EmailFilm Technologies Inc. is bringing something new to e-mail marketing: a product and service based on patent-pending compression technology that makes video HTML-compatible. That allows e-mail recipients to see the video in play immediately on opening the e-mail rather than having to click a link to see it, according to Bill Adagio, vice president of sales and marketing.
The Austin, TX-based company spent four years developing the technology underlying the product, and it’s not the streaming video or Flash technology used to support video in other marketing e-mail. Instead, the company’s new compression technology reduces file size on a standard video to a size compatible with HTML, thus allowing the video and the HTML-based text of the message to come up simultaneously when recipients open the message. By contrast, video files that aren’t compressed are so large their loading time significantly lags that of HTML, requiring marketers to insert the separate link to view the video lest loading of the entire e-mail be held up.
Under the service, now being tested by a number of e-mail marketers, EmailFilm Technologies provides both video production and compression of the resulting video. Typically, the videos – which Adagio notes do not include sound – range up to 20 seconds and run in a continuous loop, though longer running times can also be produced. Once the company has completed an EmailFilm video for a client, Adagio says, the final proof is sent electronically to the client for hosting. The video, hosted from outside, does not affect the client’s original e-mail template file size.
Video-enhanced e-mail marketing messages get higher click-through rates that add up to R.O.I., says Adagio. In tests, he says, the company has seen 3% to 10% higher click-through rates on e-mails containing the compressed video than on those that don’t. “Click-though percentage rates, currently on the low side as an industry average, can now be significantly improved for greater e-mail marketing performance leading to increased Internet sales revenue,” he adds.
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