Be careful with embedded video

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a tvA new case study from MarketingSherpa reveals great results obtained by embedding a video directly in outgoing marketing emails.

Human nature is such that I can already hear the pounding of thousands of excited feet as we all go running to the nearest video email vendor to follow suit.

Let's take a closer look at the case study before doing so.

First, the conversion rate improvements were compared to previous campaigns with no video at all. It was not a comparison of "embedded video" versus "a screenshot and link to an online video." Nor was it an A/B test.

Second, the inbox deliverability success is cited at 96%. But I don't know of any technology solution that can tell you what percentage of your emails reached the inbox.

So is that number actually the reported ESP delivery rate? (Which normally says nothing about actual inbox delivery.) Or is it based on inbox monitoring? (Which is a more useful guide, but also not foolproof.)

Would be interesting to know more about the email's deliverability and the technology involved in embedding the video.

Third, conversions is a good measure of success, but what about the costs of video creation and delivery? Would like to hear more about the economics. (The case study does describe it as an "ROI winner.")

I'm not knocking the case study: if it wasn't interesting, I wouldn't bother reporting on it. But if you do want to try embedded videos, do your research and be sure to test its performance against the video screenshot approach first.

Your comments on all this are very welcome.

I keep hearing different stories about video emails. Some say embedded videos work. Others write them off as a deliverability and rendering disaster. What's the truth? And does it matter? (If you test and it works for you, then why worry?)

P.S. EmailKarma is running a survey on this very topic which might provide some answers. (Update: and here they are.)

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[This post brought to you by Campaigner Email Marketing]
Permalink | June 19, 2008 | 9 comment(s) - add yours!
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9 Comments:

I'm still not encouraging any of my email clients to embed video right now. We go the route of inserting a video player graphic which links to a web video. This is working really well for us.

Dressed Up! a client of ours went from an average 17% click through rate to consistently getting over 50% using this technique.(Using a $150 Flip camera and posting on YouTube)

I don't know of any video technology that renders across all email clients. Most I have come across rely on Flash or JavaScript like this email from Hugo Boss, with embedded video that did not play in my inbox: http://tinyurl.com/5c8d8u

Still I found the report interesting, and would like to know more about the technology they used. It mentioned only that Redeye was the video technology provider...do you know what Redeye used Mark?
By Anonymous Anna Yeaman, on 22 June, 2008  
 

Hi Anna...thanks for some reassurance on the value of video player graphics. I don't know which technology RedEye used. It's an area where I can never get clarity: what technology works and what doesn't...sigh!
By Anonymous Mark Brownlow, on 23 June, 2008  
 

I just ran some tests (again) on embedding video in email. I tried it with all the major clients, and no dice. A bunch of blank emails.

I'm still advising my clients against embedding video directly. I normally recommend going with the image that looks like it will play in the email, but opens a browser instead. Seems like a simple solution - let the video play where it is meant to play. In the browser.

-lucas at bronto
By Anonymous lucas@bronto.com, on 24 June, 2008  
 

Hey Lucas, thanks for sharing that. Another thumbs down then. If you have a chance, could you say which video formats you tested?
By Anonymous Mark Brownlow, on 24 June, 2008  
 

Great article! I am an online video producer and I would definitely NOT recommend that you embed the video. So many users are using text only email viewers that it makes embedding a video useless anyway. If you pull an interesting still that looks like it will play...people will click it. Let's face it people like to watch TV...letting them know they can click a link or an image to watch a video could increase your click-through rates by as much as 600% over a standard HTML static page link. The Email Standards Project research backs this up. The link to our monthly movie in our e-newsletter release always has the highest click-through rate of any link on our entire e-newsletter we send out. All we use is an interesting screen-shot from the movie and save it as a JPEG image in our email.

I'd also recommend that you keep the video short...people aren't going to want to sit through a long video. When creating a video we try to keep all of the movies we create under 4 minutes in length because peoples attention span starts to wane after that. An ideal online video campaign should be between 2 and 3 minutes. If you are creating more of a viral video you could even go as short as :30 seconds.

Another thing I'd like to point out is you need to know your customers - This may sound silly but if most of your customers are not computer savvy or are on (gasp) dial up...waiting for a video to download may not be right for them. Fortunately most people have at least DSL or faster so a short movie can download in just a few seconds. You need to create the content that works to the demographic you are marketing to. If getting a monthly email from you is a stretch for your customer base then sending them a video is probably out of the question.
By Anonymous Eric Guerin, on 30 June, 2008  
 

Hey Eric: thanks for taking the time to share that advice: very useful stuff.
By Anonymous Mark Brownlow, on 30 June, 2008  
 

Mark,

what about audio in e-mails? Is there a good technology that you know if to embed automatic audio in e-mails? Something that works in Outlook as well as Google and Yahoo mail?
By Blogger The Voice for Love, on 25 November, 2008  
 

Good question and I have no answer unfortunately. My feeling is that the same issues apply as with video: might work if the embedded file comes with the email, but not if a remote file is accessed via javascript or similar. But I'm out of my technological depth on that one. I'll see what I can find out.
By Anonymous Mark Brownlow, on 25 November, 2008  
 

Thanks for your fast reply, Mark. I appreciate it. I also appreciate your willingness to see what you can learn about it.

Sincerely,

DavidPaul
By Blogger The Voice for Love, on 25 November, 2008  
 

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