How to put a video in an email (and why it won’t play inside)
Updated: November 8, 2026
You want your customers or students to watch a video from an email. The problem is that the most common email programs (Gmail, Outlook, and often the iPhone’s Mail app) don’t play video inside the message, and attaching a heavy file rarely works. The solution is the same one big brands use: an image that looks like a player and links to the video.
Why it can’t play inside the email
- For security, emails don’t run iframes or scripts: an embedded player doesn’t show up.
- Attaching the video runs into attachment size limits and forces people to download the whole thing to watch it.
- An image with a link works in every email program.
Step by step
- 1Upload the video to Dembed and copy its link.
- 2Grab an eye-catching frame with the thumbnail extractor (or use the automatic thumbnail).
- 3Optionally, add a “play” button on top with any image editor: it makes clear it’s a video.
- 4In your email, insert the image and link it to the video (in Gmail: select the image and click the link icon).
- 5Also add a text link underneath (“Watch the video”) in case the reader has images turned off.
In email marketing tools
On bulk email platforms (Mailchimp, Brevo and the like) the process is the same: an image block with a link. Some have a “video” block that does exactly that from a link.
<a href="https://dembed.cc/v/v_YOUR_ID"><img src="thumbnail-with-play.jpg" alt="Watch the video" width="600" style="max-width:100%;border-radius:8px"></a>
<p><a href="https://dembed.cc/v/v_YOUR_ID">▶ Watch the video</a></p>Frequently asked questions
No. Gmail strips iframes. Use the linked image.