Is Video in Email Really a Good Idea?
In the words of Mugatu, video is so hot right now. Personally, I know I lose many hours on YouTube watching David after the dentist or watching an amazing double rainbow, but I don't think video in email is a good idea.
In this case I am speaking specifically to a video you can play within the email itself. To me, this doesn't make sense; email is a vehicle to get you to the destination, not the destination itself.
Watching a video in the email itself can be good to boost time users spend with it, but that should not be your goal. For one, that's time they're spending with your email versus your (actionable) website. For another, very few ISPs accept video today, so trying to optimize your coding for video can be a giant headache. Also, you will need to factor in file size and compress the video, which would sacrifice image quality. You can consider using a third party tool like LiveClicker, but again, I'm hesitant to recommend playing video in email.
On the other hand, I am a fan of utilizing video in email. What?
I'm a proponent of using a still from a video that links to the video itself (see Bronto example in this post) or animated gifs. Study after study shows how video in these formats can boost results. While I'm arguing with myself over the pros and cons, you need to be asking yourself the following:
Is it appropriate for my brand?
Do you have the content to create compelling videos? Don't create videos to create them; have a story to tell, personality to present and products that shock and awe.
My favorite product video example is Dynomighty. The company created videos to show off their magnetic jewelry and show the various ways you can wear and play with it. These videos on YouTube drove more than 45% of referrals to the site and it converts to sales about 50% of the time.
Product videos can also reduce customer service calls, so if you are getting the same types of product-related questions over and over, it might be time to make a video and promote it via email!
What does the landing page look like?
Should you send them to your YouTube channel, a dedicated landing page or a video embedded in a product/content page? The content around the video and the video itself should support a call to action whether that's to make a purchase or have the user submit a video of their own or so forth.
Hosting video on your site can be traffic and SEO gold. Videos keep visitors on marketers' sites an average of two minutes longer and have the SEO juice to support inbound traffic efforts.
Test everything and see what mix creates the best results for you. My recommendation would be to take the following steps:
1. Build a strategy around content for the videos. Who will be responsible for creating and posting them? Will you ask for user-generated videos?
2. Create a YouTube channel. Check out REI or Target's pages for inspiration on how to execute well.
3. Construct landing pages and calls to action for each video. Each video should be actionable.
4. Promote the videos via email through static images, animated gifs, and yes, even streaming/playing video in the email client, as a test.
5. Monitor results and tweak accordingly. Share your video success stories in the comments. Do you use streaming video in email successfully? Let me know.
Kelly Lorenz
Marketing Strategist at Bronto
@KNLorenz
- Email Marketing Strategy
- Email Marketing Best Practices
- animated gifs
- compelling video
- customer service calls
- dynomighty
- email deliverability
- email video in email
- embedded video
- landing page
- liveclicker
- referrals
- REI
- sales conversions
- SEO
- static images
- streaming video
- streaming video in email
- Target
- video
- video landing page
- youtube
Follow Bronto
Don't miss a single post! Receive Email, Mobile, and Social strategy insights from the Bronto Blog by subscribing now!
Related Posts
About the Author
With a background in Account Management and Client Services at the top agencies in the Southeast, Kelly brings both hospitality and retail experience. In her role at Bronto, Kelly guides clients to strategically optimize their email marketing campaigns and drive ROI. Kelly’s specialty in the online retail space is evidenced in her work with clients listed on Internet Retailer’s Top 500 List. Kelly has been has been featured in Marketing Profs Get to the Point Email Marketing, Retail Email Blog, Email Marketing Reports and Internet Retailer. In her spare time, Kelly can be found training for her next marathon.
Great article Kelly. And
Great article Kelly. And thanks for the link.
Just a quick preface to the below... I don't think video in email is good OR bad. It's just a technology and how marketers use it makes all the difference.
In the 2011 Video Email Marketing Guide I tried to take a fair-minded and objective approach looking at the different methods of using video with email, and the pros/cons of each method.
I'd like to highlight some specific examples of where I think video in email can make sense, and provide links to some examples.
- As teasers, to deliver live streaming video of live events through an animated .GIF video, to get users to sign up and pay for access to full streams for an additional cost (think: sporting events, broadcast networks, for example).
- As brand experiences that create an immediate impact without requiring action from the subscriber (in the case of animated .GIF videos, which auto-play without sound - think movie trailers or sale announcements) <-- Note that this doesn't always work, if marketers aren't careful, this can just annoy subscribers. Segmentation and targeting with video is important, just as it's important to A/B test different email creatives. Relevance still rules.
- When email marketers don't have control over the landing page creative. This happens more often than a lot of people realize, especially in organizations where site merchandising or design and creative are owned by separate departments.
- When the internal system used by the marketer on their own site doesn't support video embeds. This has happened with a few of our clients in the e-commerce space, who would like to implement a javascript-invoked video player on the landing page, but can't due to lack of support from their site CMS.
- When the video "view" is the end result the marketer is looking for. Many campaigns, especially in e-commerce, but also in publishing, are sent for the purpose of generating a purchase or click-through. As direct marketers by nature, many email marketers are trained to think in terms of these results metrics But not all campaigns are sent for the purpose of achieving these goals. There is a class of email campaigns where the goal is to drive engagement and awareness; video in email can help with this. I see this most often in the media/broadcast space, CPG/consumer brands, automotive, and some lifestyle retailers.
Here are some examples I wanted to share with your readers:
Saks 5th Avenue:
Brand experience video in email from March 2011 for video catalog.
Disney Movies Online:
Watch Disney's Tron online now.
British Sky Broadcasting:
Video for 'Game of Thrones' TV series premiere from April 2011
Hewlett-Packard:
Silent video storytelling in March 2010 laptop video campaign for video tours
Discovery Channel:
LIFE TV series premiere announcement.
Thanks,
Justin
Justin, Thanks for
Justin,
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. LiveClicker is a great tool and the examples that you have provided are great. Could you provide any feedback or resources on how to track performance of the videos in email? Can you tell how many "views" the video received and how long a person stayed with it?
It's an interesting concept and I can see where video in email has applications, but in all the cases you presented above, I feel they'd be more effective on a landing page. Reason being, where's the call to action? Can I order from Saks' catalog now? What do I do next? That's the point I'm trying to make with this post. Video is a great branding and awareness tool as you've shown, but is email really the appropriate channel for that or is it more of a vehicle to the proper channel?
Thanks again,
Kelly@Bronto
Video in email is getting a
Video in email is getting a vast amount of interest from large and small companies. All with different use cases and video-in-email needs, but it's just as applicable as traditional HTML messaging if not more because of the added video element. There are in-the-inbox video plays depending on the email client; Apple currently works with HTML5 in I believe every Apple email client. There are others adopting the same approach - the rest rely on a fallback system with a landing page.
To your question about email being the most appropriate channel for video. I say yes, it's a natural progression for the channel and the web in general. Video is becoming (has become) a staple in sharing information on and offline. The next logical step is to adopt video into each interactive marketing medium. It's already in social, on websites, etc.
There's also a sense of cohesion with interactive marketing now; all the online channels are starting to share similar features and capabilities. They also integrate with one another, allowing for more seamless experiences.
Video is here to stay. It's already in email. We (marketers) just have to learn to leverage it.
Post new comment