Please note, this is a STATIC archive of website moz.com from 05 Jul 2018, cach3.com does not collect or store any user information, there is no "phishing" involved.
The author's views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
While Rand was out of town he received an email from a man named Darren Barefoot. Since Rand was up to his ears in meetings, presentations, and consultancies, he forwarded the email to me and asked me to take a look at it. The email subject was "Can You Spare 88 Seconds?" My first thought was, "Probably." (Really, 88 seconds is not much time to sacrifice.) The body of the email asked us to spare 88 seconds to watch a video message that Darren recorded for us. Intrigued I was--I mean, it's not every day that SEOmoz receives video messages directed specifically to target us.
So, what did I do? I watched the video:
Personally address your target. Everyone hates those "Dear webmaster" emails (In fact, today Scott received an email that said "Dear webmaster, my name is webmaster." Um, okay.)--they reek of laziness and spammy link efforts. Not only did Darren email Rand personally and address us personally in the video, but he made a reference to Seattle, demonstrating that he did a little bit of homework and injected a little sumthin' sumthin' to get us to go "Hey, we do live in Seattle! This guy must know us!"
Engage your target. Darren made quite an effort here. He recorded a personalized video and edited some clips from the Elastic Path videos into it. This marketing campaign was definitely something different than the slew of generic, vanilla emails we receive every day asking us to check out a new feature/site/monkey's paw/whatever.
Keep it brief! The short email and the 88 second video really made me think "Okay, it looks like this guy is going to get to the point quickly, and I like that." And Darren didn't disappoint. You need to capture your audience's attention quickly. Most of us don't have time to read long, drawn-out emails detailing every minute feature about your product. Get to the meaty stuff quickly or you'll lose your audience.
Well done, Darren--you prompted Rand to make me blog about something he thought was interesting, and that's no easy feat (usually I just ignore him). Keep up the good work, and as for the rest of us, well, I'd say that this is an interesting study about how email marketing isn't dead after all--it's just requiring a bit of creativity.
About rebecca —
Rebecca Kelley is the content marketing manager for Intego, a Mac software company. She also guest-blogs/freelances at various places and runs a couple hobby blogs for shits and giggles.
Thanks for posting about the videos and the video pitches, Rebecca. I'm glad you liked them--both the videos and the pitches were fun to make.
To respond to a few specifics:
I just used my MacBook's video camera to record the videos, and edited them using iMovie.
I recorded unique introductions for each of the nine video pitches, and generally used the same snippets and outro. The exceptions were when I had an existing relationship with whoever I was talking to. Those got unique outros as well.
One blog post is forthcoming, and then I'll be batting over .500 on the video pitches. I'm really happy with that result, given the popularity of the sites I pitched with videos.
The nine videos took me one long afternoon to create and edit.
We posted them pubilcally on YouTube for a few reasons:
So that the link would be trustworthy for the recipients. If you got a short email saying "Please click https://www.getelastic.com/foo.mov", it might look highly suspect.
We believe in transparency. There's no shame in pitching a bunch of blogs, and everybody would know that we're doing it. I think making the introductions unique ameliorates any spamminess. Plus, we only made nine videos. It'd be a bit egregious if we recorded, I don't know, 80 or 100, you know?
The project itself is hosted on YouTube.
Everybody knows how to embed a YouTube video. I figured some people might want to include my pitch, so I wanted to make it easy for them.
Generally, it's always a good idea to align your marketing campaign with the thing you're marketing. In my experience, the closer they are, the easier it is to execute. So it seemed like a natural approach to record a video pitch to the 'top tier' sites we wanted to reach.
Darren's email got your attention and your interesting post got mine...
Two thumbs-up to Darren and thanks Rebecca for clarifying the pronunciation of SEOmoz too :)
To be honest, the snipped Darren gave us in his piece wasn't quite compelling enough to make me want to watch the clips, but I trusted your opinion Rebecca and had a look anyway... and they were actually pretty good (cheesy, but good).
In some ways the honesty from the clips reminded me of Apple's "I'm a Mac and I'm a PC" advertising campaign.
No doubt the wave of the future, after all, half the challenge is standing out from the crowd.
