3 essential steps for leveraging explainer videos with sales emails

3 essential steps for leveraging explainer videos with sales emails

In today’s marketing world, customers are busier than ever. They are also more knowledgeable and prepared. Thus, none of them wants to be a target customer, leaving sales reps high and dry.

While cold calls and sales pitches have their place, customers and prospects are demanding instant solutions. You need a medium that can not only grab their attention but also engage them right away.

That’s where explainer videos come in handy—and quickly become essential for a successful sales pitch in any environment.

You can show up to your next sales emails armed with an explainer video that answers buyers’ questions, establishes value, and of course, moves them smoothly through the sales funnel.

In this post, we’ll break down how to effectively leverage explainer videos using sales emails.

What are explainer videos?

Explainer videos are short (30 to 60-second long), informative videos that introduce a problem and offer a solution to solve the problem. More often than not, this type of marketing video relies on animated characters and voice overs to deliver the information in a lighthearted, engaging way.

The main purpose of explainer videos is to break down complex explanations about your offer through the story-telling method, making it much more digestible for the prospect. So, rather than sending your prospects bulky paragraphs to explain your offer, you can use explainer videos to visualize all the crucial points you have to say.

Since explainer videos are so attention-grabbing and convey messages effectively, many marketers and sales reps use this video at the top of their sales funnel.

After watching an explainer video, your prospects understand what you actually offer them, how it works, and why they need it within a matter of minutes (even seconds!). The more they understand about the offer, the more likely they're interested in it, right?

Here's an example of an explainer video from Saleswhale:

Why sales email for explainer videos?

'Email marketing is dead'—we’ve often heard of it and talked about it, but nobody has actually seen it. With communication constantly changing, email marketing is simply evolving.

You need to make your sales emails stand out among those other emails your prospects receive daily. Otherwise, it will only end up in the trash folder without even being read. And you can agree that it's painful for every sales rep.

In this case, explainer videos can be a powerful addition to your sales email. Your prospects don't have to read the text to understand your offer. They can simply click and see what you show to them.

According to a report, simply adding the word "video" to your cold email subject line can improve your overall email engagement; email open rates are boosted by 19% and there is also a 65% increase in click-through rate.

Harness the power of video in your subject lines to boost engagement. You can easily create attention-grabbing subject lines with Close's Email Subject Line Generator.

How to leverage explainer videos using sales emails?

The explainer video isn’t just a one-trick pony. There are many ways to use the power of this medium to increase sales email engagement, conversions, and revenue in your campaign. But, here are three essential steps to leverage explainer videos using sales emails.

Step #1. Make sure the video is well-tailored

First, you need to make sure that the explainer video you're about to send through a sales email is concise, provides value, and is visually appealing. The key here is to make sure that you’re sending the right message to your potential prospects.

Remember that your explainer video should help the prospect understand your offer better, not to brag too much about how awesome the features of your product or service are.

In other words, it's always better to avoid attempting to fit a one-minute video with information that can be written in a few simple sentences, which will only confuse them and make it difficult for them to connect what you're saying with your offer.

You may also need to create a customizable thumbnail to make it even more clickable. Don't forget to add a few sentences to your email that tell your prospects why they should watch your video and add a call-to-action that prompts them to click and take action.

Keep the text short, though. The video should be the star of your sales email after all.

Step #2. Upload your explainer video

After you make sure that your explainer video is well-crafted and stands a high chance to improve your sales marketing, you need to upload it before you can embed or link it.

In this case, you need to use a video hosting site. YouTube can be a quick and easy option—this platform is easy to use and has a huge amount of traffic too.

So, besides posting a link to YouTube on your sales email, it's also possible for the explainer video to get more views when you use the platform. Hit two birds with one stone.

But, if you think YouTube is too common and you want a more competitive edge, there are also some video-sharing platforms that are designed to help you embed video on your sales emails, such as Wistia, BombBomb, Vimeo, and more.

Most of those email tools provide you with analytics features, customizable a clear-to-action, and even a built-in thumbnail maker to help you make the most effective sales email.

Step #3. Send a test email

Before you send the explainer video to your customer through your sales emails, you need to make sure that everything is in place. Imagine you've spent a lot of effort in embedding your explainer video in your sales email, but when a prospect is finally interested in clicking the play button, the video doesn't even work?

You’ll end up losing potential sales and you’ll frustrate your subscribers who land on the broken video instead of what they expected. This is why testing is crucial.

Just send yourself a test email and double-check to make sure your embedded explainer video or link works—both on desktop and mobile versions. Check and proof your user-generated content can be essential too. It means finding grammatical errors and such in your message.

By testing the explainer video-armed sales email, you can also make sure that it passes the spam test and gets the right engagement rates.

Don't forget about personalization too and check if there are any errors.

Discover the power of video personalization at scale.

Frequently asked questions about explainer video usage in sales emails

Q. What makes a great explainer video for sales emails?

When it comes to explainer videos, less is more. Keep it short but enough to answer your prospect's questions about your offer. You can start with a question and then offer them a solution using your product or service. This way, you can tempt them to watch the video all the way through without sounding too desperate and hard-selling.

Q. Can I create the explainer video myself?

Of course, you can. With a lot of explainer video tools available out there, you don't have to hire a professional explainer video company to craft your video. Most of those tools also provide you with a ready-to-use template that you can customize to your own liking, But, if you want to make sure you get everything right and your video is professional-looking, there's always a professional that can help you out.

Q. What is the easiest and quickest way to embed an explainer video in a sales email?

You can simply paste the link to your explainer video (that you've uploaded to YouTube or other platforms), then you can use a static image (thumbnail) or GIF of your explainer video with a play button. Using a brief text, then you can write something like "see the full video here [link]".

Final thoughts

Explainer videos can be an engaging addition to your sales strategy, especially for your sales email campaign. With this medium, you no longer have to burden your prospects to read all those text-heavy emails. It will help you illustrate your points so that they can quickly and easily understand what you're trying to say.

With a good explainer video at the ready, you can expect to boost your response rates-- and conversions as well! You will be able to better convey what exactly it is that makes you different from other competitors in the industry, thus giving them more reasons why they need to do business with you immediately.

Not to mention that explainer videos are also highly shareable, so you can still use them beyond your sales emails—social media campaigns, for example. That's how you can reach a wider audience.

About the Author: Andre Oentoro is the founder of Breadnbeyond, the award-winning explainer video services. He helps businesses increase conversion rates, close more sales, and get positive ROI from explainer videos (in that order). Find him on Twitter, LinkedIn, or via email: andre@breadnbeyond.com

Want to learn how to perfect your sales pitch, in video or in person? Check out the Sales Pitch Guide: