“Back to school” sales can be a great opportunity to increase your revenue and build brand visibility and familiarity. But you’ll need to plan proactively and put together an effective strategy if you want to maximize your results.
One of the best tools for the job is embedded video in email marketing – but how exactly do you use this strategy and why is it so effective for back to school sales?
Why Embedded Video for “Back to School” Marketing?
Embedded videos in email are excellent for back to school marketing, for several reasons. First and foremost, you get to capitalize on the power of email marketing, which remains one of the most cost-effective strategies in the modern marketing world.
You'll also get to capitalize on these benefits:
- Brand differentiation. How many marketing emails do you receive on a regular basis? How many of those emails have embedded videos that automatically play when you open the emails? If you're like most consumers, you're practically drowning in written emails that all seem the same. Finding an email with an embedded video that automatically plays would stand out in your memory. That's one reason why embedded videos are powerful; they serve as a way to differentiate your brand.
- User attention and information processing. People are much more likely to pay attention to a video than to read the body content of a written email. There are several reasons for this, including the fact that video is much easier and faster to process. With embedded videos, you will get much more user attention and they'll retain more of the information you present to them. In turn, this can lead to higher rates of traffic and higher conversion rates.
- Personalization potential. Personalization is huge for appealing to new audiences. You can take simple steps to personalize your email content, such as including your recipient’s name as a greeting, but if you want to stand out in the modern age, you'll need to take things a step further. With embedded video in email, you can use a simple CSV file to personalize the videos you send out in a number of different ways, completely changing the content of the video according to the information you provide.
- Automation potential. Embedded videos have the potential to be automated as well, saving you time and money. Once this strategy is streamlined, it will start generating new revenue for you consistently without costing you much on the back end.
- Ease of embedding. Viewed.video makes it easy to embed video. Many people are skeptical of the benefits of embedded video and email because they imagine it to be a difficult, stressful, and time consuming process to create and embed videos. But thanks to modern tools, it only takes a few minutes and no real technical knowledge.
- Tracking and analytics. Embedding videos in emails also gives you access to better tracking and analytics. At the end of your back to school marketing campaign, you can take a look at which videos performed best, which ones performed worst, and which angles will lead you to more success in future iterations of your campaign.
Get Familiar With Top Purchases
Before you start your back to school marketing campaign, you should become familiar with some of the top purchases for this time of year. Some of the top products during back to school season in 2021 were footwear, basic school supplies (like notebooks and pencils), and non-footwear apparel. You can then use this information to personalize the products you offer to your email recipients – and the products you keep above the fold on your website.
Pay Attention to Recent Trends
Young children are more likely to pay attention to the latest trends and adhere to them. That's why it's in your best interest to feel the pulse of the modern zeitgeist and showcase some of these trends to your target audience. Trends can change quickly, and it's hard to predict what's coming next, but the faster you are in the more current your trend promotion is, the more of an edge you'll have over your competition.
Get Kids Involved
When possible, get kids involved in your marketing. That could mean utilizing more children in your photos and videos, or simply talking to children to find out more about their interests, views, and perspectives. If you want to successfully market to children and the parents of children, you need to understand how children today think and act.
Use Giveaways to Generate Buzz
An easy way to generate buzz is to sponsor some giveaways. Encourage people to sign up for your email newsletter by requesting their email addresses in exchange for entry into a drawing for a significant prize – or give out hundreds of inexpensive products in a mass giveaway on social media. It's obviously going to cost you a bit of money, but you'll usually get more value in the brand visibility generated by your approach.
Create and Popularize Checklists and Guides
Some parents and children don't know exactly what they need for the upcoming school year, so you can step in to remind them – and ultimately direct them to some of your best products. One of the best ways to do this is to create and popularize pieces of content like checklists and guides. Help educate people on what they're going to need when going back to school, then provide those products to them.
Team Up With Influencers
Today's kids pay close attention to popular influencers – social media moguls and minor celebrities who distribute content at scale to appeal to their audiences. If you can get one of these influencers on your side, promoting your products and your message, you'll see much better results.
Your back to school marketing strategy starts with embedded email video. And the best way to get started with embedded email video is with Viewed.video. Sign up for free today to get started!
