The planning is complete, the video is made, and the only decision is what to do with it. The most frequently asked questions are:

1/ Do I embed it in the email?

A year or so ago, the answer would have been no. As many email clients did not support video, it was clearly a risk too far. Now that getting on for half of emails are read on mobile devices, some of which support autoplay, things have changed. 

At the moment there is no clear right or wrong answer and you will have to experiment with segmented email lists to discover what is most appropriate for you, but one thing to remember is that the video is there to sell. Do not get sidetracked by viewing figures of the video itself. The most important statistic is completions. 

In other words, does in the inclusion of a video ensure you sell more.

Animated Gifs can encourage click throughs to the video itself, although they can irritate some customers. Check your statistics.

Where video is supported by email clients, the returns from embedding in a marketing email are much superior. Find what is best for your, or rather for each individual segmented part of your email list.
 
2/ How should I host the video?

You will want a subscriber to click through to a landing page. If you host it on your own website, then it is but one click away for them. Further, you will have control over what that person sees and what messages they receive. 

3/ Why not YouTube?

By all means publish your video on YouTube, Vimeo or on social media. It has been shown to be very effective in generating click throughs and leads. For an email marketing campaign, you want subscribers click through to the landing page. 

4/ How do I encourage subscribers to click through?

Have a still from the video on the email. Make its function obvious, the most sensible being something similar to that used by YouTube. Have a button which readers need to click onto although have the whole image as a button. Just in case, have a ‘click here to view’ underneath.

The choice of still is important, perhaps critical. It needs to be tempting.

5/ How do I ensure that they complete?

For the final frame in the video, the one that remains once it has ended, include a click through. If the video is embedded on a landing page in your own website, then have a 'buy now' button by the side of the video and have an arrow pointing to it.

The audio should include a direction to buy now, and perhaps a little endorsement of the product. 

One worrying statistic is that the majority of viewers will not see the end of the video. Whilst this might be seen as a criticism of your production values, it is also a fact that many will anticipate the end and go somewhere else. It might be useful, therefore, to include a call to action in the video at some point. 

Most commentators suggest that video is the next step forward in email marketing. See if it works for you.