Ready for an amazing stat? Audiences retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, webinar or broadcast. No wonder advertisers are demanding live content. Are you ready to sell these target audience placements?
Jayme McKelvey, Director of Sales for MD Publishing, and her team have taken on these offerings and are selling big time. The better news is that these channels are actually pretty inexpensive to offer. We asked Jayme to share some selling techniques around webinars, broadcasts, video emails and more.
Start adding video to emails
Jayme: “Understanding your limitations is important. HTML5 will allow you to embed video in your email, but it doesn’t mean that all of your recipients will be able to view the video.
Right now, there are very few email clients that will support HTML5, so most of your recipients will see a static image that looks like a video ready to play. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does lack the excitement of movement. It’s the movement of the image that attracts engagement.
There are several options to add movement in your email without using video. Some of the popular options are GIFs, animated GIFS or creating images that appear to be videos. These options can link to a video hosted on YouTube or a similar platform.
Another route is to purchase software from a solution provider such as BombBomb or Wistia. These companies make it easy to record videos for email, text or social media.
This is the route that our company selected, and we have been delighted with the results. We are able to record video, compress the video and create an animated GIF, create a landing page for the video email message, all while using various tracking methods to gauge the success of the send.”
How to avoid pitfalls
“You want to be sure that you are not over using any of the options listed above, that the message warrants or needs the powerful illustration of the GIF or video.
You also want to be sure that you have an adequate understanding of how your animated image or video will appear across most email clients. Some email clients will stop animation after the first frame or few seconds; therefore, you want to design your frames correctly, putting the most important details first.
And, test, test, test, test, and test some more. Be sure to send proofs to multiple co-workers, and be sure to check the email using various email clients.”
“On-air” digital channels drive revenue
“In 2017, the need to build out our digital media guide became imperative. We needed to focus on key digital trends to help us identify more business opportunities.
While MD Publishing will always be a magazine company at heart, several of our regular advertisers were earmarking budget dollars for popular digital items – like videos, webinars, or other social media content – to help position themselves as thought leaders within the medical equipment industry. The days of selling a traditional banner ad for our website or e-newsletter were quickly passing (to be honest I’m surprised we made it this long).
A real-world success story for us would be the Fluke Corporation. In 2016, Fluke was easily one of our top three multimedia accounts, a position they had held for several years. By the end of that year, their advertising strategy shifted, eliminating print advertising.
Since our digital offerings provided little more than stacked banners, traditional e-blasts or webinars, we quickly became irrelevant to this client. The advertising account limped along at best for almost two years.
Thankfully, our annual conferences provide unparalleled face-to-face interaction in the medical equipment industry, so the relationship with this client was not completely lost. Communication continued while the advertising account dropped to a few e-blasts, a couple of webinars and vendor space in our conferences’ exhibitor halls.
As we began to test the waters with live broadcast, video email, targeted banners, and lead generation items on our websites, Fluke was an obvious go-to resource for us. We would offer digital items that we wanted to try out to Fluke as complimentary advertising.
This allowed us the opportunity to build solid metrics, experience and success stories with new digital items, prior to adding them to our rate card. It was a pleasant surprise when the advertising agent for Fluke reached out recently to let us know our publications would be included on the RFP for 2019. We are now working through negotiations to finalize another robust multimedia campaign, including print and digital advertising. This was a high-five moment for us.”
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More about Jayme: Jayme McKelvey is the Director of Sales for MD Publishing, a multimedia company that has several publications and conferences focused on the medical equipment industry. Over the past six years, she has worked to identify and implement new revenue streams, which have contributed to MD Publishing solidifying its role as a one-stop resource for news, education and networking events. Her gregarious, fun-loving personality, coupled with her ability to understand and shape trends, has helped establish her as an emerging influencer within her current industry.
Jayme joined the MD Publishing team in 2012. She brought over a decade of media sales experience with her. Her previous experience includes radio and digital media sales with MedWrench, Infosoft Group, and Jacob’s Broadcasting.
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