Using web stories for email marketing

If you've been following the ongoing marketing trends, you are likely aware of how powerful web stories can be. Both as standalone content and as a part of a more robust marketing campaign, they can produce user engagement, make good use of the short attention span of the modern user, and are surprisingly easy to create. To help highlight different uses for web stories, we will use this article to explain what using web stories for email marketing is all about.

Email marketing - the basics

As the name suggests, email marketing means using emails for marketing purposes. Out of all marketing tools, emails stand as one of the oldest. Through countless IT and marketing innovations, emails still hold a distinct role in marketing campaigns. If used properly, they help with retention rates, conversion rates, and overall brand building. They are especially useful for B2B marketing, and for addressing a more professional customers base. But, to truly use them to their full potential, it is important to identify the aspect in which they can help you out.

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Using web stories for email marketing - what's to know

Whenever a new type of content comes along, marketing managers naturally consider all the ways in which they can use it. When it comes to emails, all types of content can (at least theoretically) have some use. Along with written content, images, videos and audio content can all play a role. But, it is worth noting that practice has shown that written content integrated with well-crafted images usually works best in an email context.

Can you integrate web stories and emails?

As it turns out, combining written content with suitable visual elements is what web stories are all about. A web story is all about giving you precise information in a short, digestible format. One of the main reasons why web stories are so successful on Google and various social media is that they make good use of our psychology in order to get out attention. The short format, the combination of different types of content, the "straight to the point" nature... All of these serve to convince people to pay attention to what your web stories have to say.

For a long time, email struggled with convincing people to read them. You could use an important headline, or even attach videos that easily explain what you want to say. But, none of these seems to strike a chord

How emails benefit from web stories

There are many ways in which integrating web stories into your emails can be beneficial. First and foremost, you make your emails stand out. While the story format has been around for a while, most people still associate it only with social media platforms. Few actually consider investing in more serious web story content, let alone integrating it in their emails. So, if you start now, you'll easily stay ahead of the curve in this emerging marketing trend.

Secondly, you can make your emails much more personal. We've already covered personalization in marketing and how prevalent it is, so we won't go into much depth here. Just know that personalizing your marketing content is slowly but surely turning from a luxury to a necessity. A great way to practically personalize your content is to create personalized web stories and present them via emails. A well-crafted story presented at the right moment can do wonders for customer retention.

Creating web stories suitable for emails

Of course, for web stories to be as effective as you'd hope, you need to do your part in creating decent ones. Not all web stories are suitable for emails, as they can drastically vary in length and content. Furthermore, having your email just contains a web story may not be the best course of action.

By sending an email that solely contains a web story you risk alienating your audience. One of the reasons why emails have been with us for so long is that we've grown accustomed to them. Once we open an email we expect that there is something to read. So, even if you plan on sending a top-notch web story, we still suggest that you use it as an element of your email and not its entirety. Ideally, the story will emphasise and elaborate on what your email has to say. If it is only repeating the content of your email, you are wasting the story. If it isn't related to the content, you are likely confusing the reader. So, use the visual aspect of the web story to emphasize your email, and you'll do just fine.

Examples

To help you understand what we have in mind, we will give you a couple of examples where sending an email with an integrated web story can do you a world of good:

• Promoting a new product - You explain in your email what your product is about. Then, you use your web story to visually present it and give further details about it.
• Notifying about an event - In the email, you explain when and where the event will be held, and you use your story to explain what it will be all about.
• Giving an update about your company - Highlight the best things about your update in the web story, and give specifics in the email.

Final thoughts

As you can see, using web stories for email marketing can be an easy way to make your emails stand out, and to garner a new audience. With tools like StorifyMe, it is easier than ever to create web stories. Therefore, it should be fairly easy to optimize them to your marketing needs. With a bit of research and practice, we are sure you'll be creating terrific web stories in no time.