"Can I add video into my emails?"
It's something we get asked a lot here a Flodesk—and it's easy to see why!
Video is an excellent way for businesses to get their products, brand, messages, and ideas seen and heard in exciting and engaging ways. Millions of businesses use video as a critical piece of their online presence, and having a way to deliver those videos via email is essential.
But let's go back to the original question—can video be added to email?
The answer: yes and no.
Let's start with the no.
Video cannot actually be embedded into an email. This is a hard limitation of email technology, and it's the case across all email marketing platforms.
The closest you can currently get with embedded video playback in email is an animated gif image, which can play a shorter looping animation or video, but it will still be missing the audio or playback control components. The long and the short of it: you cannot presently embed a playable video with audio into an email, anywhere, period.
Now, let's get to the fun part—the yes!
Flodesk has released a Video block into the Email builder that allows members to do the following:
Paste a public YouTube or Vimeo link into the builder block settings
Flodesk will then automatically pull the video's preview image into the email for you.
You can also assign link actions to the URL so that when subscribers click the video to watch it, they can beAdded to one or multiple segments
Removed from one or multiple segments
Added to one or multiple workflows
Removed from one or multiple workflows
Tagged with a custom field
The video block has several options to customize a play button to match your brand and your email's aesthetic
The preview image also has a title box that allows you to customize the video's title in great detail, including positioning, typography settings, colors, alignment, and custom fonts.
Note: under the Block settings you can turn off the Title if you don't want to show one for your video preview.
Once the email is sent, the video block will automatically link to the original public YouTube or Vimeo video page.
When subscribers click the "play" button in your email, they'll be taken directly to the hosted, playable video file so they can enjoy your video in its full audiovisual glory!
Now you can enjoy the exciting benefits of video in your Flodesk emails and get your subscribers to click "play" and engage with your brand on an even deeper level. 🙌🏻
Can I also add my YouTube Shorts video via the Video block?
Not yet. YouTube Shorts are currently not supported by the Video block.
If you want to add YouTube Shorts to your email or your regular-length YouTube/Vimeo video is private, consider the following workaround: 👇🏻
Create a static image or a GIF image of your Shorts or private video with a play button on it. This can alert your readers that it would redirect them to a video.
Upload this image to an Image block and link it to your YouTube Shorts video or private YouTube/Vimeo.
Alternatively, for YouTube Shorts, replace "shorts/" in the YouTube short link with "watch?v=".
For example, if your Youtube short link is “youtube.com/shorts/XXYYZZ” make it “youtube.com/watch?v=XXYYZZ."
Here’s a live example with one of our YouTube shorts videos:
We edited the original URL “https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zg_jLLlxOs8” to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg_jLLlxOs8
And added it to the video block.
Summary
How to add videos to your email?
If you have a public YouTube or Vimeo video, then add the video link directly to the Video block.
If you need to keep the video private or you want to add your YouTube Shorts, then add an image with a play button to an Image block that links to your video on YouTube or Vimeo.
Alternatively, for YouTube Shorts, replace "shorts/" in the YouTube short link with "watch?v=".