Learn an alternative to sending videos via email, since most email providers do not provide the capabilities to do so.

I don’t know about you, but it seems every time I open my personal email inbox there is only a list of unopened emails that barely catch my attention.  If I’m being honest most of it is just junk that I don’t mind viewing the headline, but rarely, if ever, will I open and read the content.  If I’m being really honest: chances are that I’m just too lazy to unsubscribe from that email chain. Sorry Bodybuilding.com, I bought protein powder from you one time, I think it's time for the relationship to move on.

But I digress.  

If you think about email open rates from a consumer standpoint though, what are some intriguing ways to catch a customer's attention?  

When I put my consumer glasses on I think what actually catches my attention?  Catchy subject lines?  They definitely help garner interest but they can only go so far.  Let's assume my attention has been grabbed and I am now glancing at the content of one of the many emails sitting in my inbox.  What’s going to actually keep it? Paragraphs upon paragraphs of text?  Probably not.  Maybe some highly impressive images that are both captivating and informative?  Well they certainly help, but most likely only go so far.  Now if you sit me down in front of a 45 second clip that highlights the main talking points of an email, I am much more inclined to check that out!

Being able to embed a video in an email is a great marketing opportunity for your private club to gain membership interest. Unfortunately technology just hasn’t caught up to this idea yet.

But not to worry, there is an alternative solution until the technology has caught up to this great idea!

Most major email providers today do not allow embedded videos to be placed in the content.  Even if you are a wizard at coding in HTML5, and your email provider allows you to embed the video in the code, there is a good chance that a number of the recipients of the message use an email provider that will not support the embedded video. Not to mention the growing community of techies who only use their phone for checking their emails out of convenience.  Let's say in this instance an email provider is, in fact, able to display an email received with a video embedded inside of it.  Chances are that even with this compatible email provider it will not display correctly in the mobile view of the email.  That's why it may be best to skip the guesswork and choose a method that will still get that awesome marketing opportunity out to your members.  

And just to clarify…

...is not the method I am referencing.

Quick Fix for 'Sending' Video via Email:

1) The first step of this work-around is to take a screenshot of the video display (the initial screen with a play button) and save it to the Image Explorer on the website.

2) Now that you have your image, you will need to insert it into the Email Editor on the website. If you need a refresher on the in's & out’s of using the email editor please consult our resource guide.

3) Once you have placed the image into the email, you need to link it to the URL of the video. Make sure the picture is selected and then go to the ‘Insert’ tab and select ‘Hyperlink’. 

4) At this point simply paste the URL into the Hyperlink Manager to the video you wish to link to and select ‘OK’.

Linking the image to the video essentially bypasses the issue of the video not playing correctly in an email.  

The member will still be drawn towards the video image and when they click it expecting it to start playing, it will just open a new browser window straight to the video link.  While it may not play in the same window, the member doesn’t have to take any extra steps to view the content.  

So there you have it!  A fairly easy work-around for an awesome opportunity to grab your members attention. 

Now all that's left is to sit back and watch those YouTube video views skyrocket!

Still need more convincing on the power of video marketing and its growing importance in this digital age?  Check out this awesome blog post from, Emily Latham, one of our eLearning specialists!