Tips on Incorporating Video in Emails

There’s been a lot of buzz recently about incorporating video in emails. There are two main ways to do it:

1. the new-school, techy way of embedding and playing the video in the email (not yet readily available)

2. the old-school way of including a link in the e-mail that directs readers to a page where the video plays

While an embedded video is “cool,” and certain to get some brownie points, the other (more reliable) alternative is creating an image that’s linked to the video content online. The latter works every time and you have the benefit of knowing who is taking action, which is data lost if the video played in the body of the email. (This blog has a good tutorial on Way #2.) In any case, don’t incorporate video in your emails just because it’s the next hip thing; do it because it furthers your business’ goals.

Here are four tips on emailing videos:

Do You Have Video Content?

• With YouTube's fame, many companies already have video content at their disposal for emails. If this is the case, pull an inventory of your videos and figure out which ones are best at communicating the advantages of your product or service. The next step is to build an e-mail campaign around the video content. IMPORTANT: Make sure the email copy isn't a redundant transcript of the video.

Don’t Have Video Content?

• Create a strategic plan to make some. It doesn't have to be high end. At the end of the day, its passion about your products or services that count. A good starting place is taping first-person customer testimonials, if possible. Also, consider videos that talk directly about the features and benefits your product or service. IMPORTANT: video is only the medium. Your message can be just about anything.

What Resources Do You Need to Create Video Content?

• Video production need not be expensive, but it's almost certainly not free. Consider the cost of the video into the campaign's cost and run ROI figures accordingly to make sure that the extra exposure from videos will at least cover the additional cost.

Will People Be Able to View the Video?

• Technology to view video is mostly limited to Web-based e-mail clients, like Gmail and Yahoo, meaning if your audience is consumers, video may be a good option. Clients in the business world largely use Outlook, etc., which aren't video-ready just yet. If the technology in your e-mail more advanced than the e-mail your audience is using, the whole thing is moot!