You can either read this article to learn how video emails work, or scroll to the bottom of the page to watch the full recorded training. Click here to go straight to the video.
Video emails allow you to send personalized or marketing videos through email by linking to a hosted landing page. Since videos cannot be truly embedded inside emails, the system automatically creates a click-through experience that displays the video cleanly for the recipient.
What Are Video Emails
Timestamp: 0:29
Video emails are emails that include a clickable video thumbnail. When the recipient clicks the video, they are taken to a landing page where the video plays.
Key benefits:
Videos stay focused on your message without external distractions
No need to upload videos to YouTube unless you want to
Works for sales, marketing, and account management use cases
Record and Send a Video Using Your Webcam
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You can record a video directly using your webcam and send it immediately.
Steps:
Click the + button in the top navigation.
Select Video Email.
Allow browser access to your camera and microphone.
Click Record to start recording.
Click Stop when finished.
Click Upload to upload the video.
Confirm the video has finished encoding.
Choose Send a Contact, Send a List, or save to your Content Library.
Enter the recipient and subject line.
Send the email.
Important:
Make sure the video has fully encoded before sending. Encoding means the video has processed and is ready to be viewed. Click here to learn how to check that your video is done encoding.
Record a Video for Later Use
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If you want to record a video but send it later, use the Record Video option instead of Video Email.
Steps:
Click the + button.
Select Record Video.
Record and upload the video.
Once encoded, the video is saved in your Content Library.
Insert it into an email later using templates or the editor.
Upload a Pre-Recorded Video File
Timestamp: 5:07
You can upload existing video files instead of recording with your webcam.
Steps:
Click the + button.
Select Upload a File.
Choose a video file from your computer.
Click Upload.
Wait for the video to finish encoding.
Confirm the thumbnail appears, indicating it is ready to use.
Tip:
If the video is longer than 30 seconds, consider uploading it from your computer rather than a mobile device to reduce upload interruptions.
Confirm Video Encoding Status
Timestamp: 5:50
Encoding status determines whether a video is ready to send.
How to check:
Go to Content Management.
Videos without thumbnails are still encoding.
Once a thumbnail appears, the video is ready.
You may need to refresh the page to see the thumbnail update.
Use the Mobile App to Record or Upload Videos
Timestamp: 6:31
The mobile app allows you to record or upload videos using your phone’s camera.
Best practices:
Short videos generally upload without issue.
Longer videos may fail due to network interruptions.
For longer videos, upload the file from your computer instead.
Recommended workaround for long videos:
Upload the video to Google Drive or Dropbox.
Download it to your computer.
Upload the file through the desktop interface.
Add Videos Using the Rich Text Editor
Timestamp: 8:06
You can insert videos into email templates using the Rich Text Editor.
Steps:
Go to Email Templates.
Open or create a template using the Rich Text Editor.
Place your cursor where the video should appear.
Add a space to help position the video correctly.
Click Insert Video.
Select a video from your library.
Save the template.
Add Videos Using the HTML Builder
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The HTML Builder supports both hosted videos and external video links.
Steps:
Open an email template using the HTML Builder.
Drag in a Video block.
Choose one of the following:
Choose Video to select a hosted video
Link to Video to paste a YouTube or Vimeo URL
Save the template.
Note:
YouTube thumbnails are automatically pulled when linking external videos.
Understand Landing Page Behavior for Videos
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How the video opens depends on whether the template has a landing page enabled.
If no landing page is enabled:
Hosted videos open on a standalone video page.
YouTube videos open directly on YouTube.
If a landing page is enabled:
Videos play within the context of the email template.
YouTube videos play embedded inside the landing page.
Choose the option that best fits the experience you want the recipient to have.
Create and Use Gif Thumbnails
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Gift thumbnails create a short autoplay preview that helps capture attention.
How to enable a gif thumbnail:
Open Content Management.
Click the video options menu.
Select Change Thumbnail.
Choose Create Gif Thumbnail.
Select a start time (how many seconds into the video the gif should start).
Save the changes.
Optional:
Upload a custom thumbnail image instead of using a video preview.
