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Embed thumbnails and GIFs in email

This feature requires a Business, Premium, Advanced, or Enterprise membership.

You can use contact forms to sync your email marketing campaigns within your Vimeo account. You can also share video content with your audiences via email marketing platforms using our Embed in Email tool.

With the Embed in Email tool, you are able to embed animated GIFs of your videos into your email campaigns to drive viewership and increase your engagement and click-through rates. 

Business users and above have access to all of our supported email marketing tools, and all Vimeo users can use Gmail to embed thumbnails and animated GIFs of their videos into their email messages. 

How to embed in an email 

  1. Once you upload or create a new video, you have the option to make a GIF of the new clip. You can then grab an embed code for the GIF and include it in your email campaign. 
  2. When copying the embed code, you can determine if you would prefer to showcase a static image representing your video, use an embeddable GIF, or upload a custom image. The embed code for the GIF will be specific to the email marketing platform (Mailchimp, HubSpot, etc.) that you’re working with. 
  3. Once your GIF has been generated, you can embed it into an email by going to your video’s advanced settings page, pressing the Share button above the preview player on the right side of the screen, and selecting Embed in email.A video's Advanced Settings page. The 'Share' button is in the top-right corner. Selecting the Share button opens an expandable menu. The options in the menu are: Copy Video Link, Copy Review Page Link, Copy Download Link, Copy Embed Code, Publish to Social, and Embed in Email.
  4. Alternatively, you can click on the Embed tab on the left side, then click on the header labeled Email to get started.The embed window. There are two tabs: Web and Email. The Email tab is selected. There is a button labeled 'Embed'. Below the button are icons for various email service providers.
  5. You’ll see a new modal window from which you can customize the image that you would like to embed into your email campaign. From the modal window, you can select which email provider you’re using. 
  6. Pick a static image or GIF asset to embed in your email and decide whether or not you would like the play button to be overlaid, as well as include a link to your video on Vimeo or a custom URL. Please note that if you’re linking out to a custom URL, the link must be a valid link. You can also choose not to add an external link to your image or GIF.The 'Embed in Email' menu. Under the header 'Email Provider', there is a dropdown menu to select the email service provider. Under that is the heder Asset. Here you can select your GIF or select the 'New' square to make a new GIF. There is a toggle button under that selects whether or not there will be a play button displayed. Under is a header 'Link To' where you can link to the video, a custom URL, or Do not link. There is a selectable radio button next to each option.   
  7. You can also upload a custom thumbnail by going to the General tab in your video’s Advanced settings (or by navigating to your video from the Library and clicking Player > Thumbnail) if you don’t want to use the available assets. Please note however that it is not possible to upload a custom GIF; you can only create a GIF using your video. The 'Embed in Email' menu. Under the 'Link to' header, there is a button labeled 'Copy embed code'.
  8. Once you’re done, copy the embed code to put it into your email campaign.

Please note that if you link your embed code to a video on Vimeo, your video’s privacy setting may affect your audience’s ability to view your content. So, please be sure to set your video’s privacy so that anyone can watch it. 

Additionally, if your account is in Private Mode, visitors to your page will not be able to watch any of your videos. So, you’ll need to disable Private Mode in order to effectively use our Embed in Email tool. 

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