Video email: when to use it

A year ago you might have asked "can we put videos into emails?"

Today, the question is more sophisticated: should we use video and, if we should, how?

To provide some answers, I picked the brains of five video email experts representing a mix of technologies and perspectives.

Before we see their insights, here's a quick review of the main video email approaches out there (see the video email category for details):

• Link a screenshot to a video hosted at a website (more info)
• Video gifs: optimized animations that play like a video in the email itself, albeit without audio (more info)
• CertifiedVideo: full rich-media audio and video content that also plays in the email itself, currently available at AOL only but with plans to expand to other ISPs (more info)

Today we'll highlight some promising approaches and good examples. Next week we'll look at specific advice on implementation and discuss some of the constraints and mistakes that can limit the tactic's usefulness and success.

When should you add video content to your emails?

For a long time, a simple justification for video content in email was the novelty factor: moving pictures in an email attract attention and pique curiosity.

While this is still true to some extent, today's video content - as with all email content - needs to offer something more if it's to work effectively.

"New toy syndrome" is a danger if marketers use video email because they can and not because it offers a true benefit to both sender and recipient.

Justin Foster, co-founder of video commerce solutions provider Liveclicker warns:

"Done poorly, video in email can be a distraction, so email marketers should always ask the question: is this video actually adding something important to my message, or is it just annoying?"

It's a point reinforced by Peter C. Horan, Chairman and CEO of Goodmail Systems (home of CertifiedVideo), who says his company advises against using video email...

"...when it's video for video's sake and doesn't really benefit the consumer."

And, as with all content, it's better to have no video than bad video. Horan says:

"There is absolutely nothing worse than boring content, broken links, static images and slow video streams."

Use video when it offers more than just a novel alternative

Video's primary value then comes not as a straightforward alternative or complement to text and images, but where the video itself offers a better experience than text and images can.

As Anna Yeaman of email design agency Style Campaign puts it, video is particularly apt when the equivalent copy and images would be "too lengthy or inadequate" for the job in hand.

It's a theme taken up by Chad White, Research Director at agency Smith-Harmon and author of the Retail Email Blog:

"Video is fantastic for things like product demonstrations, how-to information and conveying other information that's tricky to do with words and images alone."

Both Yeaman and White highlight Apple's email launching the iPhone 3G as a good example. As White says:

"For a slick, tactile product like the iPhone, showing a hands-on demonstration of its capabilities is more powerful than just listing out capabilities."

But the speed of information transfer via video means that where words can do the same job, they perhaps should do the job. White explains:

"One of video's drawbacks is that it's slow. It controls the pace at which you're absorbing the information. So if the information can be conveyed just as easily in writing, then you're probably better off going in that direction because people can read faster than someone can talk at them."

He warns:

"Make sure you're using video to convey the right content or hurried subscribers will tune you out."

Three main models

Goodmail's Peter Horan notes that early adopters of CertifiedVideo have tended to follow one of three directions, using video where:

1. It's the primary product, such as news and entertainment. Horan gives an example:

"You're promoting the Jonas Brothers next tour to teenage girls. Targeted email with "teasing" streaming video will increase interaction, prompting the viewer to watch a longer clip..."

2. It can demonstrate how a product works, similar to the Apple approach illustrated above.

3. It can help to add an emotional overlay to a rational message.

Smith-Harmon's White mentions a Williams-Sonoma email promoting wreaths with a secondary call-to-action to See How They Are Made. The email demonstrates how video helps build in more engagement and a broader experience with a product...

"That video included a tour of the farm where the herbs and other wreath-making materials are grown, an interview with the owner of the family-owned farm, and footage of workers putting the wreaths together by hand."

"Williams-Sonoma had a great story to tell about how they're supporting a family-owned farm and craftsmen. The story added to the allure of the product."

What does the video medium say about what you want to say?

Wayne Wall, CEO at Flimp Media, a rich media marketing and analytics service, suggests exploiting the implication that a video format represents an important message:

"...if you have big news to announce, an audience will understand that it is important before they even hear the news by virtue of the fact that you're using a high-quality medium to engage them."

Wall also warns that video isn't excluded from the kind of best practices you apply to any email content, such as targeting.

It might seem self-evident, but the excitement over video email can lead marketers to forget some of the basics in the rush to play with a new toy. Wall says:

"You want your message to be well-received, and knowing how your audience responds to certain kinds of content will help to determine when video email is appropriate."

"A deathly serious video will fall on deaf ears if you send it to a younger audience; likewise, a fun, casual video might send the wrong message about your company to certain C-level executives."

In Part 2, our five experts explore some specific recommended practices for implementing video email and look at the constraints and bad practices that can turn your message into a horror movie.

More on videos in email | Tags: video emails, video gifs, goodmail

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