by Nicola Hodd 
I’ve been asked a few times over recent weeks how to embed a video into marketing emails so I thought I’d share this great article about the advantages of promoting ‘videos’ in email – and some failsafe ways to include them.
The stats below proof that video works. It allows you to showcase your products, services and complex ideas in a digestible format and as such is a great way to engage with your prospects. It’s good to include them in emails but think carefully about how you use them and what this means for your metrics and the user experience.
There are some clever (and reasonably technical) ways to embed video directly into your emails but there are major shortfalls with the new technology. Most popular email clients such as Gmail and Outlook don’t support them and email servers are also likely to treat the email as spam.
A common and effective compromise is to use images in your email that link off to a landing page with the video embedded on the page (see the article below for more creative ways to promote your videos as an image). This strategy also has other advantages including being able to measure the clicks and views of the video, getting the prospect one step closer to conversion plus the SEO benefit and shareability of hosting content on your site.
The data is clear: video email marketing is worth the effort. One study found that just mentioning the word “video” in an email subject line improved click through rates by 20 percent; another report found that it increased open rates by seven to thirteen percent. Other research found that using videos in emails resulted in a 55% increase in click-through rates, 44% more time spent engaging with the email, 41% more sharing and forwarding, a 24% increase in conversion rates, and 20% increased ROI.