So you’re not sure how to embed a video in an email and is it even possible to do that? The answer is yes – but you can’t embed it the same way you would do on a blog or website. Email embedding is more complex, so you have to find other ways around it. And today, we’re here to show you how.
Embed videos are one more opportunity to add variety to your campaign designs. Our team created a full-year campaign content idea calendar, to give us inspiration when we need it. Don’t forget to download it for free.
A lot of our clients are curious to know whether is it possible to embed a video in an email. So there are 4 ways how you can do it but 3 of those ways are mimicking your video in that email. But actually, when a person clicks on that thing they will be redirected to the actual video. And №4 I will actually tell you how to do it and explain the pros and cons of doing that. So let’s go through all of them together.
№1 – Use a static image with the play button
So the first way is to use a static image (thumbnail of the video) and in the middle of the image add a play button – as you often see on YouTube. Here’s an example below:
In the example above Kevin sent me this email, as you can see he has a static image but he has a call to action in the middle which is very difficult for all videos. So we know that when we click here, something will happen and the video will play but realistically when we click here, it redirects us to YouTube.
So this is one way how you can do it.
№2 – Use a GIF of the video
The second way, you can use GIF images altogether, so it looks like it’s playing a video with the button in the middle. So I’ll show you what Campaign Monitor does as a great example.
As you can see, the play button is still static, however, the image is moving and it looks like a video. When you click there, it will redirect you to the page where you can see the full video.
№3 – Use an animated play button to embed video in email
And the last option is to have your static image as in the first example, but the actual play button will be animated. Again this is an example, thanks to Campaign Monitor.
This animated button should entice readers to click on it and open the video on another page.
№4 – Embed video HTML5
And last, but not least is how to embed the actual video. So not many email clients are actually supporting this technology. However, you are able to embed video in your email, but only some of the clients will read it.
Here are a few examples: all apple clients when they receive the email with your video can play it inside of their email. The same goes with Samsung mail, but all others like Gmail, Android, and Outlook, will not be able to play those videos.
So if you want, you can segment out your clients by mail provider. Somebody who plays video and doesn’t play video sends them different kinds of messages. So in one, you will embed, in another – you will do one of those three techniques listed above.
You can learn more about segmentation rules in the “4 Golden Rules Of Effective Segmentation In 2021”. In this episode of the Email Einstein podcast, our hosts Vira and Alissa reveal the four golden segmentation rules that you can put into action today.
