Best Practices for Incorporating Video into Email

Speakers & Agenda

• Loren McDonald

– VP, Industry Relations

– Silverpop

– Moderator

• Justin Foster

– Co-Founder & VP Market Development,

– LiveClicker

• Agenda

– Why Video?

– Benefits of Video

– When To Use/Not Use

Video

– Best Practices

– Questions & Answers

Best Practices for Incorporating Video into Email

Why Video?

Video Trends

Marketers Paying Attention to Video

Rank the priority of the following online marketing initiatives for your company in 2010.

n = 116 representing Fortune 500 brands, regional brands, PR and traditional agencies. TurnHere Networks, October 20, 2009

Web 2.0 v. Email 0.7?

What are the Benefits?

>100% increase in CTR video vs. static image

Renewed interest in the channel

Contributed to budget increase

What are the Benefits?

Increase in average order value

Increase in conversion rate

Run in A/B test of in-email video v. static image.

What are the Benefits?

Tells a story

Differentiates the brand

Humanizes an offer

Before Jumping into Video Email…

Does video have strong potential to deliver on message objectives?

Can you envision a video that “makes sense?”

Do you have the knowledge required to increase the performance of video so it meets objectives?

Do you understand the limitations of video in email? Are you prepared to launch in-email video given the limitations?

Framework for Supporting Video Email

When to Incorporate Video?

When it is relevant

When it adds value to the subscriber experience

When it is a primary callout in the email

When it is used as a “teaser”

When to NOT Incorporate Video?

When it’s a distraction

If it’s not relevant

If it must be placed below the fold

If the costs outweigh the benefits

If you are unable or unprepared to educate internal stakeholders about limitations of in-email video

If it needs to be longer than ~45 seconds to work in-email

Fogg Behavior Model

For more information on the Fogg Behavior Model, visit http://www.behaviormodel.org. For more information on BJ Fogg, visit http://www.bjfogg.com.

How to Incorporate Video

BenefitStatic Image

Video .GIF Flash HTML5Certified Video™

Certified Video .GIF™

Universal Support

YES NO NO NO NO NO

Broad Support

100% 75% - 90% ~0% ~2% ~10% >50%

Video Plays in Email

NO YES YES YES YES YES

Image-Block

ResistantNO NO N/A N/A N/A YES

Spam-Block Resistant

YES YES NO YES YES YES

What Email Clients/ISPs Support Video?

Desktop Clients Video .GIF?

Certified Video?

HTML5 Comments

AOL 10.0 YES YES NOAOL 9.0 YES YES NOApple Mail 3.0 NO NO NO First frame displays only for video .GIFEntourage 2008 YES NO NOLotus Notes 6.5 YES NO NO Requires special file encoding for video .GIF to work.

Lotus Notes 7.0 YES NO NO Requires special file encoding for video .GIF to work.

Lotus Notes 8.0 YES NO NO Requires special file encoding for video .GIF to work.

Outlook Express YES NO NOOutlook 2000 YES NO NOOutlook 2003 YES NO NOOutlook 2007 NO NO NO First frame displays only for video .GIFThunderbird YES NO NOWindows Mail YES NO NOWeb Mail ClientsAOL.com YES YES NO* *Safari 3, 4 support HTML5. Video ,GIF subject to per-user agent differences in

supportGmail YES NO NO*Windows Live Mail YES NO NO*Yahoo Mail YES NO NO*Yahoo Classic YES NO NO*Comcast YES NO NO*Cox Webmail YES NO NO*AT&T Webmail YES NO NO*RoadRunner Webmail YES NO NO*Verizon Webmail YES NO NO*Earthlink Web Mail YES NO NO*Mobile Mail ClientsiPhone 3.0 YES NO YES Dependent on connectioniPhone 2.2 YES NO YES Dependent on connectionBlackberry Curve YES NO NO Dependent on connectionBlackberry Bold YES NO NO Dependent on connection

Popular Email Clients

Email Client Market Share Report, FingerPrintApp. September 2008.

Static Images & Video .GIFs Subject to Image Blocks

 EmailClient

Default Images on?

Default Links on? Default Changeable?

AOL 9.0 Software NO NO YES

AOL.com, AIM.com Web NO YES YES

AT&T Web NO YES YES

Earthlink Web YES YES YES

Gmail Web NO YES YES

Hotmail / Windows Live Mail Web Depends Depends YES

Lotus 8 Software YES YES YES

Mac Web NO YES NO

NetZero/Juno Web YES YES NO

Outlook 2003, 2007 Software NO YES YES

Yahoo Classic WebYES Inbox

NO Spam Folder YES YES

Yahoo Mail Web NO YES YES

LEARN MORE:

Certified Email (Goodmail): Unblock images at AOL, BT, Yahoo, Telus, Cox, Comcast Certification Program (Return Path): Unblock images at Windows Live Mail

Measure and Learn

Best Practices Checklist - Strategy

Is the video relevant? Does the video engage rather than distract? Does the video support message objectives? Can video be implemented effectively given tech

limitations? Are costs understood and accurately estimated? Are success metrics measurable? Are key internal stakeholders properly educated?

Best Practices Checklist - Creative

Used as primary visual element in-email? Sound off by default? Above the fold? Acceptable playback quality? >160px wide, <320px wide? >15 seconds in duration, <45 seconds in

duration? Acceptable failover for Outlook 2007 and Apple

Mail?

Best Practices Checklist - Technical <150kb in data transfer required? <10MB? Seamless failover for non-supporting mail

clients? Optimized playback for different mail clients? Alternative display methods utilized where

supported (e.g. HTML5) Sufficiently robust content delivery infrastructure? No Javascript or Flash required (except in case

of CertifiedVideo)?

Reminders / Q & A

Resources

• Resource Center– White papers– Webinars– Blogs– Case studies– Newsletters– http://www.silverpop.com/marketing-resources/

index.html

• Many presentations on SlideShare– www.slideshare.net/Silverpop

Q & A and Contact Information

• Justin Foster, LiveClicker– justin@liveclicker.com – www.liveclicker.com– Twitter: @videocommerce

• Loren McDonald, Silverpop– lmcdonald@silverpop.com– Twitter:

• @Silverpop or @LorenMcDonald

Thank you!

On Twitter: @Silverpopwww.slideshare.net/silverpop

www.silverpop.com