Anyone have experience with Video Response e-mail?

[Nathan Carr]

We've been looking for a solution for follow-up responses via video. Autobase was due to have a solution out but it's again been pushed back a couple more months. We are looking to be able to embed the videos in e-mail and send them to customers in a neat an organized format.

Any companies out there with a solution for this?

Thanks!

 

[DrewAment]

You can't "embed" video in an email. Most email programs, even rich HTML ones, strip out the code that is required to embed video. Even Gmail strips out the YouTube (Google owns) embed code that is needed. To display embed video in Outlook, you need to change the security settings - which no one does.

At best you can have a image that "looks" like a video with a play button, and when clicked takes the customer to a webpage with the video.

Don't let any vendor tell you different, their presentations usually "appear" to imply they can embed, they can't.

The image approach is the current best practice:

* You put the video up on a website.
* Then you take a screenshot of the video player in action.
* Then you code your HTML to fetch and display this screenshot image when the email is opened, and link it to the web page where the actual video is available.

 

[Nathan Carr]

Thanks Drew,
I understand that most e-mail providers/ programs strip out embedded video code. Though Google seems to allow Youtube to pass now which I've tested.

I should rephrase my question a bit. We don't necessarily need to embed the video code but a simple approach to creating an image file to use in an e-mail template and linking to an online video. So basically we are looking for a solution that will automate the process as you suggested it.

 

[CAORYAN]

I am not up to date on HTML5 but I would image if you can use HTML5 in email it would work. Worth looking into. Based on my small knowledge of it some email platforms should already support it.

I have played with talkfusion before but i was disappointed by the response of unopened emails. Their product is simple and easy to use. I was firing off custom videos to clients that only took about 2 minutes. They do the template and everything. The only reason I don't like them is because they are on a network marketing platform.

I would start with HTML5 and go to talkfusion if you can't figure it out or not enough platforms support it.

 

[Nathan Carr]

Craig,
Thanks I took a look at your demo and it's certainly an option.

Ryan,
HTML5 was what I was thinking as well. Youtube has started to adopt it on their testing site, I'll have to take a closer look at in house options. Thanks for the Talkfusion recommendation, I will look into them as well.

 

[Jason Walter]

We've been looking for a solution for follow-up responses via video. Autobase was due to have a solution out but it's again been pushed back a couple more months. We are looking to be able to embed the videos in e-mail and send them to customers in a neat an organized format.

Any companies out there with a solution for this?

Thanks!

For about a year we had about 4 or 5 autoresponses that were a screenshot of a video. When the customer clicked on the image they were brought to a page on our site that was hidden and only accessible from that specific url. At the ned of the video we would point to the nav bar above giving the customer directions to the specific part of our site we wanted them to go.

I just recently stopped them and have gone to straight HTML emails. We got a pretty good response....we just decided to do something different. If you have the ability to create custom HTML pages yourself it shouldn't be that hard to do.

 

[Nathan Carr]

Well I took a decent look into HTML5 and the H.264 / Ogg Theora Video support. So far it appears the only way to get a video to open in an e-mail via this method is to use an Apple product. Specifically iPhone and Mac's Mail client. There is an option for substitution of the video for a still image in the other e-mail clients/ browsers. This seems to be the best case scenario until more support for HTML5 and more video options in e-mail arise (which it appears support is growing rapidly since the iPad release).

With this in mind we will have to shift focus to an image linking strategy along the lines of Talkfusion or Aereus. If anyone else has any suggestions for solutions please let me know!

Thanks!

 

[DrewAment]

Template Selector

Did these for a dealer in Phoenix - the nice thing about HTML templates, and if you host the images offiste (not in your CRM) is that you can swap out the images live and add promo/specials. 0% on the XXX model just announced? Change the header to reflect that, change the image on the server and you automatically updates all the emails you are sending AND have sent out.

 

[Ryan Thompson]

Thought I would give this thread a bump. I'm positive that video email responses will increase conversions and showroom appointments (as long as the person in the video doesn't look like an ex-con).

Elise Kephart at Sunset Honda does an amazing job, but not all of dealers can pull this off with YouTube: http://thedealergeek.com/online-superstar-elise-kephart

Just had a dealer send me a video response from Eye-Jot which was actually pretty decent , considering it's free: http://www.eyejot.com/

Covideo seems to be the Cadillac so far but you need to be fully commited for the monthly charge: http://www.covideo.com/

Curious to know if there is any other providers that should be on this list.

 

[DrewAment]

Sands Chevrolet - Serving Arizona since 1934

Sands Chevrolet - Serving Arizona since 1934

I put this together for a dealer I work with, they can input ANY video that is on YouTube... v=XXXXXXXXX in the URL changes it. Can even display the most recent Chevy videos if you need/want to. I think it is a lot better than just sending a link to youtube. What is amazing to me is the number of people that click on the links in the email, and go back to the website.

Anyways... a simple way to allow the salespeople to do video, and still control the dealer brand.

--Drew