People have often asked me when they see me about what is the new and most profitable trend in ecommerce and I respond without hesitation “video content”. So I am excited to see more new technology appearing that can place video right into a persons inbox, and seeing businesses experimenting with it. Recently a study revealed the most time on the internet for a person is spent in there inbox so isn’t that where a business wants to place there ads or content. Absolutely. Anna Yeaman reports one retailer boasting a 20-27% click through rate without linking to video, and 51-65% with links to video. And Forrester Research reports video in email can increase click through by 2-3X.
As Mr. Brownlow explains in his state-of-play update on video in retail email, early use of video in email was really linking text to a video hosted on the Web. Now we see this all changing to a more filter friendly format.
Some retailers like Sears got clever and converted video to animated gifs. and Anna Yeaman has a DIY tutorial on how to convert video to animated gif. The gif images are not as smooth as video but nevertheless effective.
What is so hard about placing a video in email?
Deliverability is the issue. Large video attachments are often a flagged as spam, and ISPs (Internet service providers) block complex data including Javascript for security reasons.
Javascript in an e-mail has been blocked by many ISP’s and is a challenge for deliverability, since large video attachments often alert company server filters. The way that the NewF5 system gets around this issue is that their e-mail maintains the highest “white listing” available for an email provider and is a paid service that does not go through typical e-mail filters.
How to beat the email spam filters.
This month, the NewF5 Email Campaign Software launched for individual and small business owners and has in place a spam compliance policy that insures that deliverability stays the highest possible in the email campaign business. This high deliverability includes there newsletter and email marketing program software too.
The NewF5 email marketing program locks down the bit of code that calls the video server, allowing actual video code to live in the email rather than just a placeholder. Many small businesses are already claiming very positive results.
Google announced it would support Youtube links in email for Gmail accounts. Its not an embed, rather Gmail recognizes Youtube code and displays the video in the email ” provided that the Gmail user has enabled the feature through Google Labs. Its unlikely the average Gmail user is going to turn this on so the marketing value is lost” so dont get too excited. Of course using gmail or any other free system defeats the purpose of email marketing which is automating the tracking and converting of your valuable leads.
Other Features That distinguish the NewF5 Email Campaign Software from a Free web mail are:
1. Video and audio creation, playlists, picture galleries, media storage and media publishing;
2. Full email client with video, audio, and template integration for individual follow up
3. Mobile sync
4. Lead capture
5. Auto-responder
6. Customized template creation
7. Email delivery reporting and statistics.
My personal experience with the NewF5 Email Campaign Software has been above expectations. Using this system I have built 3 businesses in 5 countries from the comfort of my home office. The New F5 system is what I believe to be a must have tool for any business competing in there local and national markets.
