Stand Out from the Crowd using Video email
As the current recession grows ever deeper, marketing managers and advertisers are looking for new and innovative ways to market their products and services to a wider audience for a minimal cost. These days, there’s nothing neither new nor innovative about email marketing; however ‘video email’ does offer you chance to stand out from the crowd and stay one step ahead of the pack.
Yet again, video streaming specialists Streaming Tank have proved themselves to be at the forefront of this new and exciting marketing method and have provided their editing, encoding and streaming skills for numerous companies including National Savings & Investments.
Email marketing is one of the most cost effective ways of reaching a wide audience and taking advantage Streaming Tank’s superior knowledge of video email and streaming technologies can help increase click through rates dramatically. A higher click through rate often results in higher conversions which ultimately means a far higher return on investment; something which is especially important for all advertisers in 2009.
Just like the Web in general, there are a variety of methods available for displaying video content in emails; however, due to certain security methods in the various email clients available, some are more effective than others.
Flash is probably the most common form of displaying or streaming video content on the World Wide Web due it being compatible with most web browsers; however due to its reliance on the ‘object’ & ‘embed’ tags, Flash is currently not supported by most email clients due to their security measures. Therefore Flash is not necessarily the best method of embedding video content into an email.
Similarly, both Quicktime and Windows Media based video content also rely on the ‘object’ & ‘embed’ tags in order to display in an email. For this reason, both these alternatives to Flash video will more than likely stumble at the same hurdle. Similar security protocols also hinder the display of content which relies on both JavaScript and the Java Applet in many email clients, making these formats currently unsuitable for video email.
It may seem ‘old hat’ in this day and age, but the good old Animated Gif is one format which appears to be accepted on most email clients. Animated Gifs more often than not display in their entirety and can easily display the first segment of your desired video content. This ‘preview’, whether it be the entire animation or the first frame is often enough to capture the imagination of the end user and tempts them to view the rest of the footage.
