How to Effectively Add Doodly Videos to Emails
Tuesday, November 08, 2022
In this digital era, it’s not enough for companies to simply send emails. To stand out from the crowd, brands need to find innovative ways to make their emails more engaging. This might be a challenge for most marketers since sending an email is so common that it has become almost monotonous. Fortunately, video has become so popular that you can leverage this trend to make your emails much more engaging.
However, when it comes to emails with videos attached as an attachment, they get overlooked and ignored because recipients cannot view them directly. Video attachments in emails aren’t helpful because the recipient has to download them first before viewing them. It becomes a lot less useful if the recipient doesn’t have adequate storage space on their device or if they are unable to download files until they get to a computer with greater bandwidth and storage space.
So how can we make our emails relevant again? The answer is: by adding video inside the email as a video instead of an attachment! Today’s article will uncover an effective way of sending your Doodly video via email other than attaching it as a downloadable file.
Upload the Video
Before we can attach a video to an email, we need to generate a video link. To do that, we need to first upload the video using any video hosting platform.
Platforms like YouTube, Wistia, Voomly, and DailyMotion are just some of the video hosting platforms you can use to upload your video. Apart from video hosting, some of these tools allow video customization too. There are plenty of great video hosting platforms, but you’ll have to pick the one that offers the features you need and fits your budget.
Uploading a video on YouTube.
After uploading the video, the next step is to copy the video’s link.
Link Attachment
On a standard email client, if you add a link to the body of your email, it just appears as a plain link. Let’s face it, not everyone will click on a simple link attached to an email, especially if you are sending it to a new prospect. Some will ignore it when seen, or maybe won’t notice it at all. Another thing is that we can’t prevent people from thinking that it could be a phishing email or perhaps a clickbait, right?
Some will ignore it when seen, or maybe won’t notice it at all. Also, your must think of keeping your domain secure and its reputation good enough, the most common way is to check your DMARC report regularly. This will prevent unwanted spamming.
So how do we make people know it is a legit video or make them notice it? An effective way to do it is to have a clickable embedded video in your email.
Here’s how:
1. Use an email campaign platform.
Email marketing platforms like MailChimp automatically fetch your video’s thumbnail from YouTube and Vimeo. They have an auto-convert feature that immediately converts links to the video’s thumbnail with a play button.
2. Use an image.
If you are not using an email campaign platform, then having a static image with a play button is a great option to embed your video. This technique works incredibly well when your project is intended for a small audience (i.e., school, office, friends, family, etc.). Here’s how we set this up in the email:
A. Take a screenshot of your video and overlay it with a “play” button.
- Select the best portion of your video and take a screenshot of it.
- Use any graphic design software to add a “play” icon on top of the image.
- You can add a border too.
In the example image below, we used a video player as its border.
B. Open the mail application on your desktop.
Every computer has a mail application. You’re probably using one already, but if you have not set up your mail app yet:
- Go to your Applications folder or just search for Mail on your computer.
- Open the mail application and select “Add Account.”
- Input your email address and password.
Over-the-air syncing of your mail is completed in no time. But if you have too many emails, it might take a while to complete. If you are using a business or school email address, you may need to manually set up the mail application as it may require a different setting. You may contact your email provider if you encounter issues setting up your account.
C. Create a new email and attach the image.
- Click “Compose” to write a new message.
- When the compose page is up, click “Insert.”
- Select “Pictures” and upload your image.
Note that the layout may vary depending on your mail application, but these menus should be present.
D. Attach the video link.
- Click “Insert” and paste your video’s link.
- Verify that you have successfully appended the link by hovering your cursor on top of the image.
When your recipient receives the email and clicks on the image, the video should immediately open via your recipient’s default web browser.
E. Send a test mail.
After editing your email, send a test email to yourself and check the following:
- Make sure that the message is successfully sent and received.
- Check for any typos.
- Make sure the links are working.
- Make sure the image is showing.
- Check the format of your message on all devices (web browser, laptop’s mail application, and mobile phone).
When you are satisfied with how your email looks, you can already send it to your intended audience.
Mobile View
Desktop Mail Application View
Web Mail View
3. Use a GIF file instead of a static image.
Using a GIF file is also another way to increase your click rate. You can grab a portion of your video and use it as your GIF. Or, if you have a YouTube page and have an intro video, you can use a portion of it as your GIF.
Keep your GIF file short. The ideal size of your GIF should be at least 2 MB. You can use a bigger file size, but it may take a while for your email to get sent. Remember that not all email clients support GIF files. If your email client does not support it, you can revert back to using a static image instead.
4. Animate the “Play” button.
You can get creative with your play button. Having a moving play button encourages people to click on the video. In addition to the play button, you can also use other images, such as the loading image we have below.
Conclusion
Embedding your Doodly video in an email is a good way to complement a marketing email that sends website traffic to a landing page for conversion. Even personal emails that require video attachments make the entire experience totally fun and interactive. By using images and graphics to create an attractive and inviting experience for viewers, you can increase the chance that they will watch your explainer video.
I hope you found this guide helpful and that it has made it easier for you to add an effective email marketing strategy to your business or even for personal use. Remember, there’s no right way to do this. Just have fun with it, and feel free to let your personality shine through in the video.
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