Learn The Facts And Tactics Behind Using Video Email

If you have ever dealt with email marketing before you will have come across the term 'Video Email' used somewhere, this emerging technology is fast becoming a must have for the film industry and many other media markets that utilise video heavily in their business.

The ideal side of this interesting development is that a detailed and long winded message which would normally take a while to get across can now be recorded and sent within minutes.

This will help save a lot of time, complication and above all getting your message over 'in person' will be faster.

What is video email?

Movie watchers will have noticed that an increase in video related emails previewing trailers is on the rise and will continue to flourish, if you haven't seen these kind of emails yet, then you may just be wondering - "what is a video email anyway?". The short answer is a normal email which is sent directly from your current provider in either one of two ways.

• The first is a simple attachment of a pre-recorded clip and a message to accompany the clip itself, which will be opened and downloaded before playing by the recipient.
• The second is a more detailed and technical approach server side, the same clip you have recorded is embedded into your email so it can be played as soon as the message is opened by the recipient.

5 Ways to boost your business through video email

1. Brand awareness

Using video to get your brand out there is the most effective way possible, it beats print and other traditional methods by offering the entertainment element. Create a short promo video that is around a minute long, syndicate it to the top social media sites such as Digg, You Tube and My Space for increased exposure.

2. Newsletter opt-in

One of the best marketing tools you can use for your site is a newsletter list that offers quality information to it's readers. An even more engaging way to offer such valuable content is through video, start brainstorming ideas for your a short video each week that you can send to your list, this will help build trust and reputation.

3. Sales and special offers

What better way to kick off a special offer campaign and encourage people to respond to your offers than a video! You can really play around with this concept also, building a large amount of traffic around this one concept, understand your customer and their desires - give them what they want in these short clips for a buying frenzy, use your email in this case as an advantage.

4. Blog competitions

Businesses online these days come side by side with a blog, simply because it's s new social way to communicate a message to their customers faster than ever before, your blog is your hidden sales machine that can be used to generate tons of traffic, sales and leads just with one post. Fire off a blog competition and use video emails to entice people back onto your blog to participate in the competition.

5. Customer feedback

The best way to get inside the minds of your customers is to ask them what they want! Send a clip out to your newsletter subscribers asking for feedback on your products, services and how you can improve - you will receive valuable feedback that will allow you to reach more customers than ever before.

Using HTML emails and animated GIFs

Have you noticed that you can't send embedded videos as most ISP's render it useless? Although this is currently the case you can still create a work around, the easy way would be to add an image to your mail with a graphical play button on top to emulate a video. Once the user clicks on this image they will then be taken to the actual page where the video is.

An advanced method of adding a clip to an email is by using an animated GIF and attaching it within an HTML email, you will still have to click on the image to see the full video on another page however it will still act as a teaser clip for others to view, pretty neat trick!

What's on the horizon for video e-mail?

Future developments

As the demand for media email grows a new market segment will emerge and take traditional email services to the next level, so you should see a rise in plug-ins for the major platforms out there such as Skype, Google and iChat (for the MAC). There are endless You Tube possibilities that could involve video and email, seen as though they are already owned by Google themselves so emailing is sure to take a new twist in the near future.

Current service providers

Right now there are some dedicated e-mail providers geared towards the video market, with the sole intention of allowing people send video emails without the need for a 'download client' or any recording software. A video message will be sent with a simple webcam.

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