Video Email: necessary, or not yet?

As we studied in class and discussed on the class discussion board, email marketing is still extremely strong. In fact, just today when I was in H&M buying a coat, someone was there at the register taking email addresses for an extra 10% off. I also went into a Columbia retail store. Same thing! 10% off for providing your email. This reinforces, if not proves, how strong email marketing still is (and I think will continue to be!) 

I was also looking around at some marketing blogs looking for email marketing trends. I found a great infographic on Inspired Mag about the benefits of adding VIDEO to email. (I believe the original study was done by Email on Acid and the infographic was created by Email Monks). The lead-off stat: "Video Email marketing offers a return 280% higher than traditional emails." With that lead-in, how could I not keep reading? 

Videos in email isn't really something that I've seen implemented that much. I've seen lots of straight text links to videos on other sites, but I haven't seen much of the embedded videos in the emails. And according to the study, only 25% of marketers have tried this. 

(imagine getting this great video in your inbox each day)

It turns out there are two ways to embed videos: through HTML5 or through a static image that can link to a video. HTML5 is preferable because you can play the video right there in the email. According to the study, 58% of internet users can view HTML5 videos. Anyone using Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook, however, won't be able to see the videos in the email (HTML5 is not supported by those platforms), so they'd have to go the static image route. 

At this point, since not many are doing this, you as a company or marketer could really set yourself apart by including video in your emails. I don't think this stops at email marketing, though - I think that doing video blogs (like Marie Forleo) or video podcasts can also really set you apart - it's a content leg-up on the competitors.

I've been thinking about why some have adopted video and others haven't. First, there's a big difference between me flipping on my webcam (like the video above) in my poorly lit room, and turning on a professional (enough) camera, setting up good lighting, and ensuring you are recording good audio. If the image you're trying to portray is extremely professional, you'll not want to just use your webcam and you sitting around in your pajamas; you'll want to add some professionalism... and professionalism costs money.

Still, as a marketer, I'd advise companies to start doing this, whether it is investing a little, or a lot right away. It's better to be in that early adopter timeframe than to be too late to the party and scrambling when your competitors already have established video content and SOPs. 

My reaction: social marketing trends of 2014

In the Forbes article The Top 7 Social Media Trends That Will Dominate 2014, the author Jayson DeMers sets up - you guessed it - 7 trends for the future. This is my reaction.

First, the author's trends:

1. Investment in social media will be a necessity, not a luxury
2. The rise of Google+
3. The rise of image-centric networks 
4. The rise of micro-video 
5. Foursquare will decline sharply
6. MySpace will grow
7. LinkedIn will be a huge B2B biz player

My initial reaction is that this is pretty spot-on. I think all are relevant, with the exception of Foursquare (I thought it already died?), and I think most of them are spot-on. 

I think that the most interesting part of all of this is that some bigger social networks – Google+, LinkedIn, and MySpace – are all carving out chunks of Facebook’s once-dominant market. I’ve written in this blog before about how I think Facebook is waning anyway, and from what I see here, I feel even stronger about that.

The re-branded MySpace

Take MySpace for example. One of the coolest things about MySpace back in the day is that there were a lot of bands on there, and you could listen to samples. Just looking at the re-branded MySpace’s front page, you get the feeling that they’re going back to that “artists first” type of thinking, which is a pretty smart play, I think. 

LinkedIn... Wow. I really agree with the growth projections there. The Influencers is a great addition, they do job postings, and now they also have University pages. While these Uni pages aren't perfect just yet, the feature will only get better and better. 

Rounding the "bigger" networks out is Google+. Everyone has Gmail, Google Drive is an amazing tool, so it just makes sense that everyone will be on Google+. Unlike LinkedIn, which takes the professional chunk of life, or MySpace, which looks like it's taking the artistic chunk, Google+ is pretty much an out-and-out direct Facebook competitor. While I really prefer Google+, I still don't use it, nor do I really know how to use it. I still think that Facebook is king, and while G+ is on the rise, I think that it might take a while before/if it eclipses Facebook. (or maybe I have it all wrong, and G+ gives us something totally different from Facebook. I'm not quite sure yet.)

Now for the 'smaller' trends, or trends-within-a-trend if you will... IMAGES and VIDEO. I completely agree with the author that these are growing and will continue to be huge. I think a lot of the rise has to do with the faster internet speeds. The trend has gone from long-form text blogs, to short "top-5" blogs, to microblogging and twitter, then to pictures and blogs, and now to pictures and video only. It totally goes with the shrinking attention span of the modern internet consumer, as well as faster internet speeds enabling videos to be shared that much more easily. 

I'd put money down on each of these trends to come to fruition in 2014.

Social media: the right and wrong way

It's fascinating to me that when on the internet there are so many "10 things not to do on social media"-type articles. And I'm ALWAYS disappointed when they're all apparent no-brainers. Don't insult people who have recently died. Don't trick people into engaging with your brand. Come on, world, is this the best we can do? (It's also fascinating that I KEEP clicking on these articles, but that's another story altogether).

I've been thinking a lot about social marketing in general and how it doesn't really have rules. It's cowboy country. Everyone is just figuring these things out - surely, that's why there are so many snafus, right? I mean it makes sense if you think that it's a relatively new area.

I read a pretty decent "5 Social Media Lessons Brands Learned This Year" article. I mean of the five, there were two good lessons (the other three were "no-brainers": don't make fun of a natural disaster; don't try to dupe people into interacting with you; don't put a 20-year-old who will post inappropriate tweets).

Come on, don't try to trick people! (although those numbers do suggest that it worked - but to what effect?!?!? 

The two good ones: stick up for yourself; don't take days off.

I'm going to go ahead and say that the two general rules that almost EVERY social media "don't"s involves are around CONSISTENCY and PUBLIC AUDIENCE RULES

Consistency

Both of the 'good' nuggets from this article fell into the "consistency" category. You need to a) POST consistently, and b) have a consistent MESSAGE. In some companies, the customers are king; bordering on dictators. For these companies that will do anything (or for ones who handle things poorly), they'll try to succumb to their nasty (sometimes deserving) posts. For other companies who provide good service and a good product, but sometimes deal with @$$holes, if it's consistent with their message and service, they can go ahead and strike back - if it's warranted!

Public Audience Rules

Basically, everything else falls into the "you're in PUBLIC" rule! In public, you can't do inappropriate, crazy things. Social media is in the public sphere - a super-public arena. Companies can't make inappropriate comments, make rants, try to dupe people, or do anything they wouldn't do in a press conference or other public forum.

This just deals with conduct of course; maybe there are more "no no"s around AUDIENCE vs BUSINESS MODELS. But maybe that'll be for next week.