What Is Video In Email?

The Power of Visuals: Why Consider Video in Your Email Marketing?

Think about how much video you consume daily. It’s engaging and easy to digest. Video often communicates messages faster than text alone. Bringing that power into email marketing offers some significant advantages for your clients.

Boosting Engagement Rates

Video is naturally more dynamic than static text or images. This dynamism directly translates into better engagement metrics.

Increased Click-Through Rates (CTRs): Emails that feature video elements often see a significant lift in CTRs. Why? A play button is an almost irresistible call to action. People want to see what happens next. Some industry reports suggest that using the word “video” in an email subject line can boost open rates. Including a video thumbnail can also substantially increase click-throughs.
Potentially Higher Open Rates: While just having video content won’t magically make more people open emails, mentioning “video” in your subject line can pique curiosity. Testing subject lines like “Watch Our New Product Demo!” or “A Quick Video Guide Just For You” might lead to more opens.
Longer Email Read Times: Even if the video itself isn’t playing directly in the email, a visual cue (like an animated GIF or a thumbnail) can hold a subscriber’s attention longer. They might spend more time looking at the email content surrounding the video element.

Enhancing Brand Storytelling and Connection

Video allows you to convey emotion, personality, and brand identity in a way that text struggles to match. You can show, not just tell. A smiling face, a product in action, or a heartfelt customer testimonial can build a much stronger connection with an audience. This helps humanize your client’s brand and fosters a sense of loyalty.

Simplifying Complex Information

Do you need to explain a complicated product or service? A short video can break down complex ideas into easily digestible snippets. Think about tutorials, explainer videos, or software walkthroughs. Showing how something works is often far more effective than describing it in paragraphs of text. This is particularly useful when you, as a web creator, explain new features or processes to your clients.

Improving Conversion Rates

Ultimately, marketing efforts aim to drive action. Whether it’s making a purchase, signing up for a webinar, or booking a consultation, video can nudge subscribers closer to that conversion. A compelling product video or a customer testimonial can be the final push someone needs. For WooCommerce stores, imagine showcasing a new product line through a dynamic video in a promotional email – the potential impact on sales is clear.

Standing Out in a Crowded Inbox

Let’s face it: inboxes are noisy places. Hundreds of emails compete for attention. Using video, even as a linked thumbnail or animated GIF, provides a visual pattern interrupt. It makes your client’s email look different and more interesting than the predominantly text-based messages surrounding it. This can be a key differentiator.

Incorporating video elements into email marketing isn’t just a trend; it’s a strategy that can lead to higher engagement, better brand recall, clearer communication, and, ultimately, more conversions. It’s about leveraging many people’s preferred content format to make emails more effective.

Understanding the Technical Landscape: How Video Plays (or Doesn’t) in Email Clients

This is where the “it’s complicated” part really comes into play. The dream of embedding a video that plays flawlessly within every subscriber’s inbox isn’t quite a reality yet. The main hurdle is inconsistent email client support.

The Challenge: Inconsistent Email Client Support

Different email clients (like Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail) have different capabilities for rendering HTML and media.

Clients that generally support embedded HTML5 video:
- Apple Mail (macOS and iOS)
- Outlook for Mac
- Samsung Mail
- Thunderbird
Clients that generally DO NOT support embedded HTML5 video (they’ll show a fallback):
- Gmail (desktop and mobile apps)
- Outlook (Windows versions, Outlook.com)
- Yahoo! Mail
- Most Android email clients (excluding Samsung Mail)

This list can change, and specific versions might have quirks. However, the general pattern is that support is far from universal.

The Impact of No Direct Playback

When an email client doesn’t support embedded video, it won’t play the video. Instead, it will typically display a fallback image that you (hopefully) specified in your HTML code. If you haven’t set a fallback, it might just show a broken element or an empty space. This creates a poor user experience. Relying solely on embedded video is a risky strategy for this reason.

Why This Matters for Your Strategy

As a web creator advising clients, you need to set realistic expectations. If a significant portion of your client’s audience uses Gmail or Windows Outlook, they will not see an embedded video play. Your strategy must account for this. You need to ensure that even those who can’t play the video directly still get a good experience and a clear call to action to view the video content elsewhere (like on a landing page).

