Recent video marketing statistics have shown that video emails drive more than 300% more email engagement. Videos bring a email to life in a whole new way, adding personalization, visualizations, and context far beyond text alone. Yet, Outlook consistently shows up on the list of email platforms that do NOT support video.
So 400 million Outlook users are left wondering...
Can I embed a video in an Outlook Email?
And the answer is.... Sometimes. You can embed videos in Outlook under certain conditions. This is what you should keep in mind:
- Only Outlook for Mac supports embedded videos in-line. But even here, Outlook makes it a bit tricky for recipients to watch. Apple Outlook users have to know to right click on the video, and then click “play video.” If they just click on the video normally, nothing will happen.
- Outlook for Windows, iOS, Android, and Outlook.com do NOT support embedded video -- and often not even animated images. Non-Mac users users cannot watch a video in their Outlook emails. And worse, they often cannot render a GIF properly. A common alternative to sharing embedded videos is to share GIF previews, and then add a streamable link to a landing page where the viewer can watch the video in browser. However, because Outlook for Windows does not support GIFs, sending Outlook users videos with GIF previews will also create a bad experience.
- So, you should insert videos in Outlook as static image previews. If you use a still image (i.e. a picture of your video), then your recipient can see the image, and click on the video to watch it in their browser. This is the best video email experience for Outlook users.
- It DOES matter if your recipient uses Outlook. Even if you use Gmail, you want to use an image preview of your video if you believe your recipient might be using Outlook.
That being said, if you are determined to embed a video in Outlook so it plays in-line, it is possible (for Outlook for Mac at least). You just have to set a series of fallbacks, so viewers will have the best experience for the email client they are using. For more detail here, read this article on how to embed videos into Outlook emails
Start Inserting Videos in Outlook Emails
Sendspark makes it super fast and easy to insert videos in Outlook emails. You can simply record a video, and then Sendspark will automatically generate a video landing page and preview image that you can insert right into Outlook email drafts.
Both the video landing page and video thumbnail are customizable, so you can add your own logo, brand colors, custom text, and whatever you need to personalize the video experience.
You can create a free account to start recording and sharing videos in Outlook today.