The use of video in e-mail marketing is growing, but it also presents a range of challenges for marketers.
Video e-mail marketing firm Flimp, the Web Video Marketing Council and e-mail service provider ExactTarget recently published a report on video in e-mail. The 2010 Video E-mail Marketing Survey and Industry Trends Report indicated that 50% of respondents have used video in their e-marketing campaigns and 24% are considering it.
However, only 21% of marketers said their e-mail service providers offer video marketing solutions. Forty-four percent said they did not know if their ESP has that offering and 35% said it was not on their list of services.
Marketers say the main challenges to using video in e-mail are implementation, high cost and the availability of video content.
“I think the reason for that is from a technological point of view, the skill sets for doing rich media in audio visual tracking, reporting and content are actually different from the kind of standard HTML website e-mail,” said Wayne Wall, CEO of Flimp Media.
The report also indicated that 73% of the marketers see video-based e-mail marketing as more likely to generate higher conversion and purchase rates than static content. More than half (52%) see it as “the wave of the future.”
Four in 10 (40%) of marketers say linking to a video landing page from an image or weblink as the best way to deploy video. Another 33% said that a video player embedded into an e-mail message would be most effective, though present technology doesn’t allow for that yet.
Jennifer O’Meara, content editor at the Web Video Marketing Council suggested marketers simplify the video e-mail process.
“[This] will certainly help marketers adapt and adopt this,” she said. “Right now, for the most part, it’s a very mechanical process. I think it’s important to help organizations understand what might work from an HTML standpoint; if you’re using video, you really want to make video the focus.”
The report was conducted as an online survey between May 26, 2010 and June 27, 2010. Over 200 interactive marketing professionals participated.
