Email Marketing and Wistia

Learn how we integrate with some of the top email marketing platforms to make your campaigns even more powerful in no time.

Note
Email Campaign Links are not currently compatible with audio episodes. You can, however, create a Custom Dynamic Link if you’ve embedded an audio episode on a webpage.

Email marketing campaigns are great for engaging your prospects with timely messages. When done right, they can be an excellent driver of business value.

Adding media to the mix is an effective way to increase click-through rates and maximize engagement with your message. Wistia makes it easy to integrate media with your email-marketing campaigns, as well as measure the results down to the individual viewer, second-by-second.

After this tutorial you will be able to integrate media into your email marketing campaigns, and understand which recipients are engaged with your message.

Using Wistia Email Marketing Embeds

Let’s get cranking on creating some awesome email campaigns with video!

Note: we created a specific page for our most popular merge tag option: MailChimp!

By embedding an Email Campaign Link for one of our supported email providers, each recipient on your list will be automatically tagged by email in your Wistia stats when they click the link and watch your video. This is a great way to take contacts already collected in your email lists and have them identified in your Wistia stats.

Note
When using an email embed, you’ll be adding a thumbnail image which links to the video. Most email clients have yet to support true video-in-email. The thumbnail will include a play button in the image to indicate that it’s a video link.

Select Your Video

First, pick the video from your account you want to embed in an email. You’ll need to embed it on your landing page (if you’re planning to use one) and also create an email embed.

Start by embedding the video on the landing page you’ll be using (if you’re having it point to your Wistia Media Page, you’re all set).

If you are having any trouble, check out our customizing and embedding articles for more.

Next, select Embed & Share.

Select Your Email Marketing Provider

Select the Email Campaign Link tab, in the Embed & Share modal, and choose your provider from the drop-down list. We’ve got a whole list of the best in the biz, like Constant Contact, MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, and Mad Mimi. Check out our integrations page for the full list!

After you choose your email marketing provider, you can customize the settings for your campaign.

Thumbnail Size refers to the size of the thumbnail image in your email. Do you want it to dominate the email? Or should it be playing third fiddle? 450px is our standard width, but you can change it as you see fit.

Links to means where people will end up after clicking the thumbnail image. By default, it’s a public link to the media in your Wistia account. If you want to set up a landing page instead, just change the link here.

Note
The video must be embedded at the Links to URL to track the stats correctly.

Create the Campaign

Once you’ve got your settings dialed in, copy the video merge tag, and paste it into the HTML editor for your email provider. It may show up as just the merge tag - try the preview mode in your email campaign provider to see how it displays. When you are satisfied, send it out to your loving audience!

Voila! The thumbnail image will appear in your email, linked to the page you specified with your video. In the background, we’ll be collecting stats on which viewers in your list viewed the video (available in the Public Stats area of your account).

Embedding Video in Email

You may not use an email marketing service, and that’s okay! You can still embed your videos in your email. Read on to learn how!

Once you select your video, click “Embed” to open the embedding modal and click into the “Email Campaign” tab. Scroll down to the “Email Provider” option and set it to “None.” Then, set the thumbnail size, and paste the webpage URL where you’d like your thumbnail to link to.

Once done, copy your email merge tag and paste it into the body of your email.

Depending on the email platform, you may need to paste the merge tag into an HTML box for the thumbnail to render correctly.

Note
Videos embedded in email will not play there directly due to limitations from email clients. Recipients will need to click on the thumbnail to open the video in a separate webpage and play it.

Copy Link and Thumbnail can be used to paste your video’s thumbnail into your email. It allows you to copy the thumbnail of the video itself (along with the play button), and includes a link back to the video’s media page in Wistia. When a viewer clicks to watch the video, they’ll be taken to view it right in Wistia! In order to copy the link and thumbnail of your video, you’ll want to:

  1. Head to your video’s media page in Wistia.
  2. Right-click within the video.
  3. In the Context Menu that pops up, select Copy link and thumbnail.
  4. Paste the code where you would like viewers to see the thumbnail, and you’re all set!
Note
Depending on the platform, you may need to paste the Copy link and thumbnail code into an HTML box for the thumbnail to render correctly.

Turnstile and Email Marketing

If you have a Turnstile on your video, you can connect it to a list in your email marketing provider so viewers will be added to the list once they submit the form!

If you have a Turnstile enabled on your video, it will automatically be disabled for viewers who click the Email Campaign Link. This way your viewers don’t need to fill out a form when they’ve already been identified by the link!