Embed Video In Email Gmail – Adam is the Head of Content at Led by a talented, fearless team of writers, Adam loves video, growth marketing, immersive storytelling, and third-person narrative.
Although featured videos in email are credited with 5x higher open rates and 8x higher open response rates, only 50% of B2B marketers use video in their email marketing campaigns.
Embed Video In Email Gmail
So, to help you get the most out of video email marketing, let’s dive into ways to embed videos in emails:
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Studies conducted by various industry leaders praise the role of video in increasing the success of your email marketing.
GetResponse found that emails with videos had a 5.6% higher open rate and a 96% higher click-through rate compared to emails without video. Implix’s Email Marketing Trends study also highlights that click-through rates have increased by 96% on the first initial email, which is mind-blowing!
Additionally, Eloqua shares their findings that show that when videos are embedded in emails, email cancellations decrease by 75% (75%!). In its handy infographic You Got Mail [Video], Wistia outlines the key benefits of embedding video in your email, which researchers shared:
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Additionally, MarTech Consulting finds that email click-through rates increase by 300% with videos, which is simply the best news for the email sender.
Anyone who has tried to add videos to email knows that the process is not that simple. After all, nothing good ever comes easy. First, however, this first method of embedding a video revolves around using HTML5, as Wistia did in his Soapbox email.
This HTML also includes the codes to add a background image, so recipients whose email clients do not support converting videos using this method will see a background image.
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Remember we are talking about HTML5 here. It is the latest and most powerful version of HTML that offers many options when it comes to videos. Another plus is that HTML5 works for iOS devices that don’t support Flash.
In short, Apple Mail 4, 5 and 6, iPad Mail, iPhone Mail and Outlook are all compatible with HTML5 video. In fact, a further survey shows that 75% of developers use HTML5 and almost 35% of mobile traffic is due to HTML5 videos.
The latest version of HTML also gives you control over video attributes such as video width and the image poster that is displayed before the video plays.
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However, there is a catch here. Not all email providers support HTML5. Only two-thirds of email clients support embedded video content in email. Unfortunately, Gmail, which has a 40 percent share of the webmail market, does not support this method of embedding videos in e-mail.
Email servers that do not support direct video conversion with HTML5 end up displaying a background image. Here is a list of email clients that play videos and that show a background image:
The biggest advantage of adding video to emails with HTML5 is that your video plays directly in the user’s email client. This gives the recipient the option to play the video without leaving the email. Otherwise, HTML5 is flexible. You can adjust the background image as well as the video width to match the way your video plays.
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Liveclicker shared, “The embedded video in the email acts as a motivator to get more people to watch the video content. On average, when doing AB split testing on linked videos, we get 35% to 45% more video views.” play embedded videos.
They cite improved UX for mobile users as the main reason for this benefit, as it only requires one tap to watch the video. However, the biggest downside is that many email clients don’t support embedded video, which means the advanced user experience is poor.
So, in a way, by using HTLML5 to embed videos in your email, you’re only improving the user experience for some of your recipients while ruining the experience for many others. they do
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With email clients that don’t support HTML5, your subscribers will see a static image with a video link, or a broken image that won’t allow them to see the entire video.
So you can still get started if the email shows an image + link combination. But if it’s a broken image, you’re stuck, because it confuses the recipient and defeats your main plan of sending an interesting video.
There is also a chance that the video email will be marked as spam. In such cases, at best, your email doesn’t get the attention it deserves, or at worst, it might cause a subscriber to blackmail your domain. Ouch.
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One last drawback here is that even if you let your subscribers watch your video, they still have to click through again to bring them to your landing page. So it’s a total of two clicks – one to play the video (email attachments don’t play automatically) and one click to go to the download page. And we all know how valuable link clicks are.
Of course, the world has a solution for the shortcomings of the HTML5 method. There’s no point serving half the people on your email list with a killer video and leaving the other half out. So the solution? An image with a link like Facebook in this newsletter.
Here’s how: You insert a picture from a video into your email and click the play button.
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This way the image disguises itself as a video (all thanks to the play button), and when the recipient clicks on it, the image/play button duo takes them to another page where the video plays.
1. Prepare a clickable image: This can be a screenshot of the first scene of the video, a cover art, or a graphic designed specifically for the video. We can’t stress enough here that whatever you choose, your goal should be to set clear expectations for the video while still enticing the reader to click.
Let’s take a page from Wistia’s book here. Her team A/B tested what worked best in this situation and concluded that video samples (left) performed better than traditional images (right). Additionally, an image with a video thumbnail encouraged 40.83% more people to engage with the email than an email without a video thumbnail.
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In addition to adding a static play button, you can also experiment with using an animated play button with a static image. That’s what Harley-Davidson did here.
2. Link to your video site: You can add a link to a landing page where the video is located or a link to the hosting platform. This is when you want to embed YouTube videos or videos from other hosting platforms like Vimeo etc.
Now add the YouTube video link (or another video URL) and voila, you’re done: your YouTube videos will appear in the email.
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A top tip here is to set the video to autoplay so that when the link in your email goes to the video’s host page, viewers don’t have to click again to play it. That’s why we talk about lightness, comfort and defeating goals at the same time.
Although this method involves more steps than using HTML5 for e-mail, it comes with several advantages.
For one, this method of embedding videos in email works for all email clients unlike the first option which is only available for a few email providers.
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Second, it offers greater control over the user experience. Directing your email recipient to a landing page eliminates distractions and places the CTA right in front of the audience. Thus, the method helps you to send a strong message to your recipient.
Third, the video on your landing page also gives your audience the opportunity to ask a question or start a discussion after watching the video. You can also browse other content on the site and share it as well. Therefore, this leads to a better relationship.
Finally, this method allows you to use Google Analytics and other software like heat maps to understand user behavior. When your video is on the site, you can track how many of it has been viewed. On the other hand, you cannot track video completion in email because it relies on JavaScript which is not used in email.
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You also have an SEO advantage. A dedicated page means that search engines can index your video properly, which improves your site’s ranking. Additionally, as you create more video content, your website can become a rich library of resources.
This last trick to add to your email video embedding arsenal is basically a cross between the HTML method and adding a static image + link method. Instead of adding a static frame, you can add an animated GIF that doesn’t play the entire video like HTML5, but gives readers a small preview.
The good news here is that almost all email clients support GIFs. Basically, these are archaic in nature and their creation dates back to 1987, so most clients (including iOS