This article will show you how to embed a video into email content for various purposes.
Videos can help you connect with readers in a more captivating way than text alone can. This is because videos target both the eyes and ears.
Meaning, even if someone is multi-tasking they can still listen to what you have to say.
By adding videos to your campaigns you open another avenue of communication to share and interact with your readers.
There are various methods to achieve this but some work much better than others. We’ll discuss that today.
But first, what are some other benefits of inserting videos into an email?
Benefits of Embedding a Video Into An Email
There are many reasons why embedding a video into an email would be helpful. I list some of the important reasons why you should start to embed videos in email.
1.Increase Engagement
Videos boost interaction by 80% – according to a recent study published in the Harvard Business Review. In addition, videos help to generate leads and reduce bounce rates.
Video is no longer just for video marketing. Instead, you can use it to tell your company story, share what you do, and answer customers’ questions about products or services.
Inserting a video into an email is a fantastic method of catching someone’s attention. Videos are compelling and may help you tell your story in a more dynamic way than text on the screen.
2. Improved Conversions and Click-Through Rates
Embedding videos in your emails can boost your click-through rates drastically. And more clicks means more conversions. Here are some interesting statics to consider:
Emails with embedded videos can increase your click-through rates by over 300%.
Videos help to decrease your unsubscribe rates by over 75%.
Email campaigns that make use of videos do 95 times better than email campaigns that don’t.
3. Higher Open Rates
People are more receptive to audio-visual content thanks to the popularity of Youtube and other video-based platforms.
Just including the words “Video” and “Watch” in your email subject line could scale up your open rates by a remarkable 13%.
4. Build Brand Authority
People do business with people they like and trust. Embedding a video into email campaigns you create is a great way to introduce your subscribers to the human side of your brand.
Add personalization and build up your reputation with your subscribers so they can see, you are a real person that understands their issues.
Through videos, you can provide more tips, insight, explanations, and valuable resources to your emails. The more value you provide the more your subscribers will feel you deserve a place in their inbox.
Using the same person for all of your videos will help your readers put a face to your brand. Building a personal bond that separates you from the competition.
5. Respect Your Subscribers’ Time
On average, people spend no more than 11 seconds scanning through an email. That’s barely enough time to bring across any valuable points.
But that’s all a person needs to decide if your content is worth consuming or not.
Videos are a great way to grab attention and the added benefit of audio will keep viewers attentive to what you have to say – even if they are multi-tasking.
Many internet purchasers will read the contents of an email before purchasing or subscribing; however, videos may save them time by cutting down on how much time they need to comprehend your email text.
You can explain more in a 30-second video than with 10 minutes worth of text.
6. Improve ROI from email marketing efforts
Videos can be used to great effect to enhance your brand image and increase awareness. In addition, you may provide extra information to the reader without them leaving their inbox by embedding a video into an email.
- 55% of professionals say video has increased conversion rate on marketing campaigns.
- 73% would rather watch a video than read text.
7. Improve SEO and External Following
Email marketing is a great way to drive traffic to your websites, social media handles, Youtube channels, and other video share platforms.
Since videos boost your engagement and click-through rates, embedding videos in our emails will only increase this benefit.
The best part is that this traffic comes at no cost whatsoever.
The Correct Way To Embed a Video into Email
Yes, it is possible to add playable videos to your emails so readers can watch them without leaving their inboxes.
We have been able to do so since the mid-‘90s. But there are a few issues with this method.
- Spam is on the rise. More people are falling for online scams and adding videos to email just gives unethical people another means to exploit unsuspecting subscribers. As a result, most email clients have decided not to support embedded videos.
- HTML5 is the new kid on the block. This is the most recent video format being used by video creation tools and video share platforms like Youtube. Unfortunately, emails clients such as Gmail, Hotmail, and Outlook, are unable to support this video format.
What does this mean?
Well for starters, there is a big chance that your audience will not be able to see your embedded videos. This may defeat the entire purpose of inserting videos into an email in the first place. Furthermore, it may ruin your entire campaign.
But there is a workaround that is possibly even more effective.
Use A Video Thumbnail Image With Play Button
What I really like about this step is that it works so well and is supported by all email service providers. Meaning, your readers will be able to see this image and click on it.
It entails using a free tool like Canva to create a thumbnail for your video then adding a play button to it.
The finished product should look something like this:
Of course, you can customize this image to match your brand and resize it in your email editor as needed.
Once the image is created you need to embed it into your email editor. If you are using a free service like Gmail or Yahoo you can follow the steps in this article.
After successfully embedding your image be sure to add a url link to the video you would like to share with your audience.
You can do this by highlighting the image by clicking on the “insert link” icon in your email editor. It will look something like this:
Finally, to complete this step, include a call to action to ensure your views know to click on the image.
For example, you could say “Click the image below to watch me embed a video into email.”
With that, you would have successfully added a clickable image to your email that will take viewers over to the video you’d like to share with them.
This method helps a lot to improve your click-through rates and even improves readability by breaking up texts.
Other Alternatives
Animated Buttons
In email marketing, you can use animated buttons to display video content. These are likely to consist of animated play or pause buttons. The idea is that they allow users to start playing the videos straight away without clicking on them.
These might also act as standalone call-to-action graphics within email newsletters and other email marketing campaigns. For example, you can use these buttons to attract email subscribers or encourage them to take a specific action.
In addition, they might also be integrated into video thumbnails so that clicking on the thumbnail will launch an email newsletter and display the embedded content within it. The idea here is that users would not have to leave their email clients to watch videos.
