MailChimp is one of the most powerful and accessible email marketing platforms on the planet, and if you’re reading this article, you’re probably already using it. MailChimp makes it ridiculously easy to design new emails from templates, organize your subscriber lists (and segments), and ultimately deploy your newsletters, promo offers, and other messages with ease.
But here’s the thing: MailChimp isn’t guaranteed to get you results. It also doesn’t have all the tools you need to maximize your results.
Thankfully, MailChimp makes it easy to use a variety of third-party tools and external platforms to enhance your email marketing strategy and see better results. One of the best things you can do for your email marketing strategy is to use personalized videos – but why is this approach so useful and how can you use it within MailChimp?
Why Personalization Matters
Email marketing is a tried-and-true marketing strategy with a long history of helping brands see better marketing and advertising results. It's relatively inexpensive, easy to start, and capable of reaching millions of people.
But one of the biggest problems with email marketing is that everyone receives the same generic email. If you want to spice things up, it's important to inject some elements of personalization.
MailChimp already offers a handful of features meant to personalize the emails you send out; for example, you can customize subject lines to include each recipient's name, and you can customize the opening greeting in a similar way.
It's always a good idea to include elements of personalization in your emails for several reasons:
- Instant engagement. For starters, including an element of personalization instantly makes email more engaging to the person receiving it. Most of us are bombarded with emails – especially marketing emails. We receive hundreds of messages per day. Most of these messages are bland and generic, so we gloss over them without much thought. But when we see an email message that has our name in it, or an important personal detail, we immediately become more interested in it. In other words, personalization increases your engagement rates.
- Authenticity. Though you'll still be relying heavily on automation and scaled up distribution efforts, personalization increases the perception of your brand’s authenticity. Reaching out to a person by using their name, or by referring to details unique to them as individuals, instantly makes your message seem more personal and more genuine.
- Unique experiences. Another advantage is that different people subscribed to your email newsletters aren't going to have identical experiences. Each person is going to see something completely unique to them, giving them a much more individualized experience.
- Novelty and memory. Did you know that novel experiences tend to be more memorable? It's true. When we encounter something new and unexpected, we're much more likely to remember it. If you can personalize your email messages in unique ways, you'll increase the chances of your recipients remembering your brand and remembering your message.
- Keeping up with competitors. It's also worth noting that personalization is becoming much more common, so personalization has become a competitive and defensive move. If all your competitors are utilizing personalization but your brand isn't, you're going to be at a distinct disadvantage. Don't let your brand fall behind the competition.
The Role of Video
So where does video come into play?
Video is a powerful medium (especially in the email marketing realm) for several reasons, including:
- A visual format. Visual forms of content have many advantages over written forms of content. There are many possible explanations for this, but the most compelling is that humans tend to experience the world visually; it's only natural that we respond more to videos and images than to written words on the page. Your written email newsletter might make a splash, but including visual elements is going to give it a much bigger, more prominent impact.
- Differentiation. While many brands are now using elements of personalization in their email marketing strategies, not many brands are embedding videos directly into the body of their email messages. If you include videos in your email marketing strategy, you're instantly going to differentiate your brand, helping you stand out in a crowded industry.
- Enriching user experiences. Your video can be anything you want it to be – it just has to be engaging and enriching for your users. Master the art, and you’ll have much more engaged, immersed audience members.
- Potential for conversions. In our experience, videos tend to perform much better when it comes to conversion optimization. Getting people to convert with a video is much easier and much more likely than trying to convert them through text alone. If you’re trying to get as many conversions as possible, visual content is an absolute must.
It's good to personalize your emails. It's good to include videos in your emails. If you're able to personalize the videos included in your emails, you'll be able to skyrocket clicks, engagement rates, and conversions.
Viewed: The Personalized Video Email Tool
The question is, how do you do it?
Video production is tough and personalizing videos is even tougher – that is, if you're not working with the right tools. At Viewed, we've created a tool that makes it easy to not only personalize videos, but embed those videos directly into the body of your email messages.
And the best part about all of it? It works perfectly well with MailChimp. Viewed and MailChimp Together give you the power to create engaging, scalable, dynamic email marketing campaigns that really speak to your audience.
Are you interested in getting more value out of your email marketing strategy? Do you want to push your MailChimp results to the next level? You need a tool like Viewed. Sign up today for a free, 30-day trial of our product!