Feature Story February 2008

Unfortunately for Hank Dunnick, technology evolved faster than he anticipated: “I’m 55 years old,” he says. “I thought I could retire before email really got going.”
Instead, the owner of Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Resource Communications embraced email as a way to grow his distributorship. Dissatisfied with low open rates from text emails, he sought a way to add video and audio. He and a partner who was experienced in video production and editing developed Video Education Sales and Training through Internet Communications (VESTIC). Now he wants to share the technology with other distributors.

“It’s just like watching a TV commercial,” Dunnick says, only the videos are targeted and delivered through email. The patent-pending technology not only allows end users to send the promotional videos, it also offers detailed reports on who opens the emails, how many times and for how long they watch.

So far, Dunnick has won over customers in medical sales, health care, manufacturing, gift giving, education, insurance and entertainment. One of those clients, a local broadcasting station, used the videos to boost ratings and encourage recipients to sign up for its news and weather alerts.

Roberta Tepper, a former consultant with the station, championed the use of VESTIC. “When you’re in TV, you do print ads, billboards and bus signs, but they don’t bring your news anchors to life,” she says. “Here we found a medium that still used audio and video, but it was delivered via email. To me that was the key, and that’s how I sold it to the management.”

The station sent three email blasts to a list of 40,000 people in a county where they wanted to increase viewership. “We were getting three to five percent in direct mail,” says Tepper. “Sixty-five percent of the people who opened the emails clicked through to the sign ups. The more services we can get people to sign up for, the more likely they’ll watch the station.” (To watch the videos, visit www.vestic.net.)

According to Dunnick, VESTIC works for a simple reason: People get their information through the internet. “We’re culturing an entire group of business people and individuals to do everything online,” he says. “That’s how they like to receive information. Why not take advantage of that?”

Traditional email campaigns face challenges because recipients don’t want to wade through promotional text, or they don’t have time. Video grabs their attention immediately, says Dunnick. “When I help companies write the script, I usually have a call to action within the first 10 seconds,” he says. “My goal is not necessarily to have them watch the entire video. My goal is to have them watch as long as they need to understand what to do.”

Elements of a Good Script
When distributor Hank Dunnick sold a video email campaign to a local broadcasting station, consultant Roberta Tepper wrote the scripts. Below, she details the process of writing an effective script. You can watch the videos at www.vestic.net.
Print Solutions: What is it like writing a video script for email?
Roberta Tepper: There are two key things: Who’s delivering your message and what’s in the subject line? It has to convey something that people are interested in.
PS: How much time do you have to get a viewer’s attention?
RT: Research in TV says that the 30-second spot is the most effective length in advertising, but the first two lines are the most important. The first seven to 10 seconds, you have to capture a person’s attention and really engage them so that by the time you give them a call to action, you’ve gotten them to react.
PS: Describe your writing process.
RT: At the beginning of the process, I find out whom the message is going to. Who are the targets? Are they a group of doctors? Are they women? That puts me in the mindset of writing to that group. How much time do they have in a given day? What are we trying to sell?
I get in the mind of the people receiving it. How will they best receive it? Say our product is windows. There’s an email blast going to homeowners in certain areas of the country. We need to speak right to their needs. Imagine they’re looking out of a window right now. Do they feel air coming through where it’s not supposed to? Is it cracked?
PS: How is writing for video different than other mediums?
RT: In a video, the visuals have to be very strong. The visuals should drive the copy and refer to the copy. For example, “Here’s the window of your dreams,” and they look up and see a window.
PS: Any other advice?
RT: One message, one script. Multiple messages just won’t work. You’ll leave the recipient unsure.

The email blasts are also better at measuring who saw the message and how they responded to it. In a direct mail campaign, marketers only know whether the recipient acted on an offer. With the emails, marketers can track who acted on an offer, who watched the video but didn’t act, and who didn’t watch it at all. They can use that information to plan a follow-up marketing campaign. “There’s a high percentage of people who watch the message but don’t do anything,” Dunnick says. “At least we know that they’re B-opportunity people.”

Once clients see results from the email campaigns, the next step is integrating them with print components. “I can build entire programs around this,” Dunnick says. “Those people who follow the call to action in the video are great, but what about the people who didn’t? Try something different. Send them a direct mail piece. Print fewer pieces but make them more effective.”

Distributor Model
VESTIC is proprietary technology that Dunnick developed with his partner, but he doesn’t envision himself selling programs nationwide. Instead, he’s offering the technology to other distributors to sell. In essence, he wants to become a supplier. “If a distributor calls me, then I’m talking to a company with a bunch of sales reps who can get excited about the product. That’s how I’m going to grow my business,” says Dunnick. He retains his territory in Western Michigan, but says he won’t sell to end users outside that area.

Distributors who sell video email campaigns benefit in two ways. First, it gives them something new to show prospects who are happy with their current vendors. Second, the competition is minimal. “Of the programs I’ve sold—about 15 to 20—only one was an existing customer,” says Dunnick. “You walk in the door and nobody else is doing it.”

Through his partnerships, Dunnick offers customers screenwriting and production services. Often, companies will have a corporate video on DVD that can be edited down, he says. The package he offers includes three email blasts up to 50,000 addresses each time. The emails will seem to come from the end users’ email, so recipients will be familiar with the address.

After the blasts, the videos can be archived and updated if some aspect of the message is timely. For instance, if the video offers a discount, but the product or amount changes, the video can be updated.

Sales Tactics
One mistake distributors make when selling technology solutions is to approach a company’s IT staff. “The first thing you do is get into the marketing group. Do not talk to IT,” Dunnick says. “If marketing a concept that can be communicated via email, ask if they’d be interested in streaming video that opens automatically and allows you to track all the activity of the individual.”

He tends to approach clients who have email lists already compiled. “I go to someone who hasn’t been using the list because they don’t know how to use it,” he says. “I tell them I’m not only going to send text, but I can do the video, and on top of the video, I can track it, and I can do it in a week.”

One obstacle he faces is that marketing departments won’t know what to do first. Dunnick says a key to selling is getting clients to pick a project, develop a timeline and then initiate it. During the planning process, he pushes clients to plan the entire cycle. For instance, if someone watches the video multiple times, that’s a clear sign of interest, but the marketing is ineffective if sales reps don’t follow up with that customer. “Now you have a reason to talk to them,” he says. “You already know that so-and-so opened this up.”

Andy Brown is managing editor of Print Solutions magazine. Email comments to abrown@psda.org.

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