I think one of the main goals here is to provide as many options for the student to use the counselor as a resource; the premise being that great customer service translates to great ROI.

The way I see it, this isn’t very different than “Click to chat” which works best when it’s available for those people with a burning question. Since burning questions arise while browsing the website more often (I’m guessing) than while reading emails, I think you’d get more takers if you put that link on the site directly.

One other thing you might consider: It’s generally bad form to say “Click Here” for a link. Why? Because the link is the most prominent part of your sentence (owing to its nice underline and call-out-color). If I glace quickly at your email the most prominent word is “here” (and your email… which is good). The best way to link text is to set up your sentence to have the call to action be the link. For example, I would have phrased that sentence so that the linked text was something like “…schedule a video chat with me.” Then that would be the most prominent text on the page.

Great idea. I’d be interested to see how re-wording the email changed your results and/or how placing the image increased the total number of video chats you ran.

I think video cameras are more prevelant that you think… they’re not just being used for chatting with Admissions reps.

Lesson learned… didn’t work this year, but maybe next. Thanks for sharing!