The Future of Email: AI-Driven Video Content for Engaging Communication

Email marketing is the cornerstone of digital marketing.

With an impressive ROI of $36 on every dollar spent, and an estimated revenue of almost 11 billion globally as of December 2023, email marketing is unmatched by any other digital marketing channel.

However, things are changing within the email marketing industry projected to reach 4.4 billion in 2024, which is more than half of the world’s population.

We now live in a world where attention spans are decreasing, subscribers’ email inboxes are filled to the brim with multiple brands producing content to reach them, and brands like Google and Apple consistently raise the bar to prevent spam content from reaching their users.

For email to continue on this track of profitability for marketers going forward, there’s a need for innovation in how content is created. In this article, we’re taking a look at AI-driven video as a difference maker to the future of email. We’re looking at how it works, its benefits, and challenges.

What does AI-driven video content have to do with email?

AI-driven video content is leading a multimedia adoption in email marketing.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming one of the keys to marketing conversion and retention, and marketers’ use of AI has increased by 190% from 2018 to 2020.

The rise of AI video generators and software has completely transformed the way marketers use email marketing to connect with their audience. AI capabilities are revolutionizing how email campaigns are designed, executed, and evaluated by offering: 

• Personalization and segmentation,
• Responsive design and mobile optimization,
• Interactive designs for audiences,
• Efficiency and engagement,
• A/B testing and optimization.
• Predictive analytics, and
• AI-powered content creation.

The best email marketing platforms including Flodesk have long provided marketers with techniques for audience personalization and deliverability into their audiences’ primary inboxes. With analytics for understanding behavior, segmentation, and providing personalized content to drive metrics of engagement, open rates, and increase sales.

Traditional text-based emails have served this purpose for decades and led to successful email campaigns.

However, the game has changed – attention spans have drastically reduced and there’s fierce competition for audiences’ engagement in inboxes with an estimated 361.6 billion emails to be sent out in 2024.

The most effective test-based emails typically contain 50 to 125 words in their body content, which means the longer messages will very likely not be read. It is now possible to create videos that contain the same information while making sure your email text is short and simple to understand.

The limitations of traditional text-based emails include:

• Limited engagement as text-based emails fail to capture readers’ attention in the sea of emails.
• The lack of visual appeals of videos, images, and multimedia content makes them less memorable and engaging.
• Reduced expression of emotions (nuance, humor, etc) and tone in text emails leading to misinterpretation and lack of connection with the audience.
• Accessibility challenges for readers with visual impairments.
• Limited interactivity which limits the opportunity for audience engagement and feedback via clickable sliders, videos, and forms.

To stay competitive and effectively engage audiences, marketers must embrace the rise of multimedia content in email marketing campaigns. By leveraging images, videos, GIFs, and interactive elements, marketers can create more compelling, memorable, and impactful email experiences.

How AI-driven video content works to create engaging emails

Videos in email have changed the email marketing game.

According to this report, marketers can receive 380% more clicks if CTAs are embedded into a video over making your CTA a button. For companies looking to produce lots of educational and informational content, CTA videos in email make lots of sense.

The addition of AI technologies has completely revolutionized the way videos are produced, personalized, and optimized. With AI technology in video content creation, you get to access:

• Automated AI editing to analyze raw footage using techniques such as scene detection, object tracking, and facial recognition to generate editing tools.
• AI content generation and scripting to create engaging content
• Visual special effects, CGI elements, and lifelike animations with AI technologies such as generative adversarial networks (GANs) and deep learning algorithms.
• Personalization and targeting with AI-driven video platforms using machine learning algorithms based on viewer preferences, demographics, and behavior analysis.
• Voice and image recognition, transcription, recognizing speech patterns, and extracting insights to identify objects, scenes, and faces within videos based on AI-powered systems.

