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Email Marketing Insights
Kara Trivunovic
Sr. Director of Strategic Services
Kristin Hersant
Director of Corporate Marketing
March 10, 2009
How to Leverage Video in Your Email Marketing Campaigns
By Kristin Hersant
At the Email Evolution Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, I attended a very interesting session about integrating video in email. Given the skyrocketing popularity of web video in recent years, this is a logical extension with phenomenal potential for driving traffic and response rates. However, video enthusiasts have been hindered by the technology in recipients’ email clients. Many of them block the images and JavaScript required to make video work, rendering it difficult to employ.
Fortunately there are several ways that you can test video in email now. Justin Foster of the Video Commerce Consortium showed us that the best (and most affordable) way to represent video in email is by using an animated GIF. Because animated GIFs are supported by virtually all email clients (MS Outlook 2007 being the notable exception), you can provide the illusion of a video playing in email without the technical challenges.
If you are interested in this approach, the general guideline is to keep the files as small as possible to help them render quickly. The resolution shouldn’t exceed 80x60, the frame rate should be kept low (4 fps), and the duration should be kept under a few seconds. Use these benchmarks as a starting point to test your own content and find a threshold that meets your comfort levels.
There are many tools available that can convert video into GIFs. For a free, web-based version , check out GifNinja.com.
The more expensive option is to try StrongMail partner Goodmail’s new CertifiedVideo service, for which they are currently accepting pilots. Goodmail is leveraging its ISP relationships in order to deliver emails with all images and JavaScript enabled, making actual video in email possible. The only downsides are that:
1) Video will only render in ISPs with which Goodmail has a relationship (AOL, BT, COX and Yahoo). AT&T, Comcast, Roadrunner and Verizon are in pending.
2) It can be pricey. Goodmail is charging $5 per thousand ($5 CPM) for its pilot program. For companies who outsource, this is in addition to whatever deployment costs you already pay your ESP.
Either way, content sites should test video in email to see how it helps their performance. With results ranging from a 5% to 300% increase in click-through rates, it’s definitely worth a closer look.
Posted by: Kristin Hersant at 5:58 PM
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I've also seen success with using a still image, and a "Play Video" button overlay. I'm guessing in the case of the animated gif, it is used the same way: as a lure to click thru to the actual video, hopefully hosted on your website?
Comment by cdn-jake – March 23, 2009 9:50 AM
That is another great and cost-effective way to convey video within an email. Yes, in both the static and animated GIF cases, you would link through to a webpage where the video is hosted for playback.
Comment by Kristin Hersant – March 23, 2009 3:14 PM
The Goodmail video certification is a great idea and the $5 CPM is within reason. if the pilot is successful, I can see the price eventually dropping to a more reasonable rate... which will hopefully lead to it be more widely accepted among other ISPs.
Video in email is inevitable. I'm happy to see it finally making developmental strides.
Comment by Bryan Quilty – April 2, 2009 8:51 AM
Video has taking the online marketing industry by storm. Video marketing for online brands will continue to play a very important role as time pushes forward.
Comment by Nick Stamoulis – April 3, 2009 10:45 AM