Marketing publications agree that with the advent of YouTube, high-speed internet and reality TV, the time for all businesses to embrace video has finally come.  It’s not a fad.  It’s not going anywhere.  You knew it was coming.  And yes, you will be on TV.

Don’t worry.  By following these five suggestions you can squeeze the most value out of your Covideo subscription and do what every cutting edge video email marketing campaign should: communicate awesomeness.

1)      Lighting

Videographers often cite the “3-Point Lighting” technique as the best place to start for good lighting.  This includes one light source in front of you pointing to your face, another light source from behind you and a third light source pointing at one of your sides.

Mike, our digital strategist, was once given 10 minutes prior notice for a job interview on Skype. “At that point it wasn’t about studying the company’s products, learning about the executive team and all that usual stuff,” Mike laughs. “Instead, it was about making my bedroom look like an office ….and this lighting technique made a huge difference.  I got the job.”

2)      Audio

Turn off any nearby machines that are producing noise then connect a lava mic from your shirt to your computer.

When I watch TV, the easiest way to tell a local ad campaign apart from a national ad campaign is the audio.  Sound is often treated as an afterthought which is fine….if you enjoy adding sub-titles to videos in your spare time.

I have to be honest and say that most of us at Covideo just try to annunciate clearly and speak at a reasonably loud volume into our laptop mics when we make videos.  But ideally, we should all have lava mics handy that we can clip to our shirts in a matter of seconds.  A close mic is important to making your words audible.  There’s a reason why most of your favorite movie lines were dubbed in by the actors AFTER the shoot, in a controlled recording studio.

 3)      Stay on Message

You’d be surprised how unplanned verbal tangents burn time off the clock.  Most of us need some kind of management system to keep us on track when we go into “performance” mode.

Create note cards that outline the main points you want to make in your message and keep them next to you while recording.  Every sentence you speak won’t be flawlessly communicated, which is fine.  Those imperfections are actually what make video effective and humanize you to your audience.

But by the same token, your message will come across best if there is an over-arcing structure to which you’re adhering while just being yourself.

4)      Email Notifications When Video is Viewed

This is one of our most popular features. We have customers that have built their entire lead cultivation process around the ability to know when, or if, their email recipient(s) actually viewed the video they sent.  This information is the difference between an awkward “Have you watched the video yet?” conversation and a “What did you think?” conversation.  Knowledge is power.

 5)      Think About Your Preview Image

YouTube is infamous for choosing whichever frame in your video it darn well pleases as your thumbnail, making it the equivalent of your drivers license photo.  But with your Covideo subscription you can control your preview image, which we refer to as an “email icon”.  Many of our customers upload a quality head shot of themselves (or company logo) to their account and use that image as their permanent email icon for every message.

If you haven’t set this up yet, our system will always default to the first frame of your video as an email icon. Your email recipients will see this image with a big “play” arrow superimposed over it. This means you should be conscious of your facial expression as you’re watching the “3-2-1″ countdown on your screen just before our software starts recording.  Smile!

Conclusion

Video mail, as a marketing practice, would likely be considered by technology megatrends guru Geoffrey Moore as something now in the “early adopters” phase.  That means the bugs have been worked out by the “innovators” and the technology is now ready for prime time.  According to Moore, the “early adopters” are folks who use new technologies before they go mainstream in order to get that competitive edge.  We think that’s an exciting place to be and we’re thrilled you’ve chosen Covideo as your video email provider.

Don’t forget to contact us at info@covideo.com if you need a hand.  Our expert professional staff is standing by to help.

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Jason Price is the president and co-founder of www.covideo.com. Covideo provides video email software that helps
companies build relationships quickly and reinforce their brands more effectively with
easy-to-make video emails that truly communicate. jason@covideo.com.