Well, the short answer is (still) no, at least not in the same way that we can display video on a web page, but my digging unearthed some interesting stats, creative workarounds and a glimmer of hope, so read on…

Many of the services that talk about ‘video email‘ are in fact referring to a ‘click-to-view’ approach, linking out to video content on a web page as opposed to actually viewing it in the email application, and while this is nothing new, the interesting bit is that the click through rates are proven to be much higher, 50-65% compared to emails that offer no video content at 20-30%. (Source: Style Campaign)

But what about viewing video content in the email client? Well, creating movement in a HTML email is still by and large, limited to the animated gif format, and while this can be used to good effect, it can not contain sound, length and quality is restricted by file size, and it doesn’t work in Outlook, which displays only the first frame of the animation.

However things could be set to change (maybe, someday…) Specialist service provider Goodmail and Gmail have introduced support for video viewing within the email itself which should mean that in time, we’ll see others adopting it too. An exciting prospect for email marketers – video that plays on opening the email… But will it work in Outlook?