How to Send a Video Through Email

Can you send a video through email?

Can you send a video through email?

If you have a library of great video content and if like most businesses you still generate a sizable amount of business via email, then you should definitely be using it in your emails.

If you are not using video in your emails but want to know the easiest way to do it, then keep reading.

Video has more support now within email than in the past, but it still doesn’t follow the internet’s universal support. Video doesn’t just instantly play if you include it. It’s a progressive enhancement to include where possible, but it’s always best to check your subscriber list and see if a large enough portion of your audience would be able to see the video in email.

Email clients like Gmail, Outlook, Thunderbird, and others often don’t support the technical requirements needed to play video right inside the email. In spite of that, 76% of marketers plan to increase their use of YouTube and video marketing, because video has an undeniable impact on email KPIs:

  • Video boosts open rates by 19%.

  • Video boosts click-through rates by 65%.

  • Video reduces unsubscribes by 26%.

So how are the world’s top marketers taking advantage of video in email?

First, start with your video - You need to have a video that can be shared in email. Unlike a website, you can’t embed a video and stream it from YouTube or Vimeo. You need to send the video file in the email, same as you would a static image or GIF. That means hosting a video in your content distribution network (CDN) or on your company servers, then serving it to your email recipients. With a rule of thumb that static images should try to be below 200KB, GIFs below 1MB, video needs to stay in this kind of range. You won’t want an epic thirty minute video streaming from your servers to a million subscribers all at once! The cost of hosting and streaming the video needs to be taken into account.

Second, determine your video’s goal - Your email is a way to connect your subscribers to something you’re doing: selling a product, hosting an event, sharing stories and news. If the goal of your video is to encourage recipients to click through to your shop, it may be better to use a shorter GIF as a teaser to get them to click through. Then the full video content could live on your shop page, where the buy button is only a click away If the email’s goal is to increase the views on your YouTube channel or to serve more ads on a story page, putting the whole video in the email will stop the user getting to that page.Make sure adding the video into your campaign will entice people to engage in the way you need, and serve to increase your KPIs.

 Methods for embedding video in email

Option #1 Use a static image with a play button - Using a play button on top of a static image is the easiest way to link to video content, either on your site, YouTube or Vimeo. This has universal support across email clients. As long as images are not blocked, everyone will have the same experience. `To do this, simply link the image to the hosted version of your video where people can watch it. If you want your video to play as soon as your subscriber clicks on the play button, simply add a ?play to the end of the video URL. You can also make the video autoplay when someone clicks on it, eliminating the need for them to have to click again on the hosted version. How do you embed a Vimeo, YouTube, or Wistia video in an email? Just as with other video platforms, you’re not yet able to embed a Vimeo, YouTube, or Wistia video into emails. To work around the technical limitations of email providers, you can create a thumbnail with a play button that links to your video, as mentioned above. While it’s not perfect, it’s currently the best possible solution for using Vimeo, YouTube, or Wistia videos in your email campaigns. If you’re really serious to incorporate playable Vimeo videos in your email, there are paid services that will provide you with a special application. With these applications, your email readers can click directly on the video and watch it in their email inbox.

Option #2 Use a GIF of the video - Another easy way to give the illusion of video in email is to use an animated GIF. GIFs are well-supported across email clients. But it’s worth noting that Outlook 2007, 2010, 2013, and Windows 10 do not support this image type—they only show the first frame of the GIF. Adding a play button overlay to your GIF will encourage subscribers to click your video.

Option #3 Use an animated play button - This is sorta a hybrid—it links a static image and an animated GIF. Harley-Davidson used an animated GIF on their play button to call attention to it and to get subscribers to click and play their video.

Option #4: Create a faux video with CSS animation - Faux video, a term coined by Kristian Robinson, means to use CSS animation to make the effect of a video or GIF. A faux video shows one static image frame after another quickly to look like a moving image. This is accomplished by combining image sprites (a comic strip of static images) with background-image and CSS keyframes to move the image. This takes an advanced level of CSS and HTML knowledge, but once you understand it can really enhance use of video in email. For more info on this technique read Campaign Monitors guide to CSS animations in email. Check out this article from Litmus with an alternative way to use faux video to inspire users into “playing” the video.

Option #5 Embed video into an email - If you have some technical expertise and feel comfortable using HTML5, then you may consider embedding videos into your emails. But do consider that not all email clients support the ability to play videos directly within the inbox. If you’re planning to embed videos, mail applications such as iOS client, Apple Mail, and Outlook.com will allow recipients to play your video within the email client itself. Other clients like Gmail and Android devices will display a fallback image.

If you want to do some further research for getting started on adding video into your email code, check out this Email on Acid article.  Consider using an interactive email tool like Liveclicker to make emails more engaging with elements like countdown timers and embedded videos.

If you are interested to create more professional video content that you can use not only for your email marketing but also across your other digital marketing channels, then feel free to contact us and we can provide for free an overall video content marketing strategy.

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