Israeli startup company, EyeView, has raised anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million in seed funding to build technology it says will increase website conversion rates.

The big idea? Displaying short Flash tutorials - screencasts, video guides, or any rich media presentation - with a call to action at the end.

Presumably EyeView aims to make it easy for marketers to put together such tutorials, but if that’s the big idea… I don’t get it.

Technology is nice. Flash videos are nice. But a nice Flash video is NOT a guarantee of higher conversions! What will increase conversions is NOT having a Flash tutorial per se. Rather, it’s offering visitors something of value in return for which they are willing to take a specific action.

Will someone tell me what I am missing here? According to TechCrunch, EyeView says it’s able to improve conversion rates for internal website marketing campaigns by as much as 20 percent. Customers already trying out EyeView’s technology include Yahoo, eBay, HP, and Nokia.

Again, I ask: is it the technology… or is it the value inherent in the Flash presentation… that is the cause of the higher conversion rates? Given that it’s already possible to put together Flash and other rich media presentations, I have to wonder if the real benefit of EyeView’s solution is that it makes it EASIER to create Flash tutorials, rather than its ability to increase conversion rates.

Source: Erick Schonfeld, “EyeView Raises Seed Round For Flash Tutorials That Convert”, TechCrunch, November 17, 2008

GoldMail has built a platform that allows you to send media-rich messages.

Basically, you can use GoldMail’s client to create a Flash slideshow that can include images, Powerpoint slides, and text, all accompanied by your voiceover. The slideshow is uploaded to, and hosted on, GoldMail’s servers. Then an email is sent containing a text introduction and a link to the full multimedia presentation.

Hmmm… sounds a bit like sending an email with a link to a video.

Then again the service may make it easier for you to create and send multimedia presentations if you can’t whip up a video or slide show yourself in 10-15 minutes (the average time it takes to create a GoldMail presentation and email).

And the cost? Until recently it was a hefty $5,000 for an initial license and $500 per user. Recently GoldMail dropped the price to around $100 per user, per year, with no initial license fee.

Source: Jason Kincaid, “GoldMail Brings Media-Rich Presentations To Email”, TechCrunch, October 4, 2008