Step-By-Step Guide

How to embed video into your Mailchimp email campaigns

Playable is fully integrated with Mailchimp, making it quick and easy to add videos to your emails

The NEW Playable Video App is now available in the Mailchimp Marketplace.

The app is the easiest & quickest way to add videos to your emails in Mailchimp’s New Email Builder.

Find out more about the Playable Video App with our Video Guide and Step-by-Step Tutorial.

We also still support all legacy Mailchimp Email Builders.

Increase response, engage your audience, and sell more products with Mailchimp video email

Video ❤️ Email

Easily add video to your email marketing campaigns.

High quality video that plays automatically on 99% of inboxes.

Patented Video Email technology works with any email platform.

Increase Video Views

Video is the most engaging content. Email is the most trusted channel.

Start sending your best content to your best audience.

Maximize the reach and ROI of your video marketing.

Optimize Engagement

Video stimulates interest and desire more than any other content type.

Video email viewers are better qualified to drive post-click activity.

Get more clicks. Sell more stuff.

Use any video

YouTube, Vimeo, or Facebook videos, or an MP4 file - all can be added to your Mailchimp email.

Playable on all devices and email clients

Video email plays on all devices, all connection types and all email clients.

Exclusive offer for Mailchimp marketers

Connect your Mailchimp account to enjoy 1,000 3,500 Free Video Plays. No credit card required.

Step-by-step Tutorial: How to embed video into Mailchimp emails using Playable

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create, embed, and send a Video Email using Mailchimp and Playable, which plays automatically at the moment of opening the email – like these examples.

If you want to use an MP4 video specifically, or videos from YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, or other channels, you may prefer our other tutorials and video guides.

Prepare your email template in Mailchimp

1. Log into your Mailchimp account

Once logged in simply follow the process to commence setting up a new campaign:

  • Click the Create Campaign button toward the top right-hand side of the welcome page.
  • You will now see the Create An Email page.
  • Choose the Regular Campaign type from the tabs at the head of the page
  • Enter your Campaign Name into the form field.
  • Click the Begin button.

2. Set up Mailchimp campaign

Using the options in the dropdown, select the Recipient List for this email campaign.

Complete the fields to configure the rest of the details of your campaign, including Campaign Name, Subject Line, Preview Text, and From Name.

3. Select template for the video email campaign

When selecting your template you’ll need to consider where you wish to position the video within it.

Select a template, from the Mailchimp templates, that you wish to use for your campaign. You can select from Layouts, Themes, Saved Templates, and Campaigns.

In the majority of cases, we find that placing the video at the top of the template is most effective in driving audience engagement and post-click activity.

Make your selection then click Next Step Design.

If your preference is to upload your HTML templates to Mailchimp our tutorial on adding the Playable HTML clip to your template will help.

4. Add content to your template

Add your content using the Classic Mailchimp Editor.

Having decided on the position of your video within the email, simply place an Image Block in that position, as a placeholder. Alternatively, you can use one of the Image Blocks already in position, within the preset templates.

It is this Image Block Placeholder that will be replaced with your video.

Once you have finished adding content click the Save & Close button.

Import your video into Playable

5. Create your Playable account

If you are new to Playable you need to create a new account.

During signup, you will be asked to connect your Mailchimp and Playable accounts. This enables access to your Mailchimp templates via Playable which makes it even easier & faster to create video email campaigns.

Please note that Playable offers a 30-day free trial account to test drive the platform. After which you can upgrade your plan or purchase extra plays as required.

6. Your Playable account

This is the home page of your Playable account. To create a new video email from this homepage simply click Videos in the left-hand menu.

7. How to add a new video

To commence the process of creating a new video for use in your email simply click + Add Video.

8. Upload your video to Playable

Create a title for your video, this will be used to locate it in the future in your Playable account and in reporting. Referencing the dimensions of the image position holder in the email template you can now enter the size (width) of the video content you are looking to create, or keep the optimum size as suggested by Playable.

You have 2 options on how to upload your video content to Playable:

  • Copy & paste a URL of the video’s location – Playable accepts content from all the major hosting platforms including YouTube, Vimeo, Brightcove, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.
  • File Upload  Upload a file from your computer. All video file formats are accepted, including MP4, AVI, and MOV.

