What is the best way to embed video in e-mail?

BtoB Story posted: October 29, 2009 - 12:01 pm EDT

Many e-mail marketers seeking new ways to engage their audience are considering using video in e-mail. Video is popular because senders can achieve higher click-through rates and better user engagement, and can control their brand while maintaining an ongoing conversation. While technology eventually will evolve so marketers can fully embed their video into an e-mail, today the best practice is to host the video outside the e-mail content with a play button graphic embedded into the text of the e-mail. This allows the recipient to have a visual call to action without affecting the deliverability of the e-mail.

With advancements in e-mail tracking and design, marketers can easily embed the play button into their e-mail content, host it from a branded landing page and track results in real time. This is powerful, considering how it will maintain a conversation with the audience and provide the marketer a useful tool in measuring the ROI of each and every campaign, video and landing page.

While there are many video hosting applications available—both free and subscription-based—consider a subscription-based model with a hosted solution so you can track results, achieve higher search engine optimization and control your brand, as well as the content that is viewed alongside your videos.

Neil Berman | President & CEO