Gif thumbnails are especially effective for personalized outreach and sales messages.
Watch the Full Recording
Scroll to the bottom of this page to watch the full recorded training and see each feature demonstrated step by step.
Transcript
Transcript
0:01
hello everybody thank you so much for
0:04
joining us here today uh today we're
0:06
going to be talking about how you can
0:08
use B Cloud to send video
0:11
emails uh so before we jump into that of
0:14
course as always if you have any
0:17
questions whether it's while this is
0:19
broadcasting live or if it's after the
0:21
fact feel free to send in your questions
0:24
in the chat or in the comments and we'll
0:25
be eager to answer them uh so first of
0:29
all what are video emails well they are
0:32
videos that are sent to people via email
0:34
that link to a landing page and the
0:37
reason they have to link to somewhere
0:38
else is because technically speaking
0:41
emails can't actually truly embed videos
0:45
in them uh and so we have a few choices
0:48
for how you can approach doing this in
0:51
VIP Cloud um these can be videos that
0:54
are recorded using your webcam they can
0:57
be videos that are we have a file that
1:00
you upload into the system and they can
1:03
also be videos that link to say like a
1:06
YouTube or Vio so let's get the screen
1:11
share going here and walk through
1:15
this um so first of all let's talk about
1:19
recording a video using your
1:22
webcam so you are going to be able to
1:25
most people get will will start this
1:28
process by clicking on this Plus button
1:30
right here and then you have a couple of
1:32
choices you've got video email or record
1:36
a video and there's only a minor
1:38
difference video email when you click on
1:41
that it will let you record the video
1:43
and then just send it to somebody right
1:46
away whereas record video is basically
1:49
just that you record the video and then
1:51
it's stored in your content and then you
1:53
can use it a little bit
1:56
later so for right now we're going to
1:58
click on this right here be email now if
2:01
it's your first time uh doing this your
2:05
browser will probably prompt you in the
2:07
upper left corner just a little bit
2:09
above where my mouse is showing there
2:12
and it will ask for permission to you
2:15
know have vcloud access your uh camera
2:18
and your audio that is uh you know
2:21
totally expected make sure you hit okay
2:24
on that and then uh and then this window
2:26
right here will pop up where all you
2:28
have to do is hit that record button
2:32
it'll instantly start
2:34
recording and whenever you are done and
2:37
you're happy with your take you can hit
2:40
that uh that stop
2:43
button and you can just let
2:46
this stay as it is just hit the upload
2:49
button it'll upload the
2:54
video and it'll give you an opportunity
2:56
to change the title if you want
3:00
also by the way you see this right here
3:01
where it says that the this is completed
3:03
encoding this is actually a really
3:05
important thing I need to mention right
3:06
away because encoding basically just
3:08
means uh that the video has processed
3:11
and now it's usable so if you have a
3:12
longer video it'll take longer for that
3:15
processing to take place uh and then and
3:17
become
3:19
usable uh and so you need to make sure
3:21
that your video has
3:25
encoded you say like an example video
3:28
we'll discuss the gift thumbnails a
3:30
little bit later and then here we can
3:33
say send a contact that's going to be
3:35
like we're ready just to send this over
3:37
to somebody right away send a list will
3:40
be if you want to send it as a mouse
3:42
email and Content Library as well that's
3:45
if you want to just go to your existing
3:47
library of all of your videos in this
3:49
case we're going to say send a contact
3:51
because we want to maybe this is like a
3:53
sales interaction and what we want to do
3:55
is send this over to somebody as a
3:58
personal message for Somebody by the way
4:00
video email is awesome for this to
4:03
really be able to make an impact with
4:04
somebody where they know this is a a
4:06
video that you have recorded just for
4:09
them and then from here it's just the
4:12
usual process of s who you want to send
4:14
it to what the subject is and we can see
4:17
right here that this has automatically
4:20
inserted this video into the email and
4:23
we can send it when we are ready and
4:25
what will happen is when they click on
4:27
this they will be taken to a landing
