With visual social media platforms booming all over the place, it’s easy to forget how powerful a good ol’ newsletter can be.

I’m convinced that you don’t need me to remind you that there are direct channels to our audiences that can bring them valuable insights and special opportunities right to their inbox.

You’ve surely learned how they can link you to your ideal clients and help you build a beneficial relationship with them all on your own. Of course, for that to happen, you have to deliver content that sparks their curiosity and makes it feel worthy to them. I wonder what that can be in today’s, video-dominated landscape? Well, I’m not being cryptic here.

You need videos in your newsletters

I’m sure you already know the power videos have for your business.

The spectacular numbers about video marketing speak of a glowing future for an already established way of reaching out: people love videos, they don’t get tired of them, and they want more. Including them in your regular emails to your clients is truly a no-brainer.

Leaving the considerations of how to include videos in your emails (there are fantastic tutorials on the Web about that), let me break down for you why you need to start putting videos in your newsletter to see its results soar and to revitalize your brand’s message to your audience.

Videos build brand trust

A fruitful relationship between you and your clients can only exist if they trust you.

How can you make that happen?

The most direct way is to deliver what you promise (AKA your product or service does what you say it does).

However, there are other things you can do to boost their trust in you: showing that you understand the core problem that brought them to you, showing commitment with the solution, being transparent about who you are. Putting all your marketing cannons aimed at your audience to show who you are.

You can accomplish all of those things with videos. Company videos that display your brand’s backstory, explainer videos that describe what you do and how can you help, videos with your products in action and testimonials of your happy clients are among the videos you can use to boost trust.

All of them address your clients and prospects’ anxieties while making it clear that you know what they are going through, that you can help them, and that you have nothing to hide. A video approach with useful and insightful takes embedded in the emails they get frequently can reinforce trust and make them loyal to your brand.

They’re the most popular type of content on the Internet

When I talked about “spectacular numbers” before I didn’t overstate the true force that’s video marketing. A few figures that back me up on this:

• YouTube has more than a billion users (a third of the total Internet users) that watch a billion hours worth of video per day
• According to Google, mobile video consumption doubles each passing year
• Video will account for more than 80% of total web traffic by 2019

But that’s not all. With 90% of customers reporting that videos help them in making purchase decisions and with those same people saying that a positive experience with a video ad increases the likelihood of their purchase by 97%, the power of video becomes more than evident: it’s undeniable.

You can take any conclusion you want from those numbers, but mine is this: if people are actively looking for more videos to watch (and they are telling us they love videos when it comes to business), then every marketer under the sun should be using videos whenever possible.

They increase open and click-through rates

It’s not just the (already huge) matter of videos being insanely popular and overtly compelling – they are also great for email marketing.

With videos being as widely used as they are and with email being the tried-and-proven marketing tool that we all know and love, combining them was an obvious way to go.

Even without the possibility of playing videos in the emails themselves, just the promise of a video inside hinted in the subject line is enough to see an increase in your open rate (some say that the increase goes from 7% to 13%). Many marketers would feel amazing about being able to get just that, but videos in emails can do something extra: they will boost your click-through rates.

See, that inability to play the videos in the email’s body works in your favor, as the people getting the mail will want to watch the video, thus clicking on its thumbnail to go wherever you take them. Reports say that doing this will get your CTR up to 300%, which is huge! Provided that you do a good job with your video and the call to actions around it, you’ll have many more people getting your email’s message – simply by adding a video!

Check this example by Litmus: They added a Play button in the middle of their thumbnail to capture people’s attention, which made them click and access their site directly, in an engaging and organic way.

Videos are more engaging and easier to consume than text and images

I’ve already said that people love video but do you know why that happens?

It’s because of the same thing that happens when you have to choose between the book or the movie adaptation: video is far easier to consume!

According to recent studies, our brain is wired in such a way that it retains visual content far better than text. In fact, they say that an average viewer remembers 95% of a message when it comes in visual form versus the mediocre 10% of a text message. That’s because we process images way faster than words – it takes us 1/10th of a second to ‘understand’ an image.

But that’s not all. Videos are better than just plain images because they are more “complete.” Videos add sounds and movement, which in turn make them more eye-catching, compelling and entertaining than a still image. This can be understood as videos being more engaging because their narrative develops in time while the image story is something you grasp in an instant.

In this example, the folks at ReelWorks shared a video preview for their upcoming documentary “72 Hours” on their email newsletter, creating expectations and building up hype for its release. It’s one of the perks of being subscribed to newsletters: to be an insider and getting access to content before the general public.

Videos have huge viral potential

As attractive and compelling as they are, videos can quickly draw the attention of your audience.

The increased impact of a video when compared to texts and images along with the videos innate ability to deliver messages quickly and effectively turn them into the chosen way for people to share those messages.

Think about it. How many times this week alone have you watched a video someone shared with you? Heck, how many times did you do that today? Videos are entertaining, are easy to understand, can be enjoyed in under a minute and in almost any modern situation: you can watch any short video on your morning commute, on a work break, in your bed or even in that boring weekly meeting with your boss.

And if a video strikes a chord (say, it’s very emotional, clever, or hysterically funny), the way it’s shared feels like a wildfire. A video has the potential of generating that “I have to show this to my friend/family/followers/whatever” feel that images and text are lacking. That’s the viral potential that’s like the Holy Grail – a viral video can put your name everywhere, and if you couple it with a great marketing strategy, you can reach people you’d never have reached before.

Summing it up…

I know that some of you may think that the majority of these five benefits don’t feel closely related to newsletters but that’s simply not true.

The power of video for businesses is so immense that the mere promise of a video inside your newsletter can put all of these advantages at your fingertips.

Besides, if you’re trying to maximize your visibility and your business, you are probably putting out videos on a regular basis. So, if the simple inclusion of your best ones in your newsletters has the potential to make this kind of difference, why wouldn’t you try it?

With lots of studies and reports talking about how videos can change the face of any business and already-tried strategies to use them in email marketing, you have the path to take already laid out for you. The most popular content on the Internet today plus all the advantages of email you already know – it’s the winning combo you were waiting for!