love to provide an estimate through our online form, talk with you at 301-339-0339, or communicate via email at [email protected]. We serve associations, foundations, nonprofits, and businesses primarily in Washington, DC, Maryland, and northern Virginia.
Along with ReelSEO, an authoritative blog for online video, Experian Marketing Services predicts that as much as 50% of email traffic may contain video by 2014. This makes sense because of the results it is producing in the email channel—starting with subject lines.
In fact, Experian Marketing Services reported in 2012 that referencing a video in your subject line boosts open rates 7-13%. Adestra also reported a boost to open rates from the word “video.” Video in your email marketing drives a 21% higher conversion rate, too!
The same Adestra study saw a boost from the word “interview,” so consider an email that includes a “video interview” for added subject line benefit.
See the table below for some good and bad options in word choices for email subject lines, also according to Adestra.
