Is Video Email the Next Step in the Evolution of Communication?

Knowledge of the past is one of the best ways to understand the present and predict the future; how do you think investors make money? In my opinion, video email represents communication coming almost full circle. It’s the next logical tool for us to communicate with each other.

People made vast fortunes by realizing that the internet would be an indispensable tool, but how long was it before you started using it? It’s a well-known fact that the big bucks are made by the pioneers – the people who start using and discover the applications for a new technology.

The Beginning

Sometime in the distant past, the warm sun rises over the African Serengeti signaling a new day. Humans were starting to make the jump from just grunting to speaking. The sounds eventually become words that ran together to convey complex ideas. This was the seed from which modern communication was born, the foundation on which we have built the material world of today.

We, like many of our fellow creatures, have different ways of communicating. Traditionally, we can convey our message through audio, visual, and kinetic (physical touch) channels. Once speech developed, we were able to communicate with the entire human race. The collective wisdom of the ages became available to all.

Technology and distance are two limiting factors that have shaped the way we have developed in different parts of the world.

Messengers were the earliest form of long distance communication. An actual person was delivering the message, so the recipient could still receive information from all three communication channels. This was the earliest form of communication that incorporated audio, visual, and kinetics into the message.

Flashback to ancient Egypt in 2400 BC and the birth of the paper mail system. Pharaohs wrote royal decrees on papyrus paper (scrolls) and sent them to distant parts of their empires. While the written word was effective enough, it could never convey the full intention of the author. As time passed, mankind was able to find quicker ways to get letters to their destination. As early as 1000 BC, the Egyptians and Persians were using carrier pigeons to expedite the process. Pigeons have been used for everything from announcing Olympic winners to delivering messages in World War I and II, three millennia later.

The rate at which a society develops is due in part to the speed with which its inhabitants can communicate with each other. The same principle applies to the growth of a business.

Around 150 AD, the Romans established a network of towers to transmit smoke signals. Each tower was visible to the previous and next tower in line. In 1792, French engineer Claude Chappe developed semaphore, a series of mechanical devices. He created a building that had rods sticking out of the top. There were 192 different positions making transmission of a message fairly easy. The navy modified the semaphore system to create a version that uses flags. The system is still used today.

On April 3rd, 1860, the Pony Express started in America. By using horses, sending messages across long distances now became possible and made them accessible to a large cross-section of the population.

Jumping Forward

Modern visual communication has taken two main forms: email and instant messaging. Even though these technologies became prominent during the dot com boom of the early 90s, they were around for quite some time before that due to a phenomenon called the Technology Adoption Life Cycle. MIT spawned both email and instant messaging in the mid-1960s. Basic email was part of a limited number of private network operating systems as early as 1965. Instant messaging had been achieved through several different programs. Even though the technologies were primitive, they still remain the most recent communication innovations dealing with visual interaction between people.

Auditory communication over long distances has been around longer than you might think. Starting around 1000 AD, the Mandinka people of West Africa developed a basic communication system using drums to send messages to tribes that were miles away. Certain parts of Africa still use drums today to communicate. In 1833, Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm Weber were able to successfully transmit an electrical signal over a long wire – the concept of the telegraph was born. It wasn’t until Samuel Morse developed Morse code that communication via telegraph became standardized. Even though it wasn’t a vocal system, an operator could easily decipher the clicks and beeps of a message.

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone and changed auditory communication forever. Now people could converse over long distances. As the technology matured, it connected people across the country and throughout the world. When Motorola released the 1st generation of cell phones in 1983, the telephone broke new frontiers. Now we were no long bound by a wire to connect to the outside world.

Present Day

We live in one of the most exciting times in human history. Everybody can communicate with anyone on the planet, almost instantly!

Video can now successfully merge audio and visual components of a message. The video file type .avi actually stands for audio/video interleave. For the first time in history, audio-visual communication is accessible to the masses; we can convey the full meaning of a message [short of reaching out and touching the recipient]. This technology is still cutting edge and the applications for it are only just being discovered – the first image processing textbook didn’t exist until 1989!

What Do You Think?

Is video email going to become a staple in our communication toolbox, alongside text based email?

4 Steps that Guarantee An Effective Video Email Message

Nowadays, anybody can create a video email message.  A quick Google search for “Video Email Software” will produce a slew of results, however unless that video email is creating some sort of capital, it is useless!

Making an effective video email does not need be a long intensive process if you use the 4 steps I outline below.


4 Steps to Craft an Effective Video Email Message

  1. Figure out the Who/What/How
  2. Come up with 3-5 talking points
  3. Do a dry run of the video and stick to the things identified in #1 and #2
  4. Once you can do a dry run comfortably, record the video and start using it


Here is an Example

Example: I spend a lot of time making cold calls to prospects and having to follow up once I reach them. I want to make a video email to follow up with a prospect after the first phone call so I can save myself time on the act of following up without losing that human touch; this way I can leverage video email to free up more time to make calls.

Who is my intended audience? A prospect that I just got off the phone with AND it’s the first time I’ve spoken to them.

  • You always want to try and be as specific as possible. The more targeted the communication, the greater the buy-in will be from the viewer.

What do I want them to do? Since this is the first time I’m speaking to them, I want to start fostering trust – I want them to watch my bio video.

  • Any act of marketing needs to have a clear call to action and a video email is no different.  Ask yourself, “What do I want the viewer to do after they have finished watching my video?”

