Launching a video e-mail campaign can be a gut-wrenching experience. There are at least 144 different combinations of variables that affect how a user will view the media being presented. Not being able to see the richest content possible might mean the difference between an experience that drives ROI and one that damages your brand. In this document, Patricia Berry provides five tips for using video as a marketing tool.
Marketers have used video, sound, and animation to emotionally appeal to customers for decades. Video e-mail not only combines these benefits with true one-to-one messaging capabilities, but also involves many complexities.
Before launching a video e-mail program, these five steps will guide you around the hazards inherent in any rich media e-mail campaign.
- Test the content yourself with every computer, media player, platform, e-mail address, security setting, and Internet bandwidth that you have available. The ability to view video e-mail in its richest form depends on the combination of variables on the recipient's computer. It's important to understand the quality of the experience for those recipients with less than an optimal configuration.
- Streaming video is not the same as television broadcasting. Re-purposing of television commercials for Internet streaming can be very effective, depending on the original production and editing of the commercial. But, quick transitions, fast movement, fades, and low lighting can result in poor quality streaming video for dial-up Internet users. You don't need to limit your video to “talking heads,” but don't assume that just any content is suitable for streaming.
- Use designers with daily experience in rich media. The benefits of rich media come with a cost: Complexities in design, tracking, and coding. For example, designers who have worked recently with rich media e-mail should be able to take advantage of the latest AOL releases, Microsoft XP updates, and various security patch releases.
- Whenever possible, have the video play in preview pane format. If your customers have Outlook 2000 or Windows XP and your video is based on a java applet or involves any kind of scripting, they won't be able to view the video in the preview pane. Because of past security vulnerabilities, Microsoft is becoming more security conscious with its e-mail clients. In Windows XP, scripting is disabled in the preview pane, as well as when the message is opened.
- Offer a solution that can be viewed by any media player (unless you're certain that all of your customers have a particular media player loaded). There's nothing worse than sending someone a message that they can't see without downloading a plug-in. But, if you know that all of your recipients have the current version of a particular media player, save yourself the encoding cost and serve only streams for that player. Ideally, you want your solution to deliver the right content without the recipient having to tell you what their available bandwidth or available media players are.
Due to its ability to interact with the viewer at an emotional level, video e-mail has wonderful applications, including investor relations, product demos, training, marketing promotions, and market research. Taking these five steps will help ensure that your video e-mail campaign brings you the response that you want and avoids the reaction that you don't.