It appears that the next generation of email technology that will be used for bulk emailing is going to be video-based. This probably comes as no surprise as Web 2.0 technology proliferates into spaces that are ever more being considered an interface to the user. Embedding video into email is not really a new idea and, sure enough, ever since the concept of video and streaming video existed, the technology was always there but with the practices of spammers and increasing security concerns, any effort to embed video in email was quickly disabled by email clients. Email clients are particularly sensitive to downloadable content in email and most will stop any message from downloading content except when the user defines the sender as a trusted source.

This has ramifications for the type of HTML email template to be used. Since one cannot wish away video, it has to be assumed that there is a way out of this quagmire – and indeed there is. The solution lies in not actually embedding a video anymore but simply masking it. Masking it may seem like a slightly underhanded method but is quite legitimate and the following few tips will illustrate this point.

When embedding video in an email, use an HTML email template that will place a player as a image with another image of the video that will be shown. This is probably the most familiar face of video on the internet and should be applied whenever attempting to convince the recipient that there is a video. When clicked this video will then take the user to a landing page where the video will actually play.

Using animated gifs is also a useful technique that is an extension to the above methodology. Instead of one static image, a series of images from the video grabs can be laced together to form a gif and play it.

Using a line of text that instructs the user to add you as a friendly user is another method of allowing content to be downloaded. This might even allow you to send streaming videos to the user.

 The last method is to simply place image placeholders of the video just like a newsletter format and on clicking a link somewhere, the user can then view the video in another player on the website.

Unfortunately, there is little that any HTML email template can do to overcome the immediate problem of video in email and can only offer solutions like good player designs and the like. Perhaps this will eventually change too with the proliferation of the technology itself; however, until viruses and spammers are off the internet, this will continue to remain a hope. If all these methods may seem a bit contrived, then you might want to consider sending a plain text email with an attachment of a video instead. This is a bit old world and will cost you a bundle in bandwidth charges.