Once you have selected your video, click the Apply button to upload your video file.

9. Automatic video preview

As your video is uploaded Playable creates a 10-second preview. You can choose to use this version of the video or create your own version using our Online Editor.

If you wish to use the video created by Playable, select Click Action from the menu to continue preparing the video.

If you prefer to create your own version of the video select Editor from the menu.

10. Edit your email video

Having completed the configuration of your video it is now time to edit your video. To commence this click Editor.

Our Online Editor is designed to enable you to create a video clip from the full-length video you uploaded. It is this edit that will be played in your video email. In the Editor, you can crop the video to focus on key content and select multiple scenes to change the duration of the video.

As you are creating your video email the Editor will show you the total duration and allow you to preview the edits, and re-edit until you are happy with your final cut. Once you are happy with your edit click the Continue button.

11. Enhance your email video

You are now ready to add enhancements to your video, including CaptionsWatermarkEndcard, or Footer. Simply select the enhancement you wish to add and follow the onscreen prompts to add it to your video.

You now have completed creating your video clip, so click the Compile button to continue.

Playable now compiles this video, creating multiple versions, which will be used to ensure each recipient receives an optimized video most suitable for their device, bandwidth, and connection.

12. Add a Call-To-Action (CTA) link

As the video is playing within the recipients’ email the option exists to include a Call-To-Action (CTA) link within the video.

To set your Click Action, add the link/URL of the destination page you want any clickers of the video to be re-directed to, and save it.

13. Preview & sample your video email

Preview how your video email plays in the major email clients by using the drop-down above the preview window.

You can also send a sample of your video email for internal review. Click the Sample button, complete the form, and hit Send. You can add a message to the sample. This is useful when circulating for internal feedback.

Once you are happy with the sample click Embed in the left-hand menu to continue.

Copy the Embed Code from Playable

14. Embed the video into your Mailchimp campaign

To embed the video into your email template select Mailchimp from the drop-down list of email providers, on the Embed page.

The HTML Embed Code, optimized to Mailchimp, will appear below. Always use the latest Embed Code to ensure capturing all changes made to the video and settings.

The 2 options to embed the video into your Mailchimp template:

  • Click the Copy to Clipboard button to grab all the Embed Code and paste it into a Code Block within your Mailchimp email template.
  • If you have connected your Mailchimp & Playable accounts via the API Key (refer below), click the Select Campaign button.

Paste the Embed Code into Mailchimp

15. Use API Key to link your Mailchimp account 

You can skip this step if your accounts are already linked.

The basic steps are:

  1. On the Embed page within Playable, you will be prompted to add your Mailchimp API Key.
  2. In your Mailchimp account settings select Extras, then API Keys.
  3. Click the Create A Key button to generate the API Key, and then label it Playable.
  4. Copy the API Key and return to Playable’s Embed page to paste it into the field provided and Save.
  5. The new Select Campaign button will now appear, giving you access to your Mailchimp templates.

Linking your Mailchimp & Playable accounts enables an efficient & easy way to add videos to your recent Mailchimp templates. The video tutorial in this step will take you through all the steps and show you all the screens involved in setting this up.

16. Click to add videos to your template

Click the Select Campaign button to see a list of your most recent Mailchimp templates. Select the campaign with the Image Block Placeholder, as per our previous steps.

Simply click the Image Block Placeholder to replace it with your video.

Please note, any email block which has a red glowing border,  when hovering over it, can be replaced with a video.

Continue to design, test, and send your campaign using Mailchimp

17. Create a new video campaign

If you are happy with what you see click the Create New Campaign > button.

To publish this template with your video embedded within it to Mailchimp simply click on the link Click to view your new campaign in Mailchimp. You will need to be logged in to Mailchimp to move to the next step.

18. Preview your video email & prepare to send

Preview your new video email campaign within Mailchimp’s dashboard.

Next, add your recipient list and your test email addresses. Proceed to test and then you’re ready to send your video email campaign live!

Seeing Is Believing

Enter your email address to send a sample video email to your inbox. Mouseover the video to preview the full campaign.

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