This is a live blog from Connections 09 in the Email Optimization Track
Email is not dead. People that use social media are actually high volume users of email.
History of email:
(present by Chris Studabaker of ExactTarget)
Text Based only 10 years ago
HTML is now being accented by Rich Media and Video
Advertisers continue to increase spending in online video. All the more reason to use video in email.
How and When to use video in email
Benefits:
-Emotion
-Highly engaging
-Personal, even user-generated
-Great demonstration medium (show, don’t tell)
Concerns:
-Development cost and time
-Production quality and the “uncanny valley”
-File size and bandwidth
-Frame rates
-Deliverability
Deliverability methods:
Streaming – video downloaded as it plays
Embedded – video data included in sent message
Linking – click through to externally hosted video
When using video in email, make sure your subscribers want to see the video you have. Knowing your subscribers’ expectations is very important. Also, remember the messages primary goal. Is the video the Call to Action or do you want your subscribers to click on something else in the email?
Linking with Button or Image?
Do you link to your video with a graphic button, a clip of the video with a play button superimposed, or a rotating animated gif with multiple clips from the video. It depends on your subscribers. Experiment with all three. One type may drive more total clicks but another may drive more conversions.
Streaming Video in Email:
(Peter Horan of GoodMail)
GoodMail is a CertifiedEmail partner with many ISPs so messages sent don’t end up in the spam filter.
CertifiedVideo will create an interactive experience via email.
Every time you ask a subscriber to do one more step, you loose some of them. If a subscriber has to click to turn on images in their emails, they may not view your email.
Daily Candy currently sends CertifiedVideo in their email.
Fandango also includes movie trailers inside their video, not just a static button that a subscriber has to click to see the video.
Target includes essentially video commercials inside their emails to represent their products and brand.
Thrillist allowed Canon to sponsor a video displaying a new camera inside one of their emails.
The Effects of including video in email:
Increases Brand awareness in important categories, such as increasing how Target is perceived as caring for their customers.
CertifiedVideo emails currently only works on web-based email, such as AOL, Yahoo, and Gmail, but not Outlook.

Email is not dead. People that use social media are actually high volume users of email.
History of email:
(present by Chris Studabaker of ExactTarget)
Text Based only 10 years ago
HTML is now being accented by Rich Media and Video
Advertisers continue to increase spending in online video. All the more reason to use video in email.
How and When to use video in email
Benefits:
-Emotion
-Highly engaging
-Personal, even user-generated
-Great demonstration medium (show, don’t tell)
Concerns:
-Development cost and time
-Production quality and the “uncanny valley”
-File size and bandwidth
-Frame rates
-Deliverability
Deliverability methods:
Streaming – video downloaded as it plays
Embedded – video data included in sent message
Linking – click through to externally hosted video
When using video in email, make sure your subscribers want to see the video you have. Knowing your subscribers’ expectations is very important. Also, remember the messages primary goal. Is the video the Call to Action or do you want your subscribers to click on something else in the email?
Linking with Button or Image?
Do you link to your video with a graphic button, a clip of the video with a play button superimposed, or a rotating animated gif with multiple clips from the video. It depends on your subscribers. Experiment with all three. One type may drive more total clicks but another may drive more conversions.
Streaming Video in Email:
(Peter Horan of GoodMail)
GoodMail is a CertifiedEmail partner with many ISPs so messages sent don’t end up in the spam filter.
CertifiedVideo will create an interactive experience via email.
Every time you ask a subscriber to do one more step, you loose some of them. If a subscriber has to click to turn on images in their emails, they may not view your email.
Daily Candy currently sends CertifiedVideo in their email.
Fandango also includes movie trailers inside their video, not just a static button that a subscriber has to click to see the video.
Target includes essentially video commercials inside their emails to represent their products and brand.
Thrillist allowed Canon to sponsor a video displaying a new camera inside one of their emails.
The Effects of including video in email:
Increases Brand awareness in important categories, such as increasing how Target is perceived as caring for their customers.
CertifiedVideo emails currently only works on web-based email, such as AOL, Yahoo, and Gmail, but not Outlook.
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