Example: Video in a newsletter

  • Updated

This example uses a mailing containing an animated GIF teaser that links to a landing page with a full-scale, high-quality video. The animated GIF is created from a short sequence taken from the video and loaded into the mailing as a normal image file. This animated GIF is set in a text/image paragraph, together with the teaser text. The mailing would appear this way in an inbox:

Image: Mailing with an animated GIF

The animated GIF links to a landing page. The full, high-resolution video is integrated into this landing page. The video itself can be hosted on YouTube, Vimeo or another hosting service. These services supply a snippet of code that you insert into the source code:

Image: Landing page with high-quality video

Creating a video mailing with an animated GIF and landing page

  1. Load the video to a hosting service (such as YouTube or Vimeo), if you are not hosting it yourself.

    Use a standard video format such as the widely available and high-quality MP4 format.

  2. Create an animated GIF to use as a teaser. Animated GIFs can be created using standard editing programs like Adobe Photoshop.

    The width of the GIF must be less or equal to the width of the content paragraph in your mailing. Example: If you are adding a GIF with a width of 650 pixels to a Text/Image paragraph with a content width of 600 pixels, the GIF will be compressed and lose its animation.

  3. Set up a mailing in the client where you want to insert the teaser.
  4. Create a landing page based on this mailing.
  5. Switch back to the mailing and insert a text/image paragraph. Upload the animated GIF in the Image tab and compose the paragraph in the usual manner.
  6. Select the landing page from the list in the Link field.
  7. If needed, add a note indicating that the video will open in an external browser window.
  8. Open the landing page and insert a source code paragraph containing the code snippet that embeds the video. You can get this code snippet from YouTube by going to the video and clicking Share and then Embed. You can get the code from Screencast by hovering over the video icon and then clicking Share.
  9. Save and test the mailing.