Every so often there is a new, hot topic in email marketing. Many of these hot topics are adopted widely and eventually become commonplace across the email marketing industry. Some past examples include the ‘view online’ header link, forward-to-a-friend functionality, and social media links. The latest hot topic in email marketing is video.

Why is video in email the new hot topic even though it has been around for a while?
There are a number of compelling reasons why video is such a hot topic. These include:

• The expense of creating and hosting video is falling.
• Rising access to high-speed Internet has given more people the ability to view videos online.
• Video viewing increases engagement by adding context to products and building brand identities.
• It has become easier and easier to create videos. It is hard to find a digital camera or cell phone today that does not also have video creation capabilities.
• Video allows email marketers to stand out more not only in the inbox, but in blogs, and other media and social avenues.
• As the email channel matures, so do email subscribers. Simply receiving an email is no longer the novelty it once was. Subscribers are demanding and expecting more of their emails.

The video-as-landing-page strategy
Over the past year or so there has been some dabbling with adding video in email. But due to rendering issues, deliverability problems, time and resource constraints, file sizes and other obstacles, video has not taken off or become a permanent fixture in most email marketing messages. One proven workaround is by using animated GIF images in lieu of actual embedded videos.

Before we get into Animated GIFs, let’s explore two other common ways that video is currently delivered in email. One, is with an image or other call to action that links to a video. In this “Preview Our New Commercials – Watch Now” example, the Watch Now button redirects to a URL and then plays a video.

The second common technique is displaying an image of what looks like a video. When the “play” button is selected, the viewer is redirected to a URL where the video plays. Both of these strategies are examples of linking to video via email.

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Nowadays, many email marketers fill the pre-header area of their emails with “click to view” and message summary information that occupies the prime viewing areas of their messages. Due to this congestion at the top of messages, some companies have begun omitting whitelisting instructions due to a lack of available real estate within the pre-header area of their emails.

For those who are unfamiliar with the term whitelisting, it refers to the process of adding an email address to a list of contacts that the user deems are acceptable to receive email from. This prevents approved email marketing messages from being delivered to the trash or spam folders. Frequently, whitelisting text is phrased in the following manner: “To ensure delivery to your inbox, please add email@company.com to your address book.”

To determine whether including whitelisting instructions in the pre-header area of emails added value to their email program, Origins Natural Resources recently teamed up with Experian CheetahMail to test the effects of including whitelisting instructions in their email template for new subscribers.

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The numbers are in, and it seems that this year’s Cyber Monday frenzy consisted mostly of the same old song and dance that we’ve seen in the past. (This, of course, is in addition to the trends we commented on earlier regarding Black Friday email spikes) Based on the analysis of 170 clients across all industries between 2006 – 2009 for the time period of the Sunday before Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, email marketers sent Cyber Monday promotions (surprise!) earlier and more often than ever before.

Ok, so maybe the headlines are not such a shock to the system. But looking at the overall data in the context of Thanksgiving week and Black Friday, we do see some nuanced trends worth noting alongside the larger stories that we’re all familiar with by now. These trends include:

• Overall volume growth. There was a 28 percent increase in email volume from the Sunday before Thanksgiving through the end of Cyber Monday. This has been a consistent theme throughout past Cyber Mondays.
• Early-bird catches the worm. The lifts in volume on the days just before Cyber Monday were even higher than those before Black Friday, further solidifying the trend of earlier promotional mentions and previews of shopping specials before the actual promotions begin.
• Rise and shine. Similar to Black Friday, over 50 percent of emails were sent prior to 8am EST. In related news, how much longer can Folgers brand coffee rightfully claim to be “the best part of waking up?”

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Camping World's email template before the redesign.

Recently, Experian CheetahMail’s Creative Services team worked with Camping World in a multi-variant creative test of its monthly product email template. Our main challenge was to deliver 3 finished designs that adhered to creative best practices and incorporated learnings from historical campaign data, and then test these three designs against a control version over the course of two campaigns.

As with all redesign projects, our first step was to analyze historical performance data to identify any  strengths and weaknesses pertaining to the existing navigation and content layout. We then generated several wireframes to clearly map out the navigation, content organization, and product area layout options that the new designs would encompass.

One of the key areas of Camping World’s email template targeted for improvement was the main product section. Traditionally, this section loosely grouped items in a grid-like structure without considering product type or cost. We also found that the feature section took up too much vertical space within the template, pushing the main product section down below-the-fold.

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The dust has settled from Black Friday, and the results are as interesting as you’d expect at this time of year. The big holiday push kicked into high gear over the course of last week, and all of the retail hoopla translated into more marketing mania than ever before.

Based on the analysis of 170 clients across all industries between 2006 – 2009, Experian CheetahMail has made the following determinations about the week of Black Friday:

• Email volumes increased by 24 percent for the week of Thanksgiving 2009  as compared to the same week in 2008.
• The trend of emailing more leading up to Black Friday continued in 2009 just as it had in 2008. However, the volume totals for several of these days — the Sunday, Monday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving, along with Thanksgiving Day — were much higher in 2009 than last year.
• 50 percent of emails were sent prior to 8 am each day. Of the dates examined during this time period, Black Friday had the most even distribution of send time between midnight and noon.
• Black Friday itself saw almost identical email volumes as last year, dropping roughly 1% from 2008.

Meanwhile at Experian Hitwise, our source for consumer and competitive insight, we’ve seen how specialty websites focusing solely on Black Friday sales have played a significant role in driving traffic to retail sites. Comparing the week before Thanksgiving in 2009 vs. 2008, Hitwise saw the following:

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