Nearly three-quarters of marketers (73%) say integrating video with email marketing increases click-through rates (CTR), and fully one-half are now using video in their email marketing programs, according to a survey from the Web Video Marketing Council.

An additional 24% of surveyed marketers are considering the use of video in their email marketing programs.

In addition to improving CTR, most marketers (73%) say video-based email marketing is more likely than static content to generate higher conversion and purchase rates. Only 5% of marketers say integrating the two formats makes no difference, or has a negative impact on conversion and purchase rates.

Moreover, most marketers view video based-email marketing favorably: 52% say it is the wave of the future and 44% are intrigued by the opportunity (44%).

Below, other findings from The 2010 Video Email Marketing Survey and Industry Trends Report, conducted by the Web Video Marketing Council in conjunction with Flimp Media and ExactTarget.

Though gaining in popularity, using of video with email marketing poses a range of technical and content challenges that effect its adoption as a common marketing practice.

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Barriers to Using Video in Email Marketing

Email service providers (ESP's) are not addressing the increasing demand for video email marketing solutions: Just 21% of marketers say their ESP offers video marketing solutions.

Ease of implementation (29%) and cost (23%) are cited by marketers as the main barriers to using video for email marketing:

More than one in five marketers (21%) cite the availability of videos assets as a key challenge and 13% cite the receptivity of their customers.

As to rank the most effective ways to deploy video with email marketing, marketers cite the following:

• Linking to a video landing page via video image or static weblink: 40%
• Video players embedded into the email message: 33%
• Linking to a video sharing website such as YouTube: 6%
• Using video .GIF files: 5%

About the data: The online survey was conducted from May 26 to June 27, 2010 among 200 professional marketers and marketing decision-makers. The survey distributed online to marketing professionals via Web Video Marketing Council and ExactTarget websites.