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Adding video to a message

It would be great if videos could be embedded directly into email messages, but, unfortunately, no email clients currently support such a feature. Instead, Direct Mail makes it easy to insert a thumbnail image and a click-to-play link for videos that are hosted on YouTube or Vimeo. Here's how:

If you are using a modern template

  1. Choose Insert Content > Video from the message editor toolbar. You can also find this menu item in the Edit menu.
  2. Click the location in your message where you want the video to appear
  3. Click on the video placeholder and enter in the URL of your video

Direct Mail will automatically download the thumbnail image and create a link to auto-play the video online. You can customize how this thumbnail appears, including:

  • Style of the "play" icon that is overlaid on top of the thumbnail image
  • SIze
  • Alignment
  • Spacing
  • Rounded Corners
  • …and any of the built-in image editing options (vignettes, blurs, color adjustment, crop, etc.)

Direct Mail also automatically sets the "alt" text of the thumbnail image to the title of the video. This means that email clients that have image loading turned off will display the title of the video instead of a blank space.

If you are using a legacy template

  1. Position the cursor where you would like the video to appear in your message
  2. Choose Insert Content > Video from the message editor toolbar. You can also find this menu item in the Edit menu.
  3. Enter the URL of the YouTube or Vimeo video
  4. Click Insert

If the thumbnail does not appear

Some videos may not be available to include in your email. The most common reason that a video is not available is because the publisher of the video has restricted the visibility settings so that it is not available publicly.

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