This is where the simplicity of certain tools comes into play. You don’t want to spend hours coding complex fallbacks if your primary email creation tool can help manage these visual assets more easily.

Direct video playback in email is not universally supported. Understanding which email clients your client’s audience uses can be helpful. However, it’s always safest to design your video email strategy with robust fallbacks in mind. The goal is to provide a good experience for everyone, regardless of their email client.

Smart Ways to Incorporate Video into Your Emails: Best Practices and Techniques

Given the limitations, how can you effectively use video in your email campaigns? The good news is there are several smart and widely supported methods. These techniques focus on linking to the video content rather than trying to force playback everywhere.

Method 1: The Animated GIF with a Play Button Overlay

This is a very popular and effective method. You take a short, engaging snippet of your video and convert it into an animated GIF. Then, you often overlay a static “play button” image on top to make it look like a clickable video player.

How it works: The GIF autoplays (in most clients that support animated GIFs), grabbing attention. When the user clicks it, they are taken to a landing page where the full video is hosted.
Pros:
1. Wide email client support: Animated GIFs work in almost all email clients.
2. Lightweight: GIFs are generally smaller than video files, aiding email load times.
3. Attention-grabbing: Motion in the inbox is a big plus.
4. Simulates video: Gives a taste of the video content.
Cons:
1. No sound: GIFs are image files.
2. Short loop: You can only show a few seconds.
3. Not actual video playback: It’s a visual teaser.
Step-by-Step:
1. Select or Create a Clip: Choose a 5-15 second visually interesting segment from your main video.
2. Convert to GIF: Use online converters (like Ezgif) or software like Photoshop. Optimize the GIF for file size (aim for under 1MB if possible).
3. Add Play Button (Optional but Recommended): You can add a play button image using an image editor before making the GIF. Or, you can place a transparent play button image over the GIF in your email builder if it supports layering.
4. Embed and Link: Insert the GIF into your email. Link the GIF to the webpage where the full video can be viewed.
Tools for creating GIFs: Adobe Photoshop, Giphy, Ezgif.com, ScreenToGif.
When to use this method: Excellent for most promotional videos, announcements, or when you want to add dynamic visual appeal.

Method 2: Static Image with a Play Button

This is perhaps the simplest and most foolproof method. You use a compelling still image (a thumbnail) from your video, place a play button icon on it, and link the entire image to your video.

How it works: The image acts as a visual Call to Action (CTA). The play button clearly indicates that clicking will lead to a video.
Pros:
- Universal support: All graphical email clients can display images.
- Full control over thumbnail: You can choose the most enticing frame or even design a custom graphic.
- Clear call to action: The play button is universally understood.
Cons:
- Less dynamic: Lacks the motion of a GIF.
- Relies entirely on the click: The image itself must be compelling enough.
Step-by-Step:
- Choose/Create Thumbnail: Select a high-quality, engaging still frame from your video. Ensure it’s clear and hints at the video’s content.
- Add Play Icon: Overlay a standard play button icon (often a triangle) onto the image using an image editor.
- Embed and Link: Insert the image into your email and link it to your video’s landing page.
Optimizing your thumbnail:
- Use a high-resolution image.
- Ensure the play button is clearly visible and contrasts with the image.
- Consider adding a title or a hint of text on the thumbnail itself.
When to use this method: Great for any video. It’s a safe, reliable default. It’s especially useful if creating a high-quality GIF is too time-consuming or if file size is a major concern.

Method 3: Linking Directly to Video Content

Sometimes, a simple text link or a button that says “Watch The Video” is all you need.

How it works: You include a hyperlink in your email copy or a button element that directs users to the video.
Pros:
- Easiest to implement: No image editing or GIF creation is needed.
- No compatibility issues: Text links and standard buttons work everywhere.
Cons:
- Least visually engaging: Doesn’t offer a preview or visual enticement for the video itself.
Crafting compelling link text: Instead of just “Click Here,” use descriptive text like:
- “Watch our new feature walkthrough”
- “See the customer success story”
- “View the full event recording”
When to use this method: Good for secondary CTAs, in text-heavy emails where a large image might be out of place, or when providing a list of video resources.

Method 4: HTML5 Video Embedding (Use with Caution and Fallbacks)

This method involves using the <video> HTML tag to embed the video directly into the email. As discussed, its support is limited. This makes fallbacks crucial.