And smartly, based on some of the other videos, it looks like only about 1/2 to 1/3 is actually custom and the other part is appended... which isn't meant knock it in any way, just good sense.
Even smarter, while he wasn't entirely certain of the pronounciation, which might have lost your interest there... the other details about location, other companies, helped to bridge the gap to say, "hey, we actually made an effort to at least learn some basic info about you."
"...about 1/2 to 1/3 is actually custom and the other part is appended... which isn't meant knock it in any way, just good sense."
You have to wonder why he chose to use a public YouTube account, where anyone can see that he's personalized the same message to a bunch of other people. Wouldn't the message carry a bit more weight if he gave you a URL to a video addressed to you, gave Seth Godin his own URL etc?
my other half of my life is spent in the email world. I'd have to say that this campaign is nothing short of brilliant. If I had to do something different, I'd probably host on someplace other than YouTube, or make my videos private so you couldn't see my video history. Other than that, sounds like he really put together a class act of a campaign.
I appreciate that Darren's message wasn't full of hype. I was expecting over-the-top hype that such videos are usually full of. The straight forward honest message was the best part of the whole thing. It's not the mode, it's the message that I react to the most. He didn't even abuse that cliff view. Nice approach.
an interesting study about how email marketing isn't dead after all
I'm sorry, but email marketing is FAR from dead. Every new research shows email as one of the best, if not THE best converting channel of communication.
And by the way, it's not that hard to get Rand to get someone to blog, I've done it a few times already ;)
I don't think anyone involved with internet advertising would say email marketing is "dead", by any means.
I do agree with Rebecca and feel that because this marketing piece was unique, personalized, and brief, it got the job done.
This was an interesting attempt to take something that has become very routine and dress it up a bit. It worked..........Rand wanted to blog about it, Rebecca wrote a great post about it, and we all have commented on it.
I'm sure their RSS subscriptions and readership will increase due to a 'outside the box' marketing strategy.
Man, what a cool idea. The brevity is definitely important, but the production values on the video also seemed pretty high. Seems like great a way to time-bait some of the linkerati...even if it doesn't result in a Digg / Reddit push, etc.
Too funny. I get a lot where the person sending me the automated spam clearly hadn't mastered their program since I can see the variable name where they were supposed to add a value.
I don't think the clip of the waiter trying to sell an orange cone was compelling, but the message and personalization WAS. It's easy to see why Rebecca felt guilty about not opening the video and giving up 88 seconds of her life to hear Darren shmooze (or is it sh-moz) in front of a swimming pool.
What if he hadn't emailed you -- what if he had submitted his targetted clip to YouTube, Dailymotion, Stage6, and every other place he could get his hands on. What if he flooded the video sites with multiple vids just targetting you.....
And then one of your peers sent the video to you -- or you found it yourself.
Thanks! You answered a question for me. I'd been wondering if short videos were really worth all the trouble for a marketing campaign. Seems they undoubtedly are.
Andrew - if you received that same video clip message, written in traditional text email, do think you would take the same action on it, as you would in a video format?
With the on-going advancement of video-technology on the web, hi-definition quality video on the web is possible in the near future. Motion pictures may just shift from our tv screen to the Internet, and may change the way how businesses advertise themselve and how movies are played.
hmm... 88 seconds may not catch me, but the work is great and I did learn something from it.
To me it is really funny that people are shocked that -SUPRISE - If you put some extra effort into your emails, the results are better than if you make people feel like they are being communicated to from a Deceptacon....damn robots...
Think outside the box and strive to be better than the robot/people...
Rebecca, watch out you've awakened a sleeping beast...
Let the onslaught of Youtube + email marketing campaigns begin!!!
And what is the deal with the random Rand bashing....sounds like someone didn't eat their Wheaties...
Very nice tactics first because its different and second because the message becomes much more personal being through video.
Here there is much more of a feeling that a real person is talking to you rather then simple letters of a typed email.
And to comment on rmccarley: you don't even need complex gear... Even a camera phone and a friend to hold it steady can do the trick. Editing is also become a lot easier through websites or free programs.