4:30
page where your video will be displayed
4:32
to them and I think it's also important
4:35
to mention here too that this that we
4:37
host videos that are recorded in this
4:40
way that I just showed you so what that
4:41
means is that you don't have to go
4:43
through the laborious process of
4:45
uploading things to YouTube and then of
4:48
course when they go to YouTube well they
4:50
might just get distracted over there
4:51
like happens to the best of us and uh in
4:55
this case we really want them to focus
4:56
on your message not on stuff that their
4:58
favorite creators we're also creating so
5:01
this keeps them
5:04
focused all right now let's talk about
5:07
uploading videos it's very very similar
5:10
but I just want to show you what that
5:11
looks like so we hit on this plus button
5:14
right here you'll see this option right
5:17
here file upload a file
5:19
slide you can click on that and then
5:22
this will uh you probably can't see it
5:24
right now but my computer is uh letting
5:27
me browse for a video and I'm going to
5:30
choose a video right
5:33
here and you're always going to have the
5:37
sharable option pop up right here we're
5:40
going to hit
5:43
upload and very similar here we can
5:46
rename this if we want to I'm going to
5:48
jump right over to content management
5:50
because also I want to show you
5:52
again how you can kind of tell if a
5:54
video is encoded yet or not so we can
5:56
see right here we got this video that I
5:58
that I just uploaded before for and it
6:01
has encoded we can see the thumbnail
6:03
that is the giveaway that this it has
6:05
encoded and it's ready to send to people
6:07
this is not but we can see right here
6:10
that it had while I was talking it has
6:12
encoded because got that little uh
6:14
notification there and when I refresh
6:17
this page you'll see that there's going
6:18
to be a
6:20
thumbnail I
6:22
refreshed and there's the thumbnail we
6:24
are ready to rock and roll with this
6:28
video um also want to talk about
6:31
how if you like our mobile app is great
6:35
for also doing this but using your
6:37
phone's camera so you can upload videos
6:40
from your phone and you can also use
6:42
your phone's camera to record videos uh
6:46
in the viip Cloud app and have them go
6:49
directly into your viip Cloud's
6:52
content the only caveat there that I
6:55
want you to keep in mind is
6:58
that there's a lot of stuff that can go
7:01
wrong uh technically speaking while a
7:05
video is being uploaded while some like
7:06
long video is is going through your data
7:10
signal and into VI cloud and there's any
7:13
kind of interruption things uh might not
7:16
work so if it's a longer video like I'd
7:18
say even like longer than 30 seconds or
7:20
so my recommendation would be to use
7:24
cloud storage like Google drive or
7:26
something like that to or Dropbox to
7:30
get that video loaded into your VIP
7:32
cloud account and then you just follow
7:34
that process that I just showed you here
7:36
of uploading it from here that is a
7:39
great way to just uh reduce the
7:42
variables that could go go wrong along
7:44
the way so try it first using unless you
7:48
know it's a really long video like five
7:49
minutes or something uh you could try it
7:52
first see if it uh if it works and uh
7:55
and then if it doesn't just just use a
7:56
Dropbox or Google drive or something
7:58
like that to get it onto your laptop and
8:01
then upload it using this right
8:03
here all right so we've talked about
8:06
Rich Text uh videos uh or Rich the Rich
8:09
Text Editor at least when it's being
8:11
sent to an individual contact let's just
8:13
go
8:14
into our email
8:17
templates and I'm just going to show you
8:20
really quickly in the Rich Text Editor
8:22
how you can go about adding a a video to
8:27
your
8:28
email we're go over
8:30
here and it's as easy as using that
8:34
insert video button right there now if
8:37
you're doing what I'm doing here and
8:39
it's a fresh template I'm going to be
8:40
inserting it a little hack that I like
8:42
to show you is that if you add a space
8:45
to where the cursor is it's more likely
8:48
to land exactly where you want it to go
8:51
um and so just throw a space in there
8:53
hit insert
8:54
video and let's just throw this one in
8:57
there there we go we've got our email
9:01
right there or our video right there and
9:05
it is ready to be saved and
9:08
sent now let's go to the HTML
9:13
Builder go
9:16
here HTML
9:19
Builder and we have a couple of options
9:25
