When it comes to being a digital marketer, you know that there aren’t many technologies that wouldn’t ultimately make your life a bit easier. For example, tablet and smart phone apps make your life easier by keeping you close to your social media accounts. Instant video playback is another technology that could be beneficial.

Imagine your potential leads opening your emails and being greeted with immediate video playback. They wouldn’t have to click on a video thumbnail to view your content; they are already watching it within their email client. It seems as though this technique would make your job more efficient, and it just so happens that the technology is already here to allow you to do it.

Benefits of Embedded Video

The benefits of using embedded video are obvious. The user experience is improved ten-fold due to not having to click multiple times just to view your content. Why? The video is already playing. However, there are some significant draw-backs and costs to using instant playback in email. This is why it’s best not to use this type of technology in your marketing emails.

The Video Must Be Resourceful

What is meant by the word, “resourceful?” When the video is placed on your website rather than in a temporary email, it’s easy for users to reference it later on. The content is also more easily shared to the users’ friends and family because they can simply provide a link without needing to search their inbox or forward. When it comes to SEO, the content also performs better and can gain maximum exposure when permanently placed on a webpage. This ultimately starts with leading viewers to the video’s page from the very beginning instead of embedding immediate video playback in an email message.

When a video is embedded on a webpage, it’s easy for a user to return to it at any time. Whether it’s a week or a year from the date that you launch and promote the video, it will always be there, and it will be just as easily accessible. What’s even better is that the more content you add to your website, the more resourceful it becomes for users that either want to find a video that you’ve launched or see similar content. Studies have shown that when a person watches a video on our own website, there is almost a 70% chance that they will visit another page on the site after the video has ended.

Why Placing Video Content on Your Website is Important

Take a moment to consider the fact that when a user opens your newsletter with embedded video, they will watch the content, and it will end. They’re likely to either close the message or archive it, but it’s not likely that they will take further action. This is a huge missed opportunity.

When the user watches a video from their email client, the experience allots for a view, but there is really nothing further for them to do. It isn’t likely that the user will take a next step from an email client.

When the user actually navigates from the email to your landing page to watch a video, you have a better grip on what happens after the viewer is finished watching. They might comment on the video using your discussion feature. They might want to see more content. They might even sign up for an account. They can also share the content they’ve seen by easily using social media buttons.

Always Embed On-Site

As you can see, it’s a better idea to just provide a thumbnail for your user to click, so that they inevitably end up on your website. Whenever article marketers promote articles via newsletters, do they include the entire article in the email, or do they include a link to the entire article on their website? It’s obviously the latter. The ultimate goal is to keep driving your users back to your website, and this is just another great way to do that. Regardless of what you’re offering your users, you will always want them to engage with your website eventually at some point in the process. When promoting video content, you should always point your users back to your website to actually view it.