Is it just me, or does Darren's YouTube profile also remind anyone else of a "bulk" email sent to a group of people with all the recipients listed in the CC field instead of the BCC field?
Anyway, the personalized video message is a nice touch. But I don't think it would necessarily work for anything other than promoting videos.
I did like the ecommerce videos...well done, and they've earned a link from me (from elsewhere). :-)
That's cool that you found the video interesting. A company I used to work for tried the same kind of thing but it didn't work out too well. The videos we showed were cool but they weren't really relevant to our product. That would help...
Thanks for posting about the videos and the video pitches, Rebecca. I'm glad you liked them--both the videos and the pitches were fun to make.
To respond to a few specifics:
We posted them pubilcally on YouTube for a few reasons:
Generally, it's always a good idea to align your marketing campaign with the thing you're marketing. In my experience, the closer they are, the easier it is to execute. So it seemed like a natural approach to record a video pitch to the 'top tier' sites we wanted to reach.
Darren's email got your attention and your interesting post got mine...
Two thumbs-up to Darren and thanks Rebecca for clarifying the pronunciation of SEOmoz too :)
To be honest, the snipped Darren gave us in his piece wasn't quite compelling enough to make me want to watch the clips, but I trusted your opinion Rebecca and had a look anyway... and they were actually pretty good (cheesy, but good).
In some ways the honesty from the clips reminded me of Apple's "I'm a Mac and I'm a PC" advertising campaign.
No doubt the wave of the future, after all, half the challenge is standing out from the crowd.
And smartly, based on some of the other videos, it looks like only about 1/2 to 1/3 is actually custom and the other part is appended... which isn't meant knock it in any way, just good sense.
Even smarter, while he wasn't entirely certain of the pronounciation, which might have lost your interest there... the other details about location, other companies, helped to bridge the gap to say, "hey, we actually made an effort to at least learn some basic info about you."
"...about 1/2 to 1/3 is actually custom and the other part is appended... which isn't meant knock it in any way, just good sense."
You have to wonder why he chose to use a public YouTube account, where anyone can see that he's personalized the same message to a bunch of other people. Wouldn't the message carry a bit more weight if he gave you a URL to a video addressed to you, gave Seth Godin his own URL etc?
my other half of my life is spent in the email world. I'd have to say that this campaign is nothing short of brilliant. If I had to do something different, I'd probably host on someplace other than YouTube, or make my videos private so you couldn't see my video history. Other than that, sounds like he really put together a class act of a campaign.
Yep, I agree with avoiding YouTube. Might give your campaign a spammy look.
That was good: he got it somewhere, got it noticed and it was good enough content and quality that it got it posted. He obviously has a sparkly brain!
As for how to pronounce 'Moz': Did the world forget Morrisey? tsk tsk.
Clever. And simple if you have the gear already.
Now I suppose we can all watch out for "please spare 88 seconds to see if you've won the UK national lotto" spams coming our way...
The Africans doing the Lottery scams are fortunately not that far advanced yet :-)
I appreciate that Darren's message wasn't full of hype. I was expecting over-the-top hype that such videos are usually full of. The straight forward honest message was the best part of the whole thing. It's not the mode, it's the message that I react to the most. He didn't even abuse that cliff view. Nice approach.
I'm sorry, but email marketing is FAR from dead. Every new research shows email as one of the best, if not THE best converting channel of communication.
And by the way, it's not that hard to get Rand to get someone to blog, I've done it a few times already ;)
I don't think anyone involved with internet advertising would say email marketing is "dead", by any means.
I do agree with Rebecca and feel that because this marketing piece was unique, personalized, and brief, it got the job done.
This was an interesting attempt to take something that has become very routine and dress it up a bit. It worked..........Rand wanted to blog about it, Rebecca wrote a great post about it, and we all have commented on it.
I'm sure their RSS subscriptions and readership will increase due to a 'outside the box' marketing strategy.
And email is actually a fun way to advertise isn't it?
Rand is a very nice guy: that's his secret to success I feel.
Man, what a cool idea. The brevity is definitely important, but the production values on the video also seemed pretty high. Seems like great a way to time-bait some of the linkerati...even if it doesn't result in a Digg / Reddit push, etc.