here so let's just throw a sample
9:28
template in here really
9:34
quickly all right so we can see our
9:36
video block right here let's uh throw
9:39
this right
9:41
there click in
9:43
it and we have two options choose video
9:46
or link to
9:48
video and we're going to choose a video
9:52
first and there we go as we can see we
9:55
have our library of videos
10:00
choose that right there and here we go
10:02
we are all set uh now if we wanted it to
10:07
be a YouTube video Let's just throw one
10:11
right on top just
10:13
uh there we
10:16
go can grab our blocks
10:19
video and let's just grab a YouTube link
10:22
really
10:25
quickly and we're going to throw it in
10:27
there and it's processing and it will
10:31
have that thumbnail automatically
10:34
grabbed from
10:38
YouTube now one thing you want to keep
10:40
in mind here as well is if this template
10:45
does not have a landing page associated
10:47
with it what'll happen is when they
10:49
click on the video they'll just see the
10:52
the
10:53
page just it'll be just the video itself
10:55
it won't be in the context of the rest
10:58
of the template
11:00
so if you just if you you just have to
11:02
think about what experience you want
11:04
them to have if you want them to click
11:07
on this and you know actually I'm gonna
11:10
I'm gonna pause this recording really
11:12
quickly and just demonstrate for you
11:14
because I think it'll be best for you to
11:17
see all right what I wanted to show you
11:19
here is if you don't have the landing
11:23
page enabled for this HTML Builder and
11:27
you send this template to somebody
11:30
and they click on one of these videos
11:33
well especially if they click on a VI
11:34
Cloud video they are going to be taken
11:37
to that video landing page like this
11:40
where it's just showing the the video
11:43
itself or if it's the YouTube video it's
11:45
going to take them to
11:47
YouTube but if you have the landing page
11:50
enabled it will take them to the landing
11:53
page itself where they can see the video
11:56
in the context of the rest of that
11:58
template temp or if it's the YouTube
12:01
video they can watch the Youtube video
12:03
in the context of that that template
12:06
itself so that's just a choice that you
12:08
have to make for what's going to make
12:09
the most sense for your use case I think
12:13
the uh in this people often will choose
12:16
the landing page
12:18
option all right lastly I just want to
12:21
show you really quickly what gift what
12:24
gift thumbnails look like and how you
12:25
can use them and actually let's just
12:28
really quickly just just show you here
12:31
the result this is a gift thumbnail
12:33
right here where it will autoplay a
12:36
little bit it's great way to catch
12:38
people's eyes it's because there's a
12:40
moving image in there um and you can be
12:43
like waving at them stuff like that to
12:46
get their
12:48
attention and as you might have seen
12:50
you're able
12:51
to choose if you want it to be a gift
12:54
thumbnail as you're uploading a video
12:56
it's little check
12:57
box but your also able
13:01
to update a video to be a gift
13:04
thumbnail as you are uh or after the
13:07
after you've uploaded it so you're going
13:09
to find that here under click on this
13:11
button right here change
13:14
thumb you can see right here create gift
13:17
thumbnail and you're able to choose
13:19
where in time this will start and so
13:24
what that means is like it's going to
13:26
choose where in that in the video itself
13:28
is it going to start typically you don't
13:30
really want it to be like at zero
13:32
seconds so let's just put it at like two
13:34
seconds in
13:37
update and there we go as you can see
13:40
now this has a gift thumbnail and you
13:44
can
13:47
also add your own thumbnail image as
13:51
well if that's something that you
13:55
want all right well I think that's about
13:58
it for this video I hope you find this
14:02
to be helpful I think video emails are a
14:05
really great way to communicate with
14:07
your audience whether it's in a
14:09
marketing context if it's in a sales
14:11
context in an account management context
14:14
uh there are tons of Realms where it's
14:18
helpful to be able to communicate with
14:19
people in a spoken word where they can
14:21
actually watch your face and build that
14:24
human connection with you so uh a lot of
14:27
great ways you can use this and I hope
14:30
that it helps you in your business
14:31
building Journey thank you so much