Want to get your message to the masses? Looking for a cost effective way to create leads and sales? Why
not try sending a video via email? While you can’t actually embed
videos in every email, you can attach them to online newsletters such as
Constant Contact.
With
billions of videos being watched online monthly, it seems logical that
businesses will want to maximize the marketing potential of video in
such areas as email, newsletters, blogs and social networks. What’s even better is the fact that a number of popular platforms are adding ways for their users to put a movie in every emailbox.
Google Goes Viral
Gmail
recently unleashed a feature that allows users to preview YouTube
videos right from their inbox. Sweet! Now all those YouTube links that
your friends keep bombarding you with can be reviewed without ever
having to go to YouTube.
When is Email Freemail?
Recently a number of video email purveyors have sprung up to help feed the public’s voracious appetite for online video. Some
of these sites are even free to use, such as Eyejot.com and
howdywire.com. This makes composing and delivering video emails a snap. Designed to work with your computer’s webcam, you can compose, shoot and send emails in a matter of seconds. If you want to send a more polished video, Eyejot makes uploading a polished video as simple as point and click.
A Bright Future for Email Marketing?
While
the uses of video email are only going to grow during the coming years,
the rules for using this medium as a marketing tool are still the same
as with traditional email. Spammers beware. Therefore,
the secret to getting your video message across without ruffling any
feathers is to use 4 parts infotainment per one part sales pitch.
Accomplishing this task via video is not at all difficult, provided that you throw in a bit of production value. One
of the simplest ways to create production value without breaking the
bank is by creating microcasts of 1-2 minutes that provide helpful tips. A dollop of humor wouldn’t hurt either. Something along the lines of Tim Allen’s ToolTime shtick comes to mind. Better still would be to use a buxom blonde to provide the tips. You get the picture.
There
are hundreds of ways to get your message across using video email
marketing. Not every production will work for you, but you can bet that
given a little trial and error you will be able to come up with a number
of ways to employ video to create a loyal following online.
Where Google Leads Others Will Follow
You can also bet your boots that the folks at Microsoft are looking for a way to incorporate Silverlight into MSN and Hotmail. I’d
also wager that Yahoo has got to have something in the works as well.
All I can say is that in time there will be a plethora of multimedia
friendly email services along with a host of apps that will make
embedding video as easy as ABC.
So
why wait? The most important word of advice that I can give any online
marketer is to embrace this cost effective advantage before the
competition beats you to the finish line.
Carl Weiss has been getting paid to work the web since 1995. You can see his own brand of video tutorials by going to http://access-jax.com and htt://Jacksonville-video-production.com