Too funny. I get a lot where the person sending me the automated spam clearly hadn't mastered their program since I can see the variable name where they were supposed to add a value.
I don't think the clip of the waiter trying to sell an orange cone was compelling, but the message and personalization WAS. It's easy to see why Rebecca felt guilty about not opening the video and giving up 88 seconds of her life to hear Darren shmooze (or is it sh-moz) in front of a swimming pool.
A good way to stand out and get noticed.
What if he hadn't emailed you -- what if he had submitted his targetted clip to YouTube, Dailymotion, Stage6, and every other place he could get his hands on. What if he flooded the video sites with multiple vids just targetting you.....
And then one of your peers sent the video to you -- or you found it yourself.
Wouldn't that be more powerful?
"Monkey's paw"??
Good grief... the mind shudders...
Thanks! You answered a question for me. I'd been wondering if short videos were really worth all the trouble for a marketing campaign. Seems they undoubtedly are.
One day I will find a cost effective use for video.
As for 88 seconds . . . when I ususlly scan an email in 5-10 to decide if its woth the effort?
But keep showing us how. Maybe I will finally get why Google would pay a billion bucks for youtube.
Andrew - if you received that same video clip message, written in traditional text email, do think you would take the same action on it, as you would in a video format?
I like the inserted clips in the video.
With the on-going advancement of video-technology on the web, hi-definition quality video on the web is possible in the near future. Motion pictures may just shift from our tv screen to the Internet, and may change the way how businesses advertise themselve and how movies are played.
hmm... 88 seconds may not catch me, but the work is great and I did learn something from it.
Why you always say the best tricks in forward? :) Wait until it's popular and discovered it then. ;)
Nice work, Darren!
Cool idea. It has given me some good ideas to market my product and services. Amazing post!
To me it is really funny that people are shocked that -SUPRISE - If you put some extra effort into your emails, the results are better than if you make people feel like they are being communicated to from a Deceptacon....damn robots...
Think outside the box and strive to be better than the robot/people...
Rebecca, watch out you've awakened a sleeping beast...
Let the onslaught of Youtube + email marketing campaigns begin!!!
And what is the deal with the random Rand bashing....sounds like someone didn't eat their Wheaties...
SEOhNo....
talk about a big Oh NO... I hope this approach doesn't extend (no puns intended) to the penis enlargement or Viagra spammers!!
eek, me shudders me timbers just tinkin' bout it!
Interesting to know the SEOmoz's pronunciation.
Video clips are so effective when the content is accurately targeted.
Thank for Rebecca's sharing.
Very nice tactics first because its different and second because the message becomes much more personal being through video.
Here there is much more of a feeling that a real person is talking to you rather then simple letters of a typed email.
And to comment on rmccarley: you don't even need complex gear... Even a camera phone and a friend to hold it steady can do the trick. Editing is also become a lot easier through websites or free programs.
Is it just me, or does Darren's YouTube profile also remind anyone else of a "bulk" email sent to a group of people with all the recipients listed in the CC field instead of the BCC field?
Anyway, the personalized video message is a nice touch. But I don't think it would necessarily work for anything other than promoting videos.
I did like the ecommerce videos...well done, and they've earned a link from me (from elsewhere). :-)
I disagree. I can see this attention-grabber working for lots of things. And if I had the equipment I'd prove it.
Alas, I am not a movie-equiped person.
Might want to check out the Red5 marketing campaign for when they went head-hunting their team.
Guerilla marketing at it's best. It was a unique and somewhat fresh approach to a marketing concept that we all have become numb to. (EMAIL)
I think we all realize video will become a larger part of everyone's marketing strategy, from email to product promotions and beyond.
Being in the e-commerce sector I especially got a chuckle out of this video and immediately went to the site. The hook was in.....
Rand and Rebecca, great idea for today's blog post . Great timing!
Definitely hit home for myself and our team.
Cheers!
That's cool that you found the video interesting. A company I used to work for tried the same kind of thing but it didn't work out too well. The videos we showed were cool but they weren't really relevant to our product. That would help...
Brilliant.