How are they supposed to do this? Click on “Who Is Paul?” to the right.

  • Making the call to action easy to follow is sometimes more important than the call to action itself. Do not make people jump through hoops. With jiveSYSTEMS, you can setup different buttons (known as Exit Links) that point to different places, like a bio video.  This is one of the more unique features of our video email marketing system that makes it really effective for marketing and sales.

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Next, let’s come up with some talking points

  • Good talking to you
  • Glad to answer your questions
  • I’ll be following up with them

Now, it is time to do a dry run and stick to your guns so as not to deviate or drone on. We spend a lot of time, energy, and resources to get people’s attention – the worst thing to do once we have that is to ramble and waste it. When doing the dry run, focus only on the Who/What/How and your talking points.

“Hello, I am Paul Sokol with jiveSYSTEMS. It was great getting to chat with you on the phone today and connecting for the first time. I enjoyed talking with you and answering your questions regarding video email, and I’m glad I was able to help out. I wanted to send you a quick video email as a follow up to our call to let you know that I’ll be reaching out to you in a few days with some more information. In the meantime, go ahead and click on ‘Who is Paul?’ to learn more about me and what I do. Have a great day!”

The key to the dry run is to ONLY talk about the who/what/how and your salient points. This keeps your videos succinct, concise and actionable. It also saves you time.

Once you can do a dry run comfortably, go and record it. At this point, it shouldn’t take more than a few takes to get it right. Once you have a take that you like, all you have to do is start using that same evergreen (pre-recorded and reusable) video email every time that situation arises. Using video effectively really is that simple!

Also, recording video emails is a skill. The more you do it, the better you will get, so stick with it.


Wrap-up

At this point, we should be able to see how the 4 steps above will guarantee that your video emails are effective. The Who/What/How gives a clear path for the intended audience and what they should be doing. The talking points assist you in getting your message across effectively.

The only thing for you to do now is transition from thinking into doing! Start using these steps with the next video email you create and you will be well on your way to effectively adopting this technology to drive revenue. If you have any questions or feedback regarding this video email creation strategy, feel free to leave a comment below.

Which WebCam Should I Buy?

The quality of  your video emails and web videos is directly tied to two things: 1)  The physical hardware that is used to capture the source footage & 2) The encoding format.  While both are important, using good quality hardware is essential for producing videos that have crisp images and clear audio.  The is because the key is starting the process by generating a high quality source file.  The Logitech 9000, for example, has excellent audio and video recording quality and therefore produces top-notch source files.

A great way to connect with this concept is thinking of the source file as the raw ingredients for cooking.  If you start with rotten tomatoes, the only thing you can make is rotten tomatoes.  However, if you start with ripe ones…  I am sure you get the point.

One of the main questions we receive from our members is, “Which web cam should I buy?” For starters, we always advise people to stay away from cheap ones.  These usually deliver grainy footage, washed out colors, and poor quality audio.  Also, most built-in web cams tend to produce substandard footage.  The funny thing is that buying a high quality camera doesn’t actually cost much.  As I mentioned before, the Logitech 9000, or the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000, as it is officially known, is an excellent camera and it will only cost you around $80.

logitech-quickcam-pro-9000

At this point, you may be wondering why we recommend this webcam.  The answer is simple; we use one everyday.  We’ve tried a wide variety of cameras and this one is the best we have found so far.  Below I’ve listed some of the qualities of this camera that we’ve come to love so much:

  • High quality image sensor that gives crisp video with vibrant colors
  • Sensitive and accurate microphone built-in
  • Can record in HD (960×720). This can be used for source footage for a DVD, if you don’t have a regular camcorder
  • Automatic focus and light adjustment (for dimly lit rooms)
  • Received rave reviews in numerous places online
  • Affordable; can be found for under $100 in most places, often around $80
  • Works great for sending video emails and creating web videos

If you are using a built-in web cam, it may be time to upgrade to a better device– it’s well worth the investment. If you’re still in the market to pick up a webcam, I recommend you give this one a try.

You can get the Logitech 9000 webcam from most online retailers and in major stores.

Ken Ferguson’s Video Email Marketing Success Story

Name: Ken Ferguson
Business: Berkshire Recruiting Services
Member Since: March 2009

“I use jiveSYSTEMS…as a tool to help build relationships with people that I haven’t met…So after an initial phone  conversation I will immediately send a quick video email to them, so they can put a face to the voice and I can shorten the time it takes to build a little trust and that relationship with that candidate.”

Send a video email TODAY>>

We Made a Halloween Video Email Template for You

Every one of our members has access to different holiday themed templates. In the spirit of halloween, we have just recently added a new animated template called H-Halloween Haunted House. You can see a screenshot of this new template below.

jiveSYSTEMS Holiday Template

Holiday templates can be used in a number of ways:

  • Personally to spread holiday cheer to friends and family
  • Internally within your team to spice up the regular video email communications
  • If you are holding an event (i.e. costume party), the template can build more excitement and increase attendance
  • Externally with your clients to add some holiday cheer
  • Announce special service/product promotions for the season

By taking advantage of the holiday templates available, you can further differentiate yourself from the competition and build more customer loyalty. After all, if you send them a quick video wishing them a happy holiday, you will position yourself more as their friend and less of a strictly business contact.

If you’ve found a creative way to use the holiday templates, please post a response so we can help others take advantage of these cool templates.