Let’s talk about a dynamic duo that you should be using in your marketing strategy: video and email.  They go together like Han Solo & Chewbacca, C-3PO & R2-D2, and Rey & Finn.  (We know, we’re Star Wars geeks.)

Email is the primary vehicle for most of our communication these days.  It’s quick.  It’s easy. It’s searchable and shareable.  Marketing-minded folks like you know that email is still one of the most effective ways to reach your customers.

Meanwhile, video is a dynamic visual medium that relays information in powerful ways.  Put the two together and what do you get?  Marketing magic!

Email is so ubiquitous we often find our inboxes full of mail.  Most of us prioritize what to open first, and some emails get deleted before ever getting opened.  You can increase the likelihood of that email getting opened by simply including the word “video” in an email subject line.  According to a recent report published by Syndacast, you’ll boost your open rates by 19%. That’s just one reason for the effectiveness of the email-video combo.

But there are other things to consider beyond open rates and click-through rates.

If your goal is to spread the word about your business, including a compelling, professional  video that is easily shareable through email or social media improves the probability of someone sharing that video with someone who is not on your email list.  And once that new person opens your video, you have a new contact and potential client.  (By the way, if you’re unsure what kind of videos your company should be investing in, we created this post just for you.)

But more importantly, using video in your email campaigns can offer a ton of insight about what the recipients on your current email list are interested in.  You can see how much of the video they watched or didn’t watch, if they repeated sections of the video, if the recipient watched the whole video, and if they clicked the call to action (assuming you’re using one – if you’re not, you should).  This type of data can tell you how effective the video was, but it also can indicate what parts of the video interested the individuals on your email list the most.

Combining email and video gives you the opportunity to make better decisions about your future email video campaigns by interpreting information from both your email marketing software and your online video platform.  This kind of in-depth information helps you shape new campaigns and strategy by targeting messages with more precision and personalization. And yes, emails with videos are snazzier and more likely to be opened and shared helping you to grow your contact list. That makes email and video a dynamic duo.