Rich media: what plays in an inbox, what doesn't, and where it pays
Video, animation, sound, anything you can tap or spin. Best on a product page. In an inbox, most of it arrives as a picture with a play button.
- 117Rich Media
- Interactive content like videos, animations, and audio that engages users more effectively than static content.
- Includes
- Video, animated GIFs, audio, carousels and 3D product views
- In email
- Mostly a still image or a GIF that links to the real thing
- Best home
- Your product pages, where the click from the email lands
What actually plays inside an inbox
Less than the demos suggest. Klaviyo's help centre points out that major inboxes, Gmail included, treat embedded video, forms and widgets as a security threat. Apple Mail will play a video built into an email. Most others won't.
| Format | Plays in | Everyone else sees |
|---|---|---|
| Animated GIF | Most inboxes | The first frame, in some older Outlook versions |
| Video built into the email | Apple Mail, mainly | Whatever fallback image you set |
| Tap-to-swap carousels | A handful of inboxes | The first panel, if you built one |
| Gmail's AMP format | Gmail and a few others, once you're approved | The normal version you also had to build |
The play button picture, and where the click should land
So the standard move is a still from the video with a play button on it, linked to the video. Klaviyo recommends exactly that, and its video block builds one for you. Short and silent? A GIF often does the same job inside the email.
It's a promise, though. The click should land on the video, ready to play, on a page where they can buy. Send it to YouTube and you've handed your customer to a page full of other people's videos.
Where rich media earns its keep: the product page
The inbox's job is the click. The product page does the convincing, and that's where video and 3D views pay their way. Shopify product pages can carry video and 3D models alongside the photos, and each one should answer a question the photos can't.
- How big it really is, next to a hand or a person
- How it moves, pours, folds or fits
- What the texture looks like up close
- How it's used, start to finish
Watch the weight. Heavy media slows a page down, and a slow page wastes the click your email just earned. That's build work, and it's part of Shopify builds done properly.
Related terms
FAQs
Can you put a video in a marketing email?
You can, but most readers won't see it play. Apple Mail will run a video built into the email, and Gmail strips it out. That's why most shops send a still with a play button that links to the video on their own product page, which works in every inbox.
Is rich media worth making for a small product range?
When it shows something a photo can't, yes: how a product moves, fits or works. When it's there to look expensive, no. Start with one short clip of your bestseller in use, put it on the product page, cut a few seconds into a GIF for email, and judge it on clicks and orders.
What is AMP for email?
Google's format for interactive email in Gmail and a few other inboxes: carousels, forms, content that updates. It needs a separate AMP version built alongside the normal email, and Google has to approve you as a sender first. For most shops that's a lot of build for a carousel.
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