Video E-mail Marketing Strategy

ending links to video e-mails has several advantages over attaching videos directly to e-mails. Social networks are changing the face of marketing and video e-mails.

Video e-mail marketing provides the ability to embed videos in e-mails or provide a link to a video file. Providing a link to a video file is the best option. This avoids the problem of sending video messages as attachments, which sometimes have difficulty getting through.

Social networks are changing the face of marketing and how businesses contact their customers. E-newsletters are still good for providing information; however video e-mails using social networks is becoming the newest venue for providing quick short information to potential and current customers.

Disadvantages of Video E-mail Attachments

There are more disadvantages to attaching videos to e-mails than there are advantages, such as:

• Video attachments are typically too large for most people to receive.


• Most people will not open attachments to avoid the possibility of infecting their computer with a virus.


• Many businesses block their employees' ability to receive e-mail video attachments.

Video E-mail Links

Sending links to video e-mails means more people are more likely to see the intended message, especially if the video is 3 minutes long or less. Some people may watch a video up to 5 minutes; however videos longer than 5 minutes are not generally watched.

This length of time was determined by researching some of the most viewed videos on social networks and averaging the length of these videos. This corresponds to the known factor of the short attention span of typical Internet users today. Short easy to view videos are generally receiving the most hits on the Internet. If the topics are really interesting, then viewers may stay a little longer.

Social Networks and Videos

The most popular social networks which allow people to post videos include:

• YouTube


• MySpace


• Facebook


• Bebo


• Flickr

These social networks have advantages for using a link for video e-mails:

• Controlled Groups – the person posting the video for their e-mail can control group members


• Privacy Controls – again the person posting the video can limit access

Marketing Applications of Video E-mails

Using videos for marketing products and services has several advantages. This is because busy people multitask and it gets difficult if they need to read articles or new information. With a video e-mail they can be scanning their papers and watching the video at the same time. Of course this means the video must be catchy to grab their full attention.

Business uses of video e-mail software include:

• Announcements of new products


• Announcements of special promotions and limited offers


• Announcements of newly acquired business ventures to potential and current customers


• Human Relations position announcements


• Announcements of employee promotions that are in direct contact with customers


• Personal congratulation messages to customers


• And many more options

Video e-mails are becoming a popular method of sending direct marketing information to potential and current customers over the Internet. Using social networks allows any business to send links to marketing videos.

As with any e-mail marketing campaign, the business needs to comply with the Can Spam Act of 2003 and only send video e-mails to current customers and others who have opted-in to receive e-mails from the business.

The copyright of the article Video E-mail Marketing Strategy in Marketing/PR is owned by David R. Wetzel. Permission to republish Video E-mail Marketing Strategy must be granted by the author in writing.