How it works: The <video> tag tells compatible email clients to play the video file. You must specify the video source, a poster image (which acts as the thumbnail before play and as a fallback), and ideally, controls.
Pros:
1. Actual video playback in supported clients: Offers the richest experience when it works.
2. Can include sound (though it’s often best to default to muted).
Cons:
1. Limited email client support: This is the biggest drawback.
2. Potential deliverability issues: Large embedded videos or complex HTML can sometimes trigger spam filters.
3. File size concerns: Video files are large. Even short ones can bloat email size.
4. Autoplay is generally blocked or bad practice: Most clients prevent autoplay with sound for user experience reasons.
Step-by-Step (Simplified):
1. Prepare Video: Encode your video in MP4 (H.264) format. Keep it short and optimized.
2. Create Poster Image: This is the image shown before the video plays or if it can’t play.

HTML Code Example:
HTML
<video width=”600″ height=”340″ poster=”your-poster-image.jpg” controls>

</a>

</video>

Test Thoroughly: Test across many email clients.

The critical role of fallback images/GIFs: The content inside the <video> tags (like the linked image in the example) is what users of Gmail, Outlook for Windows, etc., will see. This fallback must provide a good experience.
When this might be an option: If you have a highly segmented list and you know a large majority uses Apple Mail or another supporting client, you could consider it. Even then, the risk of a poor experience for others is high. Generally, sticking to GIFs or static images with links is safer and more effective for broader audiences.

A platform offering an intuitive drag-and-drop email builder can make managing these elements (images, GIFs, links, and even HTML snippets for the brave) much simpler. This allows you to focus on strategy rather than wrestling with code. This is especially true when ensuring designs are responsive.

Designing for a Seamless Experience

Regardless of the method you choose, focus on the user’s entire journey:

Clear Call to Action (CTA): Make it obvious what you want them to do (e.g., “Watch Now,” “See it in Action”).
Mobile Responsiveness: Your email, the thumbnail/GIF, and the landing page where the video is hosted must all be mobile-friendly.
Landing Page Optimization: The page where the video plays should load quickly. It should feature the video prominently and reiterate the message from the email. Minimize distractions.
Accessibility:
- Use alt text for all images and GIFs. This helps users with visual impairments understand the content.
- Provide captions or subtitles for your video.
- Offer a transcript of the video content on the landing page. This helps users with disabilities and also those who prefer to read or are in a sound-sensitive environment.

While directly embedding playable video is tricky, using animated GIFs, static images with play buttons, or clear text links are highly effective and reliable ways to integrate video into your email marketing. Always prioritize a good user experience. Ensure your fallbacks are solid. The goal is to entice a click to a dedicated viewing environment.

Key Considerations for Your Video Email Strategy

Successfully using video in email goes beyond just picking a method. You need a solid strategy. This strategy should cover content, optimization, legal aspects, and measurement.

Video Content That Resonates

Not all videos are created equal, and not all types are suitable for email. Think about your client’s goals and their audience. What kind of video content would provide real value?

Product Demos: Showcasing how a product works. This is especially good for SaaS or physical goods from WooCommerce stores.
Tutorials and How-Tos: Educating users on how to get the most out of a product or service. This provides ongoing client value.
Brand Announcements: Launching new products, features, or company news in a more engaging way.
Customer Testimonials: Building trust and social proof with real people sharing their positive experiences.
Behind-the-Scenes Glimpses: Humanizing the brand. Show the people or process behind it.
Event Invitations/Recaps: Making event promotions more dynamic or sharing highlights post-event.
Personalized Messages: (More advanced) Using video to deliver personalized greetings or updates.

The key is to create video content that is relevant, valuable, and aligned with the email’s overall message.

