![\"\"](\"https:\/\/directmailmac.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/95ed153a63a9fe59f167c31b6bb48f65b1253c1f.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nFor email marketers, the name of the game is engagement: how can we increase the number of people who sign up for, read, and click through our emails? Given our ever-shrinking attention spans, video can be an effective way to increase engagement with your emails:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Video marketing company Wistia ran a number of tests and found that including video thumbnails in marketing emails yielded a 22% lift in clicks<\/a>.<\/li>
- Video platform Vimeo has tools you can use to collect email addresses<\/a> from the folks who watch your videos. Videos can be great lead magnets<\/a>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/directmailmac.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Screen-Shot-2021-03-26-at-2.33.24-PM-1024x575.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWe’re not affiliated with Wistia, but they do have a number of other guides you may find helpful:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Video in email guide<\/a><\/li>
- Collect more emails in video <\/a><\/li>
- Technical tip for email and video<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
How to Insert Video Into Your Email<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Direct Mail makes it super easy to add video content to your email, but first you need to make sure that your video has been uploaded to a video platform. YouTube and Vimeo are both popular choices and are integrated with Direct Mail. After you\u2019ve uploaded your video, open Direct Mail, click the \u201cInsert Content\u201d button, choose \u201cVideo\u201d, and click the spot in your email where you\u2019d like place the video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/directmailmac.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/video-1024x800.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nNext, paste in the URL to your video. Direct Mail will automatically grab a thumbnail of the video and insert it into your email. You can optionally choose the style of play button that Direct Mail overlays on top of the thumbnail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/directmailmac.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/video-edit-1024x800.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nWhen your recipients click on the thumbnail, their video will open in YouTube or Vimeo and automatically start playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can I Play the Video Directly Inside the Email?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately, no popular email app supports playing video from YouTube or Vimeo directly in the body of the email. If this ever changes, you can be sure that Direct Mail will support this feature! Until then, the video thumbnail + play button combination should be well understood by your recipients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If including some motion in the email itself is critical to your design goals, you can consider creating an animated GIF of a few frames of your video. The GIF can then be inserted into your email with a link to watch the rest. Here are a couple resources to help you with that process:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- How to turn your videos into GIFs<\/a> (Vimeo)<\/li>
- GIPHY Capture. The GIF Make\u202ar\u202c<\/a> (Mac App Store)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Be careful with this approach, as even short animated GIFs can end up taking a super long time to download. Just watch that the size of your image file doesn\u2019t exceed a few megabytes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Video content has always been popular, and the story is no different in our online world. Using video to enhance your email marketing efforts can yield a larger subscriber list and increased engagement. Direct Mail\u2019s built-in template editor makes it easy to spruce up your emails with video content, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- GIPHY Capture. The GIF Make\u202ar\u202c<\/a> (Mac App Store)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Collect more emails in video <\/a><\/li>
- Video platform Vimeo has tools you can use to collect email addresses<\/a> from the folks who watch your videos. Videos can be great lead magnets<\/a>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n