And although there are now e-mail marketing companies that can embed video into e-mails as part of their package of services, oftentimes ISPs and e-mail security vendors block video from ever reaching inboxes to ward off the possibility of viruses and spam. But there are alternatives to get the same — or at least a similar — effect.

 

According to a recent report from marketing and media Web site MarketingVox.com, these are a few of the options marketers have to incorporate video into e-mail: Silent movies via animated gifs. A video file is converted to a gif and then placed in an e-mail just like any other image — the effect is similar to video, but without sound capabilities. Certified video e-mail. The real thing. Goodmail Systems (www.goodmailsystems.com) is the primary player in this market. When marketers use this service, qualified senders can open e-mails with video content embedded directly into the e-mail messaging.

 

However, the service is currently only supported by AOL’s Webmail system. Clickable screen captures. This works by placing a static image in an e-mail with HTML that “links” to play the video elsewhere. Keep these in mind the next time you chat with your e-mail marketing company. The best part? According to the report, these methods can result in two to three times the usual clickthrough rate.