When leveraging AI-driven video content into email, it’s important to note that there are multiple video types you can integrate. They include:

• Animated videos
• Brand videos
• Case studies and testimonials
• Demo videos
• Educational videos
• Event highlight videos
• Industry updates
• Live videos
• Product videos
• Team videos
• Tutorials

Creating AI-driven video email marketing campaigns can be done with multiple approaches. To embed videos into your email, you will need to adopt any of the following approaches:

• Using a static image with a play button to a video on your website, YouTube or landing page works for all email platforms. As long as images are enabled on your audience devices, they will be able to access them.
• Use a GIF of your video: Supported across most email clients, you can use a tool to convert your video files into GIFs. Also, Additionally, you can add a play button overlay onto your GIF, prompting subscribers to click through to view your video content.
• Use an animated play button by linking a static image and an animated GIF.
• Faux video with CSS animation: Although this requires an advanced level of CSS and HTML knowledge, you can show one static image frame after another quickly to look like a moving image. You can do this by adding image sprites with background images and CSS keyframes to move the image.
• Embed video into an email: This allows videos to be played directly in the inbox. It’s important to note that Gmail and Android devices will display a fallback image, although other email clients like Apple Mail, Outlook on Mac, iOS Mail, and Samsung Mail support playing videos in audiences’ inboxes.

The stats are clear – videos in emails can increase open rates by 19% and click rates by 65% while reducing unsubscribe rates by 26%. Using video in email marketing is one of the best ways to create campaigns that increase engagement and provide consistent value. It’s important to:

• Script – consider the information you plan on including in your video
• Decide where you want to host your video campaign
• When you send out the video, push for your subscribers to share it.

The benefits of AI technologies over traditional video formats in email marketing include:

• Efficient and scalable content production: AI-driven video content creation helps creators reduce manual labor and overhead costs, and automates editing and scripting allowing the production of high-quality videos at scale, reaching larger audiences more efficiently.
• Automated editing, content generation, and personalization: Leveraging AI technologies lowers the costs of human labor making video production more cost-effective and accessible to a wider range of creators.
• Increased creativity and innovations: With increased access to advanced editing, animation, and effects capabilities, marketers can bring their imaginations to life, unlocking new opportunities for storytelling and expression.
• Improved audience engagement: AI-driven personalization by tailoring video content to specific interests, preferences, and demographics, marketers can increase their subscribers’ engagement, retention, and satisfaction.
• Data-driven insights: Marketers can gain valuable insights into audience behavior, preferences, and engagement metrics with the help of AI technologies. By analyzing viewer data in real-time, marketers can optimize their content strategy, re-targeting efforts, and increase the impact of their videos.

When adding AI-driven video content into email practice, here are a few best practices to note:

• Focus on the relevance and personalization of AI content to your subscribers
• Maintain transparency with your subscribers on how their data is in use to enhance their experience.
• Monitor performance metrics very closely, and Consistently innovate

Challenges and concerns of AI-driven content in email

AI-driven content in email comes with questions that must be answered

While AI-driven content holds great potential for personalization and engagement, it also raises important questions of privacy, integration, and content quality.

The privacy and data security concerns of AI-driven content include:

• Data privacy regulations require marketers to be compliant with data privacy laws like GDPR.
• Data breaches and security risks of AI algorithms mean marketers must consistently use security measures to protect sensitive customer data.
• User content and transparency by marketers are important. Marketers must communicate how AI algorithms analyze user data to personalize content and obtain full consent from users before collecting or processing their personal information.

Also, the issue of AI integration into existing email platforms is critical. In addition to compatibility concerns, disruption to existing email marketing workflows and processes plus the time needed for training and adoption, over-reliance on automation, and ethical and racial biases, are challenges that arise with AI-driven content in email marketing.

AI-driven video content and the future of email

AI-driven video content in email marketing is more than just a passing trend. 

It’s a clear change in how businesses engage with their audiences and deliver compelling, personalized experiences via email.

By embracing the power of AI-driven video content, businesses can unlock new avenues for creativity, engagement, and impact.

The transformative potential of AI-driven video content in email marketing will continue to reshape the way we connect, communicate, and engage with audiences, creating deeper connections and delivering long-term profitable results to marketers and brands alike.

About the author: Isaac Adewumi is a dedicated storyteller with a relentless passion for crafting perfect words. His days are immersed in creating engaging, easy-to-understand copy to drive leads, user onboarding, and customer retention for B2B, B2C, and SaaS brands.

Under surveillance, you’d catch him deeply researching client briefs, pondering creative blog intros, and writing compelling articles and email copy.

Inspired by marketing legends like Chase Dimond, he immerses himself in endless marketing copy, poetry writing, solo chess sessions, and Fantasy Premier League videos—all accompanied by the soothing tones of slow classical music on Spotify. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.