Videos To GIFs & Everything In Between:

Within email marketing there often comes an occasion where your organization will want to include a video within an email. Now as much as it seems like you should be able to include a video directly embedded in your email, most of us know this is simply not the case. However, this does not mean that you are option-less when it comes to including a video in your emails. You have such options as buttons, direct links, and many organizations include a screenshot of the video for prospects to click on. But did you know that there is a better way?

One of the best solutions for videos in emails is making a segment of your video into a GIF. This way prospects will still be able to see a preview of what is contained in the video while you are able to have a workaround from embedding the full video into your email.

You can find an example of how this would work below:

Pro-Tip

Although GIFs do display in many browsers, servers like Outlook do not display GIFs and instead will display your embedded GIF as a single screenshot, so verify that the GIF will make sense with just the first screen too.

Preparing Your GIF For Emails:

When creating a GIF from an already existing video, the first step is to create a short screen recording to break up your video into a smaller section. This is the section that will play on loop as a GIF within your email. We recommend keeping the GIF below 5 seconds in length to help with load time.

The next thing you’ll want to do is actually convert your short video segment into a GIF. There are many ways to accomplish this from higher difficulty products with more options such as Photoshop and AfterEffects, and many free online products with more simple but limited options such as Giphy, Ezgif, and BlogGIF. Any of these will work to convert your video so choose whichever you are most comfortable with.

When creating your GIF a factor we do recommend including is adding a play button over the top of your GIF. This way it is clearly displayed that your GIF is a CTA that is meant to be clicked on. This is also important for helping encourage click-through on the email servers that do not allow GIFs as your GIF will still appear to your prospects as a CTA.

Once your GIF is completely prepped and ready to go all you have to do is add it to your Account Engagement (Pardot) email. Showing your video as a GIF rather than a button or screenshot is an efficient way to make your click-through rates shoot up! Next time you’re adding a video to an email, try embedding a GIF. See the difference!

Questions about using videos in Account Engagement (Pardot) emails? Fill out the form and an Account Engagement (Pardot) expert will be in touch to help!

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