Use Video Content Blocks

Use the Video content block to share and caption videos in your email and landing pages.

In this article, you'll learn how to add and customize the Video content block.

Before You Start

Here are some things to know before you begin this process.

• Most email clients don't support embedded video, so the Video content block automatically pulls a thumbnail, or preview image, from the video and links it to the video's URL. For email campaigns, we will link the thumbnail with the video URL, so subscribers can click the thumbnail to view the video in a separate browser window.
• We currently only support YouTube and Vimeo videos in landing page campaigns.
• We also offer a video merge tag you can use in email campaigns, which supports Blip.tv, Vimeo, vzaar, Wistia, and YouTube. To learn more about how to use video merge tags, check out our add a video to a campaign article.

Insert the Video Block

To insert a Video content block into your campaign layout, follow these steps.

1. Navigate to the Campaigns page and click the name of the campaign you want to work with.
2. If you’re editing a landing page, skip to step 3. If you’re editing an email campaign, click Edit Design.
   
3. Click and drag the Video block into your campaign layout.
   
4. On the Content tab of the editing pane, add your caption text and the video URL, making sure to include http:// or https://.
   After you enter the URL, we’ll automatically pull in the video or thumbnail.
   If you're editing an email campaign and your video is hosted on a service other than YouTube or Vimeo, click Browse to upload an image to the Content Manager to represent your video.
   
5. Make any desired changes in the Style and Settings tabs.
6. Click Save & Close.

Style and Edit Video Block

To make changes to the style and settings for a Video block, follow these steps.

1. In your campaign layout, click the Video block you want to work with to bring up the editing pane.
2. If you’re editing an email campaign, add some caption text for your video on the Content tab. If you’re editing a landing page and you want to add a caption to your video, toggle the Caption slider.
   
3. Use the tools on the Style tab to make changes to your text and set a background color for your video and caption. Check Apply To All Existing Video Blocks to change these settings for all Video blocks in your layout.
4. On the Settings tab, use the drop-down menus to choose the position of your caption and image.
   To expand the thumbnail image to the edges of the content block, use the Edge To Edge checkbox.
5. Click Save & Close.

Troubleshooting the Video Content Block

If you use a YouTube or Vimeo link, and you don't see a thumbnail from your video automatically pulled into your campaign, check to see if any of these common causes apply.

You recently uploaded the video.
Sometimes the connection between MailChimp and a particular video service isn't instantaneous. Wait a few hours for the connection to be made, or upload an image in the Video block to represent your video instead.

Your video is password-protected.
Our system can't access password-protected videos to pull in a thumbnail. If your videos are protected, upload an image in the Video block to represent your video instead. Keep in mind that your subscribers will still need the password to view the video after they are redirected to the site.

The video service may be busy.
The video service you're using may be busy or have an outage, so we can't connect with them. These issues usually don't last too long, so give some time for the video service to work things out.

Your video URL doesn't include http:// or https://.
If the URL you pasted into the Video URL field doesn't include http:// or https://, we will not be able to communicate with the video service to pull in the thumbnail or provide the option to upload an image. We will highlight the Video URL field if this occurs.

Visit your video's URL in your web browser, and copy the entire video URL, including http:// or https://. Then paste the full URL in the Video URL field of the Video content block.