Optimizing Video for Email Performance

Once you have your video content, ensure it’s optimized for the email context:

Keep it Short and Engaging: People’s attention spans in email are limited. For linked videos, aim for conciseness. Teaser GIFs should be just a few seconds. The video on your landing page should get to the point quickly.
Thumbnail Power: Make it Clickable: If using a static image or GIF, the visual you choose is critical. It needs to be high-quality, intriguing, and clearly look like a video.
Autoplay: Generally a “No” in Email: As mentioned, autoplay for embedded video is often blocked and can be annoying. For GIFs, autoplay is expected. On your landing page, you can consider autoplay (muted by default is often best practice), but give users control.
Sound: Design for Sound Off, Delight with Sound On: Many people watch videos with the sound off, especially in public or at work. Your video should be understandable without sound (use text overlays or strong visuals). If they turn the sound on, ensure the audio quality is excellent. Always include captions.
File Size and Loading Times:
- GIFs: Strive to keep them under 1MB, ideally even smaller, to avoid slow email loading.
- Poster Images: Optimize them for the web.
- Landing Page Video: Ensure your video hosting platform provides efficient streaming.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

Don’t overlook important legal and ethical aspects:

Permissions and Copyright:
- Ensure you have the rights to use any music, stock footage, or imagery in your video.
- If featuring individuals (customers, employees), get their written consent (model releases).
Accessibility (WCAG Guidelines):
- Provide captions for all video content. This is crucial for viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing. It also benefits those watching without sound.
- Offer a transcript on the landing page.
- Ensure your video player controls are keyboard-accessible.
- Describe visual information for those who cannot see it (audio descriptions, or ensure on-screen text conveys it).

Tracking Success: Measuring the Impact of Video in Email

How do you know if your video email efforts are working? You need to track the right metrics. This is where clear, real-time analytics become invaluable.

Key Metrics:
- Email Metrics:
  - Open Rate (especially if “video” is in the subject line).
  - Click-Through Rate (CTR): This is crucial. Track clicks on your GIF, image thumbnail, or video link.
- Landing Page / Video Player Metrics:
  - Play Rate: Of those who landed on the page, how many clicked play on the video?
  - Watch Time / View Duration: How long are people watching? Are they dropping off early?
  - Completion Rate: What percentage of viewers watch the entire video?
  - Conversion Rate: Did viewers take the desired action after watching the video (e.g., purchase, sign up)? This is often the ultimate success metric, linking marketing activity to revenue.
  - Engagement on Landing Page: Clicks on other CTAs on the page, social shares of the video.
Using UTM Parameters for Accurate Tracking: Append UTM parameters to the links in your email that lead to your video landing page. This allows you to track the source, medium, and campaign in your web analytics platform (like Google Analytics). You can then see exactly how much traffic and how many conversions your video emails are driving.
The Power of Integrated Analytics: Imagine having a system where your email marketing data, including clicks on video links, and potentially even data from your WooCommerce store, are all visible within your WordPress dashboard. This allows you to see a clearer picture of ROI and how different communication touchpoints work together. Tools that provide such real-time analytics make it much easier to demonstrate the value of these strategies to your clients.

A successful video email strategy requires thoughtful content creation and careful optimization for the email environment. It also requires adherence to legal and accessibility standards, and robust tracking to measure impact. Focusing on these areas will help you deliver real results for your clients.

How Send by Elementor Supports Your Video Email Efforts

As a web creator using WordPress, you likely always look for tools that integrate smoothly and simplify your workflow. When it comes to incorporating video elements into your emails, a platform designed for WordPress can make a significant difference. Send by Elementor is built with this in mind. It aims to be the ultimate WordPress-native communication toolkit.

Streamlining Email Creation with Visuals

Creating visually appealing emails that include elements like animated GIFs or linked static images for video should be straightforward.

Easily adding images and GIFs: A drag-and-drop email builder allows you to quickly insert your prepared animated GIFs or static video thumbnails into your email layouts. You can then easily link these visuals to your video landing pages.
Creating responsive designs: It’s crucial that your emails look great on all devices. A good builder ensures that your designs, including any video-related images, are responsive by default. The ready-made templates, often based on best practices (like Elementor’s), can also give you a head start.

Targeting the Right Audience with Segmentation

Not every video email is suitable for your entire list. Audience segmentation allows you to send more relevant content to specific groups.

For instance, you could segment users based on their previous engagement with video content or their purchase history (especially relevant for WooCommerce stores).
You could also segment by demographic data if available. Focusing on universally effective methods (GIFs, static images) for video elements is generally more practical than trying to tailor to specific email clients.

Automating Video-Enhanced Campaigns

Video can be a powerful addition to your automated email sequences. Marketing automation flows let you “set-and-forget” campaigns that work for your clients 24/7.

