Video in Email is not a Trick

Email. Email marketing campaigns, to be specific.  It has been a hot topic this month. Some media pundits think email is dead. Heck, The Wall Street Journal was bold enough to state this earlier this month, causing a flurry of protests and outrage.  Marketers, in particular, know that email marketing campaigns are an important way to reach an audience.
I’m not here to weigh-in on the “email is dying” debate. Rather, I’m more interested in how a traditional digital communications tactics can evolve.  If you want to be on the cutting edge of interactive marketing, video email campaigns are one way to stay ahead of the trends.
An article published yesterday by BtoB Magazine acknowledged that many email makers looking for a new way to engage their audience are using video. Why? Because video generates a higher click-through rate, better audience engagement and allows companies to maintain an ongoing conversation.  With close to three years of experience working on email web video marketing campaigns, I couldn’t agree more.
What excited me even more is that this particular article validated Flimp’s best practice approach to email:

“[T]oday the best practice is to host the video outside the e-mail content with a play button graphic embedded into the text of the e-mail. This allows the recipient to have a visual call to action without affecting the deliverability of the e-mail.”

This is exactly what Flimp’s email delivery option does. In fact, you can set-up a flimp to be sent out via email in a matter of minutes.
There are a number of reasons why this video email method is currently a best practice.  First and foremost, though it is technically possible to play a video within an email, most email clients do not permit it due to bandwidth. Second, users do not have to worry about opening up an email and having something instantaneously play.  This is especially important in emails being sent in a B2B capacity.  Third, you can still use written copy to convey a message. 
A question many new flimp-makers ask is “what does a flimp video email look like?”  Below is a screen shot of a flimp email that is part of the current Sony Ericsson WTA Tour’s daily Doha Tournament campaign:

Email is an effective way to deliver a flimp.  Even better – the FLIMP Platform is integrated with close to thirty Email Service Providers (ESPs).  What this means, is if you send a flimp via one of the integrated ESPs, you will generate at individual email address engagement in your flimp report.  Since I received the Sony Ericsson WTA flimp and opened/watch the flimp, this flimp’s report will have jomeara AT flimp.net tagged to each engagemet I made on the flimp itself.
Email web video marketing is not a ghoulish trick, but it can be a terrific treat for your mar-comm initiatives.

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