Animated GIF
Another tip to embed a video into email is to use GIFs or Graphics Interchange Format files.
GIFs are not just for funny cat pictures. You can use them to show how something works with motion included in the image file itself.
With GIFs, you don’t have to worry about email clients that do not support your video format because they will automatically play as a GIF without any problems.
You can also Drag-and-drop your GIF into your email and add a video CTA linking to the full video.
Creating your own Gifs is possible by using a free online gif maker.
How to Embed a Video in Email The Hard Way
Now, if you absolutely need to embed a video into email for any reason, I’ve included the steps below.
Embedding a video in email is not as complex as embedding it on your website but it does require attention to detail.
Let’s get started.
Step 1:
Copy embed code from YouTube or any other video hosting site. You can also embed videos in email using Vimeo, Metacafe, and other video platforms. Your code should look something like this:
- Paste the embed code into your email content editor (you may need to use an HTML editor for this). Make sure it’s between [ embed ] brackets.
- (Width and Height parameters can usually be omitted)
- If you’re embedding in HTML email content (not plain text), your embed code should look something like this:
- [ embed width=”400″ height=”300″ ]Your Embed Code Here[/embed] (Width and Height parameters can usually be omitted)
Step 3:
Preview how it will look in the different email clients. There are several ways to do this, depending on your email service provider.
- If you’re embedding in plain text, use the preview function on your email client to see how it will look when being sent out.
- If you’re embedding in HTML email content (not plain text), use an online tool such as Litmus or Email on Acid that allows you to preview how your embed code will look like in different email clients.
Step 4:
Add the embed link to the “to” field of your email. Replace all instances of name@domain with their respective values. You can also modify this by replacing it with a click-tracking URL to track conversions or sales from emails.
- [ embed link= “YOUR-VIDEO-URL”]Name@Domain[/embed] (Replace YOUR-VIDEO-URL with the actual embed link of your video. Check YouTube or other sites where you have uploaded your video for this.)
Step 5:
Test out the email by sending it to yourself first.
For a video overview of all these steps please click here.
Things to Consider Before You Embed A Video Into Email
Before you can embed a video into email content there are a few things you must be aware of in order to get the best results.
File Size of Each Video
Before embedding a video into an email, you should monitor the video’s file size and where it’s hosted.
If a video plays correctly on your computer or smartphone but not within an email the file size might be the issue.
A video that takes up too much space will take a long time to load.
Choose Eye-Catching Image For Thumbnails
Your video thumbnail is the first thing your viewers will see in an email. Therefore, it’s important to choose a powerful image that grabs attention, so they click play.
Make sure it still looks great at smaller sizes since some people watch on their phones instead of tablets and desktops.
Make sure the video thumbnail accurately reflects what they will see on their screen when they click play.
Include A Call To Action
When you write your email video call to action, do not forget that people are likely scrolling through their emails on the go and will require an immediate call to action.
It means they should quickly understand what you want them to do next without much difficulty. Make sure it is compelling, engaging, and easy for your clients or whoever opens up your email.
Embedding Videos For Email Automation
So far in this article, we’ve dealt with how to embed a video into email using a free email service provider such as Gmail.
Let’s see how we can do the same using an autoresponder. This section will be particularly helpful if you have a large email list and are looking for a way to improve your engagement rates.
For this section, I will show you how to complete the steps using the Mailvio easy-to-use drag-and-drop email editor.
The process is fairly the same for most of the top autoresponders out there but Mailvio’s whole process is the most straightforward and easy to understand.
We can achieve this goal by adding a customer HTML code to our email body.
Here’s how.
Step 1: Open The Email Editor
In your autoresponder, open your email editor or any email template you wish to use. You can create a brand new email or use an existing one.
From there you need to insert an HTML Code block into your email body. You can do so in Mailvio by simply dragging and dropping the HTML code block where you want your video to show up.
Step 2. Copy Video Embed Code
The next step is to retrieve the embed code for your video. This is easily retrievable using any video share platform. For this example, we will use Youtube.
Click on the “Share” button under any Youtube video then select the “Embed Code” Option.
Here’s what you should look for:
Copy the code then return back to your email editor.
3. Paste Embed Code Into HTML Block
After copying the embed code from Youtube, return to your email editor and paste the code in the HTML Code block.
Once done your video will show up in your editor and be playable. Click preview to see how it will look on various devices. Here’s an example.
Now you can send an email to your readers with a playable video. But remember, not all email service providers support HTML5 so be sure to test things out by mailing to yourself before sending to your readers.
Why Use Videos in Email Marketing?
- Embedding video in email is a great way to share information with the recipients.
- Embedding also allows you to track engagement, clicks, and conversions easily.
- It’s one of the best ways on how to engage your subscribers through emails.
- Capture viewership by drawing them into an online environment that matches where they’re spending more time.
- It works best for companies with visual products or ones that provide a lot of educational material.
- Embedding video in emails is an excellent way for companies to engage their subscribers through emails.
Wrapping it up
We’ve covered every possible way to embed a video into email inside this article so go out and test them for yourself.
It might be best to keep things simple by using a static image with an animated play button as this method is supported by most email platforms.
Directly embedding videos into your emails is definitely possible but not supported on all email platforms.
Many autoresponders like Mailvio make it easy to embed videos into emails but keep in mind that your videos may not show up in all your readers’ inboxes.
If you’ve successfully implemented any of these methods please let us know by leaving a comment below.
