Are videos in emails effective for customer outreach?

Key findings

• Engagement boost: Videos can significantly increase email open rates and click-through rates, leading to higher customer engagement.
• Deliverability risk: Directly embedding videos often leads to emails being flagged as spam or failing to render correctly for many recipients. For more on this, see how GIFs impact deliverability.
• User experience: Poor rendering or unexpected autoplay can annoy recipients, potentially leading to negative feedback or unsubscribes.
• Best practice: The most effective and deliverable-friendly method is to include an image thumbnail (often with a play button overlay) that links to the video hosted on a landing page or video platform. Mailchimp provides guidance on when to use video in email marketing.

Key considerations

• Fallback content: Always provide alternative content or an image fallback for email clients that do not support embedded video.
• Recipient consent: Ensure your prospects have explicitly opted-in to your communications to avoid being perceived as intrusive, which can impact deliverability, as high email clicks improve deliverability.
• Video length: Keep personalized outreach videos concise and to the point to maximize viewer retention.
• Tracking: Hosting videos on landing pages allows for comprehensive tracking of views, engagement, and conversion metrics that are difficult to obtain within email clients.

Key opinions

• Annoyance factor: Some marketers find that unsolicited video content can annoy recipients, leading to a negative first impression rather than engagement.
• Coding complexity: Embedding video requires complex custom coding for backup visuals to ensure compatibility with diverse email clients, making it less practical for many teams. This is similar to considerations for image-based emails.
• ROI concern: The significant effort and resources required for embedded video may not always yield a proportional return on investment.
• Linking preferred: A common and more effective workaround involves using a video screenshot with a play button that links to the video hosted on an external platform like YouTube. For advice on how to increase email click-through rate, consider this.

Key considerations

• Recipient focus: Marketers should prioritize the recipient's experience over the novelty of embedding video, opting for methods that ensure broad compatibility and positive reception.
• Technical overhead: Be aware of the extensive additional development required to implement embedded video effectively across all email clients.
• Strategic alignment: Video usage should align with overall business goals and resource availability to ensure it is a sustainable and effective strategy.
• Engagement measurement: Utilize analytics available on landing pages to track video engagement comprehensively, which is not possible with embedded video.

Key opinions

• Deliverability impact: Directly embedding videos can negatively affect inbox placement, as email providers might flag such content as suspicious, leading to messages going to spam. If you're wondering why your emails are going to spam, video content could be a factor.
• Content type flagging: ISPs may view emails with heavy, non-standard content (like embedded video) as less trustworthy or potentially malicious.
• Authentication importance: While not directly related to video, ensuring proper SPF, DKIM, and DMARC alignment is always crucial for any rich media content, as failures can contribute to spam placement. You can learn why your DMARC verification failed.
• Sender reputation: Negative recipient reactions, such as marking an email as spam due to unexpected video, can severely damage a sender's reputation.

Key considerations

• Progressive enhancement: Design emails to function perfectly without video, then add video as an optional enhancement via a link.
• Link tracking: Utilize trackable links to external video hosting platforms for both better deliverability and accurate analytics on viewer engagement.
• List hygiene: Only send video content, especially for outreach, to highly engaged and explicitly opted-in subscribers to maintain strong sender scores.
• Monitoring metrics: Closely monitor open rates, click-through rates, and spam complaints when experimenting with video content to quickly identify and address any negative impacts. For more information, read pros and cons of video email marketing.

Key findings

• Limited native support: Most email clients do not universally support direct embedding of video using HTML5, often displaying a static image or nothing at all, which is a key consideration when asking if images affect deliverability.
• HTML5 video tag: While the HTML5 video tag ( <monospace>video</monospace> ) exists for web content, its inconsistent and often non-existent support within email clients makes it unreliable for email marketing.
• Fallback content essential: Documentation consistently emphasizes the critical need for image fallbacks or animated GIFs for clients that do not support embedded video, to ensure a baseline user experience.
• Security concerns: ISPs may view embedded active content, such as direct video, as a potential security risk, leading to more aggressive filtering or blocking. This is often the case with video links sent to Gmail spam.

Key considerations

• Image + link strategy: This remains the most widely recommended and technically supported method for incorporating video content into emails, ensuring broad compatibility and optimal deliverability.
• Accessibility: Ensure video content is accessible to all users by providing captions, transcripts, or descriptive alt text for video thumbnails.
• File size optimization: Any images or GIFs used as video placeholders should be highly optimized to minimize email load times and improve user experience.
• CDN hosting: Host videos on reliable content delivery networks (CDNs) to ensure fast and consistent loading times when recipients click through to the landing page. Wistia provides insights on video in email marketing.