Still image versus video which is the most effective in email?
The first time you experience video email it is extremely captivating and certainly holds your attention as you view the email.
The question is does this experience translate to more effective email campaigns, where Click Throughs, Conversions and Sales are the measures of success.
The only way to quantify the impact of adding video to email is for clients to conduct robust A/B split campaigns.
So let’s answer these key questions:
Does adding video to email increase click through rates?
We have conducted over 30 A/B split tests where we tested Video vs Still images.
The results of these A/B tests indicated that simply adding video to your emails does not guarantee an uplift in click through rates. In the majority of these tests we saw no uplift in Click Through Rate (CTR) from the video version of the email.
This testing included tests of various approaches to video content in terms of product led, proposition led and lifestyle/brand led.
Of these approaches, the product led versions were consistently the top performers, where the product or service being promoted was the core content of the video.
Does adding video to email increase Post Click Conversion Rates or Downstream metrics?
The hypothesis here is that respondents who click through from a video email or “more engaged” and thus have a “higher propensity” to convert than respondents clicking through from an email, featuring a static image.
Critically, a recipient’s level of engagement with a specific email campaign cannot be quantified. Video email reporting does provide us with some insights on the length of time a recipient watched the video for, but we have no ability to compare this to how long recipients spent viewing an image.
The results of our A/B tests of video email versus image based emails.
The results of over 30 A/B split tests, conducted across a number of verticals including eCommerce, tourism and entertainment, indicate that this hypothesis is false.
Only 2 of the tests we conducted indicated any statistically significant difference in the video email and static image test segments’ post click metrics. Notably, this uplift in conversions was minimal and certainly not sufficient to cover the additional cost associated with sending a video email.
From this extensive testing we have learnt that merely adding video to email will not deliver consistent uplifts in your email marketing key performance indicators.
For video email to deliver incremental performance the testing informed us on some key aspects to the approach, these are covered in our post The key to a responsive Video Email Campaign.
