Too close for comfort?
February 26, 2008: Video in Designs and Subject Lines
From: J.CrewSubject Line: The well-traveled tote (see video)
Date: Wednesday, February 13, 2008
From: Louis Vuitton
Subject Line: The first Louis Vuitton movie : Travel and Emotions
Date: Monday, February 18, 2008
While it is still logistically impossible to embed actual videos into email messages, we have found that including links to videos noticeably increases clickthrough. Here, I like how J.Crew and Louis Vuitton extend that idea to the subject line, presumably hoping to up open rates as well. I recommend this; it's definitely worth testing. I also recommend including strong visual cues to indicate links to video; recipients respond best to obvious treatments like play buttons and frame treatments that look like Windows Media and Quicktime players. Both J.Crew and Louis Vuitton could have added more visual flair to draw attention the video factor here. (Video: so hot right now.)
Comments
Lisa, calling out video content in subject lines appears to be pretty new. Just in the past month or so have I started seeing these in noticable numbers from the retailers that I track. I mention a few of them here: http://retailemail.blogspot.com/2008/02/am-inbox-calling-out-video-content-in.html.
I would echo your advice to test this the next time you have good video content in your emails.
Posted by: Chad White | February 29, 2008 03:35 PM