Submitted by: Lorraine Grula
Video is a proven online marketing winner. Over and over again, video has shown itself to be superior over other methods of online communication. So obviously, being able to email your list a video is high on many people's priority lists. Problems is, how do you do it?
Video files are WAY to big to send with emails as a standard attachment. Unless your video file is extremely small, I would not advise attempting to email it like you do a still picture or document attachment.
Generally, most videos that do get emailed are in the form of a .wmv file. This stands for Windows Media Video and is one of the smallest video files. It also has pretty bad resolution, which is why it is so small. So for that reason,.wmv videos that get emailed are usually jokes and not professional videos.
Most internet video sharing sites will let you email video, but you can not import a large list, you can only send it to a few people at a time. What does get sent is usually a link to the video, not the video itself. so if this method is good enough for You Tube, it is good enough for you.
What about embed code, you ask? Embed code is generally how you put video onto a website. So will it work in an email? Unfortunately, no. It's not a good idea to add the embed code into your email the same way you embed it into a web page. This is because both ISPs and email software block video embed code so chances are high your email will not get through and it will not play.
SO HOW IS IT DONE?
The easiest way to email your video is to email a link to your video and not the video itself. So if your video is hosted by You Tube, send the link to the You Tube page that contains your video. This is how You Tube does it if you use their share video feature.
A text link would be added just like any other text link, with hyperlinked keywords or HTML messages. A full URL address would need to be used for a plain-text email message.
Of course, many people might think mailing out just a link is too boring. Well, maybe so. To make it look more exciting, use an image link instead of just a test link. The still image will appear to be a video player in your email, but it's not really, it is just the thumbnail.
To do this with an auto-responder service, you need to upload the still image to your website image folder and put a link to that image inside your email message. That should automatically show when someone opens the email. (Not always though, some email clients block images.) So make sure you give your image a title that will make it understood even if the image is blocked. Click here to watch the video would work.
Doing it this way is probably the single best way, although it can get a bit tricky. Including the thumbnail as a still image and having it be an active link to the actual video is the best way to email your video without emailing your video, if that makes sense.
The thumbnail image is instantly recognizable as a video, a plain link is not. So including the thumbnail will instantly tell anyone who opens the email that it contains video whereas if you just have a link, that won't happen.
E-mailing a video is a good idea though, either way. Mailing out the link to the video is certainly better than not using video at all.
Thanks for reading Video Production Tips
Lorraine Grula
Internet Video Gal
About the Author: If you want to learn how to make video you will find all the free information you need at Lorraine Grula's blog, www.VideoProductionTips.com
Source: www.isnare.com
Permanent Link: https://www.isnare.com/?aid=420988&ca=Marketing
No comments:
Post a Comment