When referring to email marketing, the terms "relevance"; and"engagement" have been more than overused, but unfortunately, the message doesn't seem to be hitting home to quite a few email marketers. In a web 2.0 savvy world, the need for email marketers to be smarter with their email marketing tactics becomes even more of a necessity.
Engaging Your Subscribers Using
Interactive Media in Email
by: Sally LoweryOnline Marketing ManagerWhen referring to email marketing, the terms "relevance" and "engagement" have been more than overused, but unfortunately, the message doesn't seem to be hitting home to quite a few email mar-keters. In a web 2.0 savvy world, the need for email marketers to be smarter with their email marketing tactics becomes even more of a necessity. So how can you provide relevance and create engagement? In previous whitepapers, we've discussed using analytics, automation, and triggers, all effective tactics for providing relevant content to your readers. Today, however, we are going to discuss using a web 2.0, or interactive strategy, to keep your prospects and customers engaged. Let's start by defining web 2.0:
Web 2.0 is a term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration a mong users. It does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways end-users use the web. - Wikipedia
This whitepaper will cover the following topics and best practices for integrating these engaging ele-ments into your current email marketing program: . Video In Email . Utilizing Polls . Flash . RSS Feeds . Conversion Paths
Video in Email: Is it Okay? Is it Not Okay?Video, if done well, can enhance your email message. The key is to keep it relevant and user friendly. No one wants to receive a video that doesn't enhance their viewing experience, nor do they want a video that is clunky to navigate through and can't be accessed easily.
It's important to utilize as many of these best practices as possible, but understand that all may not fit your business objectives. Use the following essentials as a guide to effective video use in email:
. A lways have the video stored outside of the email, and link to it. Think You Tube, etc. If a recipient is engaged with the video call-to-action but the ability to view the video takes too long, then you're going to have respondents that are unwilling to stay engaged and click away. . Use text to describe the video. You need more than just an image to iMedia often includes video as a vital part of their email marketing. capture the call-to-action. Include The include a thumbnail of the video as well as a text call-to-action summary text that allows the email in the "How to Stand Out in Local Search" feature. recipient to determine if they want to view the video. Consider including it above or below the video image.
