Black Friday is already around the corner, with millions of people already thinking about how they're going to shop this holiday season. If you want to make the most of the Black Friday shopping season, you need to start as early as possible with an effective email marketing strategy – and preferably, one that includes video.
So what steps can you take to improve your video email marketing strategy as we approach this massive shopping day?
The Potential of Black Friday Marketing
Adults in the United States spent more than $148.5 billion on Black Friday and Cyber Monday last year. There’s no question that this is one of the busiest shopping times of the year – which means it’s one of your best opportunities to increase sales and get an edge over your competition.
Most people go into Black Friday without a specific plan for what they want to purchase; instead, they wait for brands to guide them with sales, discounts, and persuasive messaging. If your deals and marketing strategies are superior to those of your competitors, you’ll see much better results.
Tips for Better Video Email Marketing This Black Friday
So what steps can you take to improve your Black Friday marketing results?
First, understand that video email marketing may be your best strategy. Email is fast, cost efficient, scalable, and flexible, making it one of the highest-ROI strategies available to digital marketers. You can make email even more powerful by incorporating more video, ultimately making your messages more immediately engaging and unique.
So how can you maximize results with this approach?
- Start planning early. Whatever your goals are this Black Friday shopping season, it's important to start planning as early as possible. Don't wait until late October to start figuring out how you want to advertise your best deals. If you can start at least two months in advance, you'll typically see better results. You'll have more time to think about your strategy, more time to send sneak peeks and early looks at your deals, and less pressure and stress to handle the execution of your strategy. If you've gotten a late start, don't fret; you can still see excellent results. You just might not see the full potential of your email marketing strategy.
- Embed your videos directly into the body of your emails. One of the best ways to boost the value of your Black Friday email marketing campaign is to embed videos directly into the body of your email. Research demonstrates that video is one of the most engaging forms of content available, so including video in your emails should instantly increase their value to your subscribers. Embedding them into the body of the email increases the likelihood that your subscribers will actually see the video. That's why Viewed exists; our tools make it easy to upload a video and embedded directly into the body of your marketing emails.
- Use quick cuts in your videos. User attention spans are down. That's not a good thing for content marketers, but you can still use this to your advantage. Keep your videos as short as possible and use quick cuts to make them more compelling. The people reading your email will be grateful that you're saving them time, and they'll be more likely to pay attention to your video throughout its duration.
- Use emojis in your subject lines. Emojis used to be seen as unprofessional, but in the realm of email marketing, they can be a massive asset. Emojis are much more concisely expressive than conventional written words, conveying a range of feelings with a single character. They also help your emails stand out from the competition, which is especially important if you anticipate your rivals stepping up their email marketing strategies this Black Friday shopping season.
- Keep it simple. For the most part, your video email marketing strategy should be simple. You'll want to spend effort making your video look professional and optimizing your emails for results, but you also don't want to overwhelm users with too many emails or too much content. Keep your videos focused and to the point, and don't spam your subscribers with emails unnecessarily.
- Automate what you can. If you want to reduce costs and improve consistency, automate everything you can in your video email marketing strategy. If you're utilizing a drip email campaign, this is especially important; automation will allow you to email users automatically in response to specific events (such as making a purchase) and at regular intervals to keep your brand top of mind. All this can happen without any manual intervention on your part.
- Include multiple calls to action (CTAs). People generally don't take action just because you sent them an interesting email. Instead, they need a specific prompt. That's why it's important to include multiple calls to action (CTAs) in your emails, increasing the likelihood that your users will visit your website, purchase a product, or visit your store.
- Emphasize FOMO. Black Friday is a critical opportunity for emphasizing fear of missing out (FOMO). People will be much more likely to participate in your sales and make purchases if they believe these are the lowest prices you're ever going to have, or if supplies are limited. Use creative copywriting to stoke FOMO and get your customers to act.
- Tease your offers. Early in the Black Friday marketing planning process, you may be reluctant to reveal your best deals – you may not even know what those deals are. That's perfectly fine. Now is a good opportunity to tease your offers and spark curiosity among your subscribers. Provide subtle hints about what’s coming next; if done successfully, your subscribers will look forward to every new email they receive from you this shopping season.
- Pay close attention to your analytics. Always keep a close eye on your email marketing analytics. How are your messages performing? Are users engaging with your content? This is another reason why it's important to start early; with more time, you'll be able to gather more data, and make more actionable changes to your strategy to see better bottom-line results.
Do you want to take your Black Friday video email marketing strategy to the next level? You need automatically playing, embedded videos in your messages. That’s why Viewed exists – we’re here to make it easy for you. Sign up for free today and get a 30-day trial of our suit of video email marketing tools!
