StreamSend: Reach Holiday Customers with Mobile & Video Emails

StreamSend shows how agencies and marketers can use mobile and video emails to create holiday email marketing campaigns that attract leads and generate sales during the 2014 holiday season.

“Today’s connected consumers are already a moving target for marketers,” said Dan Forootan, president of StreamSend Email Marketing. “But as consumers go into hyper-drive during the holidays and events like Cyber Monday and Black Friday, grabbing their attention can get even tougher. So — now that over half of all emails are opened on mobile devices and video has proven itself a great way to catch them on the go — it’s a smart time for marketers to reach customers during the holidays with mobile and video emails.”

1. Reach Them Everywhere with Holiday Videos

What better way to capture holiday emotions than with an entertaining video that can be shared? Take advantage of video’s popularity with mobile users, create immediate engagement with customers and prospects on the go, whether those viewers follow a URL to a landing page or complete a form right on the video to opt in to your mailing list. Make it easy — drag and drop in a video widget, add calls to action to any video and off it goes, shared, emailed, on a board or embedded with your calls-to-action on a page.

2. Video Boosts Revenue – a Lot

When comparing the performance metrics of marketers using video in email marketing to those that do not, The Relevancy Group found that those adding videos to email had a much higher return on investment, increasing ROI and boosting monthly revenue by forty percent.

3. Mobile can be like a Personal Shopper

Mobile works great during the holiday hustle and bustle; so quick and easy — and targeted — it’s like giving your customers a personal shopper they can use to:

• Take advantage of the mobile environment for one-click action.
• Take advantage of mobile being an easy place to watch a twenty second pitch.
• Take advantage of ready-to-go, customizable templates that do the job for you.

4. Make it Easy

Make mobile easy for email readers. That’s the #1 rule. Easy to read and easy to act on. Although many customers using mobile aren’t necessarily a moving target, e.g., almost half of smartphone users are watching their small screen while they are watching their TV screen, messages still face a battle to earn their attention – and not get banished with an unsubscribe. Responsive holiday templates with built-in mobile smarts are a great place to start reaching them the right way, and marketers can build on those templates to fit their purpose.

5. Start Small

Marketers should take the easier mobile route when they can, too. For instance, it’s easier to start building messages by first designing the mobile email experience then working up to the desktop. Mobile designs and templates can usually expand much more easily than trying to retrofit desktop content. But that’s assuming they contain identical content or design. They don’t have to — it can be a smarter, easier move to capitalize on the advantages of their different sizes with different approaches.

6. Master Mobile Mechanics

Actions to consider while assembling a mobile video email to break through the holiday clutter:

• Consider how the email will stack, i.e., images above corresponding text, etc.
• Put most important content or calls to action in the HTML
• Keep the navigation down to a minimum
• Use a font that is easy to read. Avoid italics and too much bold.

7. Keep it Short and Make it Count

Especially during the holidays, plan on your email subscribers having short attention spans. Keep client videos under 60 seconds long. And make sure the video resonates with audience interests and needs. Don’t include a video just for video’s sake; it will backfire.

8. Invite Them into Your Home

The subject line should include the word “video” and tie into the segment’s subject matter. You can also allude to a video with a phrase such as “watch now.” Meanwhile, design a landing page for your clients to create continuity and keep the audience on your site. Don’t send subscribers to YouTube; instead, embed the video on the landing page. That way, you can track responses.

9. Mobile Video Rules to Remember

Use a format that supports both web and mobile video playback. Smartphones and tablets are too prevalent to ignore. Make sure the video plays in both HTML5 and Flash. Design emails so that video is the primary focus and is positioned above the fold. The video should be up to 400 pixels wide. The email should concisely state what’s in it for subscribers and why they should watch the holiday segment.

10. Stay on Track these Holidays

Track it all—open rates, play rates, shares, etc.—and compare the results to traditional email campaigns. Not only are marketers likely to see a nice boost in holiday response, they will learn how to keep improving results into the New Year and beyond.

Jim McNulty, 508-48