Rich Media Email

Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes

http://live.pirillo.com/ – To my knowledge, it is not possible to embed a video directly into an email. Most email clients will choke if you tried to send that type of rich media. Anything like Flash content and JavaScript even are considered to be a security risk, and are not allowed.

Way back in the late 1990s I authored a book called Email Publishing. In the book, I explained to people how to build communities using their email. Email publishing is about the content. Yes, sponsors are important. However, without good content you don’t have much of anything.

One of our faithful YouTube subscribers wrote in to ask how he can embed a video directly into an email. He wants it to either load or play immediately when the email is opened, or have it be a box the recipient can click to immediately play. To my knowledge, there is no way to do this. A video in an email will not render, and would likely be considered a security risk.

Another thing to think about is whether your audience really wants a video to begin playing immediately. Think back to when Microsoft made it possible for people to embed background music in their emails. How annoying was this? If I’m listening to music, or already have something playing I need to listen to, I do not want a video to automatically start playing when I open my email. Plain graphics and links are what you need to focus on. It’s acceptable to place a link in an email that goes to a page with the video embedded in the middle of it. Make it the recipient’s choice as to when they want to view your video.

Want to embed this video into your blog? Use this code:

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ OWVLHcvlFSo"></aram><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWVLHcvlFSo" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/">Chris</a> | <a href="http://live.pirillo.com/">Live Tech Support</a> | <a href="http://media.pirillo.com/">Video Help</a> | <a href="http://feeds.pirillo.com/ChrisPirilloShow">Add to iTunes</a>

Formats Available: MPEG4 Video (.mp4) Flash Video (.flv) MP3 Audio (.mp3) Microsoft Video (.avi)

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