Welcome Series: Include a welcome video from the founder or a quick tour of services.
Abandoned Cart Reminders (for WooCommerce): A short video showcasing the product left in the cart or highlighting its benefits could help recover sales. Send by Elementor offers pre-built automation templates, including for Abandoned Carts, simplifying this setup.
Re-engagement Flows: A compelling video could be used to try and win back inactive subscribers.
Tutorials/Onboarding: After a purchase or sign-up, automatically send emails with helpful how-to videos.

Being able to manage these email and SMS marketing automations from within your WordPress ecosystem simplifies things immensely.

Tracking Performance within Your WordPress Dashboard

One of the biggest advantages of a WordPress-native toolkit is integrated analytics.

You can monitor click-through rates on your video links directly alongside your other email campaign metrics.
For WooCommerce users, seeing revenue attribution from email campaigns that feature video can clearly demonstrate ROI to clients.
Having these insights within the WordPress dashboard, the environment you already know, eliminates the need to jump between multiple platforms to piece data together. This simplifies marketing and amplifies results.

By providing an all-in-one communication toolkit that is truly WordPress-native, platforms like Send by Elementor aim to lower the barrier to entry for web creators looking to offer more sophisticated marketing services. This helps you expand your offerings and build lasting client relationships.

A communication toolkit deeply integrated with WordPress, like Send by Elementor, can simplify adding video elements to emails. It can also simplify automating campaigns with video, targeting the right subscribers, and tracking results effectively, all from a familiar environment.

The Future of Video in Email: Trends to Watch

The landscape of video in email is continually evolving, albeit slowly. Here are a few trends that might shape its future:

Increasing Interactivity within Emails (AMP for Email): Technologies like AMP for Email could potentially allow for more interactive elements. This includes more sophisticated video playback or video-like experiences directly within emails for supported clients (primarily Gmail, Yahoo, Mail.ru for now). However, adoption and creation complexity are still factors.
AI-Powered Video Personalization: Imagine AI generating short, personalized video clips for individual subscribers based on their data or behavior. This is still largely futuristic for email but is a broader trend in video marketing.
Live Video Streaming in Emails: The idea of streaming live video directly into an email is highly experimental. It faces significant technical and support hurdles. Don’t expect this to be mainstream anytime soon.
Improved Email Client Support (The Slow March Forward): We can always hope that more email clients will improve their support for HTML5 video and other modern web standards. However, progress in this area has historically been slow. This is due to the diverse nature of email clients and security considerations.
Kinetic Email Design: This involves using advanced CSS animations and techniques to create interactive or video-like experiences without actual video files. This requires specialized coding skills and also has variable support.

For now, the tried-and-tested methods of using animated GIFs and linked static images remain the most reliable ways to leverage video’s appeal in email. However, it’s good to keep an eye on emerging technologies and how they might open up new possibilities.

While the future may bring more direct video integration into emails, current practical strategies remain focused on linking to video. Keep an eye on developments like AMP for Email, but prioritize what works reliably today.

Conclusion: Lights, Camera, Action! Elevate Your Email Strategy with Video

So, what is video in email? It’s more than just trying to embed a movie. It’s a strategic approach to making your email communications more engaging, informative, and effective. You do this by leveraging the power of moving visuals. While direct playback in every inbox isn’t here yet, the methods we’ve discussed are incredibly potent when executed well. These methods include using animated GIFs, static images with play buttons, and clear links.

As a web creator, you are perfectly positioned to help your clients tap into this. By understanding the technical nuances, focusing on creating valuable video content, and meticulously tracking results, you can significantly boost their email marketing performance. This, in turn, demonstrates ongoing value and strengthens client relationships. It can even open up new recurring revenue streams for your business.

Don’t feel intimidated by the complexities. Start simple. Test different approaches. Maybe your client’s audience responds best to animated GIFs for new product announcements. Or perhaps a clear, static thumbnail linking to a detailed tutorial drives more engagement for their service. The key is to experiment, measure, and refine.

By incorporating smart video strategies into your email services, you’re not just sending emails. You’re crafting more compelling communication experiences that drive engagement and growth, effortlessly. And with tools designed to simplify marketing within the WordPress ecosystem you already master, you can amplify your clients’ results and solidify your role as an indispensable partner in their success.

What is Video in Email?