Adding Video to your Mailing
Video gives your mailing a bit of extra polish, and it’s a great addition to the other media you’re already using to stay in touch with your contacts. Oh, and it’s versatile, too — Video is helpful for demonstrating a new product, giving a tour of your new office space or showing the highlights of your latest event.
Mail servers aren’t as fond of video as we are, though, and many servers out there tend to block video that’s simply embedded in the content of the mailing itself. And in addition to the dip in overall delivery rates (eek), embedding video in your email makes it darn near impossible to track who’s watched it (argh).
A better way to combine the forces of video and email is to post your video online and link your recipients right to it. That way, your email won’t raise any server red flags, and — even better — you’ll be able to track who clicked to download and watch your video. The video block tool lets you do this easily for YouTube and Vimeo videos, but for other video files, try the below steps.
1. Choose a video format. Choose a video format that’s compatible most everywhere — such as Quicktime videos, MPEGs, Flash movies, WAV files and more — or offer several format options.
2. Post your video. You’ll be linking to your video from the email mailing, and you’ve got a few choices when it comes to where to post the video:
- Host the video on your site.
- Post it on YouTube or Vimeo (we suggest using the handy video block tool for YouTube or Vimeo).
- Add it to your document library.
3. Create a link to your video. Now that you’ve posted your video online, edit your mailing and create a link to the webpage where it’s hosted, or create a link to the file in your document library.
If you’d rather feature a visual of the video, use the video block tool, which gives you the added bonus of some visual interest in the mailing.
4. Remember to check your response numbers. After you’ve sent the mailing, remember to check your response numbers, and think about the most appropriate way to follow up with video viewers. You might create a new audience segment for those who clicked to view the video and share more video content with those folks in the future.