Email Movie Clips

Pass it on

Friday, March 27, 2009 by Mark Rice

Everyday we are encountering more social media tools that allow you to quickly share information with others. Today we launched an email campaign for one of our customers that contained a personalized video for the recipients. Each customer received a PURL, a personalized URL, that embedded the customer's name in the video. It was a pretty slick application.

Using ExactTarget, we launched the email movie clips through personalization strings that contained the PURLs. This was an effective lead generation process for driving customer acquisition. Through personalized marketing campaigns, you can capture your reader's interest and move them to take an action.

We are using Brainshark presentations to personalize on demand presentation content and further honing our abilities to deliver a Webinar for ONE.

Mobile Madness

Saturday, November 29, 2008 by Mark Rice

It's almost 1:00 AM, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and it is quiet enough now to sit down and blog. I hope everyone had a great holiday and had time to spend with loved ones.

My colleague, JoAnna, called me late Wednesday to inform me that her Blackberry Storm had just hit her doorstep.   Though she was excited to finally have the opportunity to start using the Blackberry, she had to tend to cranberries, casseroles and a Thanksgiving feast for her family.   The Blackberry Storm would just have to be a quiet storm for a couple of days.

So what is all the fuss about these mobile devices anyway?   We have been waiting for the right mobile phone to come along that will support Flash.   No, not flash memory or flash cameras, we have been waiting to see Adobe Flash running on a mobile phone.  I have tested the iPhone, the G1 (Google phone) and now JoAnna has the newest player on the field, the Blackberry Storm.  Sooner or later one of these mobile units is going to support Flash and the ability to run Brainshark presentations.

So why is that so important you may ask?    Flash will change how mobile content is delivered.   You will basically be able to email movie clips in Flash format to mobile phones.   The fastest way to generate and deliver Flash content is through a Webinar for ONE presentation using the Brainshark presentation platform.   A Webinar for ONE is an interactive presentation that can be tracked and personalized for the recipient.   Viewer behavior can be tracked with reporting on slide duration and number of slides viewed. With additional viewing parameters, we can actually personalize the content to the recipient's preferences.

The Blackberry Storm could be the blast of technology that enables Flash and new demand generation marketing techniques for reaching millions of mobile users with customized content. So I am patiently waiting for JoAnna to get up the learning curve and make a splash with Flash when she runs the first Webinar for ONE on the Blackberry Storm.   Put away the leftovers JoAnna and cook up some history. We are all waiting.

Marketing for Mobile Messaging

Friday, November 21, 2008 by joanna hamilton

While I refused to fight the crowds to be on of the first through the door to pick up a brand new Blackberry Storm, I will be going this afternoon to make my purchase.

My boss, Mark, and I have a very un-official, un-scientific experiment (aka competition) we're conducting. He has the new G1 (Google) phone from T-Mobile. I'm getting the Blackberry Storm from Verizon Wireless. We're putting the networks aside, and comparing the phones for how well they enhance our ability to conduct business.

Mark got his G1 about a month ago, and has been bragging ever since. He L-O-V-E-S it. Just for fun on the weekend, he creates a brainshark presentation from his phone, records the voice, and then sends a vontoo message over to us just to gloat.

I'm hoping that I will be able to return the favor with the Blackberry storm. I know I won't have Windows mobile, but what will I be able to do? At a minimum, I should be able to enjoy the latest and greatest in screen resolution and display options to view what our custoemrs view. At most, will I be able to operate the Blackberry Storm as a miniature laptop, of sorts, the way that Mark has been able to do with his G1?

Our whole business centers around effective lead generation and customer acquisition through managed services and internet marketing. We drive personalized marketing campaigns through interactive technologies that may include any or all of the following:
--Video Web Conferencing
--Email Movie Clips
--Variable Data embedded in html emails
--Web Conferencing
--On Demand Presentations

We are also heavy users of many interactive programs including but not limited to online calendars.

Over the next few weeks, we will be testing out these technologies with the G1 and Blackberry Storm. Maybe we'll even keep a scorecard. For now, I have to sign off to go place my order.

Stay tuned, and if YOU have a G1 or a piping hot new Blackberry Storm--please post and tell us about the SMS feats you've conquered.

It's Time for a E-Newsletter Makeover - Part I

Wednesday, May 21, 2008 by Carolyn Hasenfratz

After reading the whitepaper published by ExactTarget, Email Marketing Design & Rendering: The New Essentials, I decided it was time for a makeover of the Webinar Resources Newsletter template. We are already using a lot of the best practices described by ExactTarget, but there is still plenty of room for improvement.

Here is what our current newsletter looks like - Webinar Resources InTouch, Volume 1 Number 3. The following are things we are currently doing right:

The maximum recommended width for an email is 600 pixels. Ours is now 580 pixels wide.

ExactTarget recommends putting your brand and a call to action into a 4-5 inch square (between 288 and 360 pixels) at the upper left corner of the email. This is the most viewed part of the message. Our logo, company name and color scheme are comfortably in the critical area, so I would say our brand is where it is supposed to be.

In order to get viewers to look at the content "below the fold", it helps to include "above the fold" links to the content below, a table of contents, or some other kind of hint of what the newsletter contains so that the recipients will want to scroll down. Our introductory paragraph describing the contents in this newsletter issue fulfills that requirement.

We have kept our branding consistent on the landing pages that viewers will reach if they click on any of the links to our web site.

It hurt to do it, but we removed CSS styles and HTML background images some time ago because many email clients do not support them.

We do not embed rich media right into the email message, rather we provide an image which links to the rich media content. In the example pictured, the featured content is a Webinar for One^SM Brainshark presentation. This is the best way to email a flash movie or a movie clip.

In my HTML coding, I have had the following habits for a long time, for other reasons:

Providing width and height attributes for all images
Giving alt and title tags to all images
Specifying width and height for tables and table cells, unless there is a reason not to

In HTML email, images without size attributes can expand in unpredictable ways, images might be blocked by the email client making alt and title tags useful for helping the viewer to see what the image is supposed to be, and tables can render in unexpected ways without accurate size attributes. These habits are especially good to have when creating HTML email messages, as apparently email clients are generally a lot less forgiving than web browsers.

It sounds like we have all the bases covered doesn't it? In my next post we'll find out when I take a look at all the improvements we can make in our email newsletter template.