Step by Step: Create More Clicks with Videos & Gifs

Get more clicks from every email with the simple strategy in today’s step-by-step tutorial

In just a few minutes, you’ll have a new tool in your toolkit that increases website traffic from emails and makes you look like a wizard. Watch the video and follow along, or if you prefer to read, keep scrolling.

If there’s one question we get asked most often (besides “How much email is too much email?”) it’s about how to get videos into email campaigns. And it makes sense! If you have beautiful brand videos, of course you want to maximize their visibility by getting them into your customers’ inboxes. Even if you don’t have a ton of brand videos or drone footage of your vineyards at sunset, you still want to create engaging inbox experiences.

Why add video to emails?

Long-cited industry research (Forrester on click rates, Campaign Monitor on opens) has video lifting email engagement dramatically. But here’s the proof we trust most: across our own sends and our client accounts, emails using these video and GIF tactics consistently out-engage static content.

But there’s always a “but” with video and email.

HTML5, the kind of coding required for videos to play directly in the inbox, isn’t universally supported. It’s getting better, and we hope that one day soon the step-by-step we’re about to teach you will be obsolete. But for now, here’s what we’ve got…

How to Make a GIF from a Video

You can turn any video you already have into a GIF. At Email Mavens, we’re super users of Canva, and here’s exactly how we create an animated GIF from a video:

1. From the Canva dashboard, click “Create a design” and search for “video.”
2. Select the 1080p option (the right dimensions for horizontal videos).
3. Click “Uploads” and upload your video file.
4. Drag the video into your design.
5. Adjust the video and trim the parts you don’t want to show.
6. Click play to preview your video.
7. Hot tip: you can tell it’s a video from the design, but you want to add a play icon so people know it’s something to watch, not just an animation. Use the “Elements” search in Canva to find a play icon.
8. Place it in the center of your video.
9. Customize the icon: change its color to match your brand (your email brand guide should already name that color). This play icon will help increase your click rates!
10. Once your design is ready, download it as a GIF instead of an MP4.
11. Upload and insert that GIF into your email anywhere you would put a regular image.
12. Link the GIF to the video location where you want your subscriber to click and watch (Vimeo, YouTube, or a landing page on your site where you embedded the video).

How to Make a GIF from Images

What if you don’t have an MP4 file? No worries! This tactic also works for creating an effect similar to stop-motion animation. For instance, you can use three photos from a sequence showing a bottle of Spritz being opened:

1. Create the Canva image based on the dimensions you want in your email.
2. Upload and insert into the first frame the best image (in this case the moment the bottle fully “spritzes.” The celebration moment!).
3. Make the second frame the first image in the series, getting ready to open the bottle.
4. Make the third frame the middle image in the series capturing the cork coming off.
5. When you’re done, save the sequence as a GIF instead of a PNG to get the same animation effect when downloaded.
6. Upload and insert that GIF into your email anywhere you would put a regular image.
7. Link the GIF to the video location or product page where you want your subscriber to click.

Why start with the celebration moment (aka the bottle spritzing)? For older platforms like Outlook, which block animations, you want the first frame of the GIF to tell the full story. If you start with a barely opening bottle, users might miss the key message. Always start with the action or celebratory moment.

Time Saver Trick

If your videos are already hosted on Vimeo or YouTube, platforms like Mailchimp and Klaviyo have video content blocks. Just drag these blocks into your email for quick integration. These won’t animate like GIFs, but they’re a fast way to include video content.

Here’s a quick example with an email featuring our “email party” video:

1. In Klaviyo, we drag the video content block into the email.
2. Then we plug in the video URL.
3. Klaviyo pulls in the thumbnail for the video. But it won’t be animated, and there’s no play icon.
4. To add a play icon, go to the editor on the left-hand side.
5. Toggle “Show Play Button” to “On.” Now the play icon will appear, signaling to your customer that it’s a video.

Another Fun Strategy: BombBomb

We love BombBomb for personal emails to potential winery clients and students. Here’s why:

• BombBomb allows you to record videos from your desktop or phone.
• The video gets saved to a dedicated landing page.
• BombBomb creates a 2-3 second animated thumbnail for the email that says, “Watch the video!”

It’s real, raw, and authentic. While we love the high production quality we do for our YouTube videos, sometimes a grainy, off-the-cuff video recorded in the moment, no makeup, bad hair, just hits differently!

Want the full playbook for this tactic? We wrote a whole guide to personalized video emails that wow your winery customers: welcome videos, milestone videos, and when a personal video beats a polished one.

Wrapping Up

So there you have it: a step-by-step tutorial showing you how to incorporate videos and GIFs into your next marketing email. Be sure to check out Canva and BombBomb to up your video-in-email strategy.

We love GIFs and video content creation here at Email Mavens. When we use these video hacks, both for our business and for clients, engagement is consistently higher than with static content.

Find a few creative ways to apply what you’ve learned today in your next email, and prepare for that flood of website traffic and increased video views! And if you want a second set of eyes on the emails you build with these tactics, that’s exactly what the makeovers and weekly coaching inside Mavens On Demand are for.

Did you love this step-by-step session? Want more content like this? Email Erica at erica@emailmavens.com with what you’d like to see us teach you next, and we’ll put the most requested tutorials on our filming itinerary.

At Email Mavens, we believe that every winery can sell more wine online by sending better marketing emails. Hopefully, today’s tools will help you create more engaging content. Keep pressing send on your next best email!

Videos and GIFs in Email FAQs

Can videos play directly inside an email?

Mostly no. HTML5 video isn’t universally supported across inbox providers, so the reliable approach is an animated GIF or a thumbnail with a play icon that links out to YouTube, Vimeo, or a landing page where the video is embedded.

How do I turn a video into a GIF for email?

In Canva: create a 1080p video design, upload and trim your clip, add a brand-colored play icon from Elements, then download as a GIF instead of an MP4. Insert it in your email like any image and link it to where the full video lives.

Why should the first frame of an email GIF show the payoff?

Because some platforms, notably older Outlook versions, block animation and display only the first frame. If frame one is the celebration moment, every subscriber gets the story even when the GIF never moves.