Do you like seeing yourself in videos?

Does anyone?

Likely not, but we may well have to get used to it.

Video may well be the e-newsletter medium best suited to the smartphone age. People opening your mail on their cellphones probably won’t want to scroll through miles of text. If your message is longer than a haiku, you can provide a better smartphone experience by saying it … with a video.

So what are the pros and cons of video newsletters?

The Pros:
1) It’s faster to shoot a video than write a newsletter.
2) If the purpose of newsletters is to keep you top-of-mind (and it is), seeing and hearing you is more effective than reading your words.
3) Video newsletters are better for website search engine optimization. Google likes video. When you archive video newsletters on your website, it spikes your search engine rankings.
4) Prospects browsing your website may watch the archived videos.
5) It’s cheap! Commercial video e-newsletter services charge even less than conventional bulk emailers.

Now for the cons:
1) Horrendous load time – videos take forever to load on a cellphone.
2) Videos eat up data minutes. People without unlimited data plans won’t watch videos on their phones.
3) People who don’t carry ear buds won’t watch videos in public places.
4) Producing videos will require new skills. It takes time to get comfortable in front of a camera.

The good news is that issues #1 and #2, load time and data minutes, may evaporate as cellphones get more powerful and ubiquitous.

Check out these websites to get schooled on producing a video newsletter:

www.videonewsletters.com
www.mailerlite.com/newsletter-editor-video
www.talkfusion.com/product/video_newsletters/

So that’s the skinny about video newsletters. Now the only question is: Are you ready for your close-up?

Joyce Sunila is the president of Practice Helpers, providing e-newsletters, blogs, and social media services to aesthetic practices. She can be contacted via [email protected].