We’re thrilled to introduce a brand new email design feature in BEE: a video content block! Now you can share video content in email more easily. Just drag-and-drop a BEE video block into your email design, then paste in your video’s YouTube or Vimeo URL. BEE automatically does the rest! The editor will: (1) grab a cover image for the video; (2) overlay a play icon on top of it; and (3) link it to the video content. Your email will be ready to send in no time. In today’s tutorial, we’ll walk you through how to use the new BEE video block feature. Keep reading and watch our short tutorial video!
First, a little inspiration: Video content blocks in email
Full videos themselves are still challenging to implement in an email. That’s because video files aren’t well-supported by email clients or mobile inboxes. As a result, the vast majority of “videos” that pop up in emails are actually static images or GIFs providing a preview. When readers click or tap on the “video,” they’re actually redirected to watch the full video on a landing page or website. We’re sure you see these video previews in email campaigns all the time. Let’s take a little scroll through some recent examples from our inbox.
Estée Lauder
Food52
Tasting Table
Litmus
Disney
PureWow
As you can see, video content blocks usually include a few standard features:
- A static image from the video that links to the video itself
- A play button/icon that visually signals to readers that the image is from a video
- Supporting surrounding content like a header describing the video, short description text, and CTA button
Sounds pretty easy, right? It really is! And the BEE video content block has made it even easier by automatically generating a static image of your video and allowing you to customize the play button that appears. All you need to do is drop in your link. Let’s walk through it.
Create your video email in BEE
The BEE video content block doesn’t embed your actual video in email—video emails still aren’t a design best practice due to limited support—but it links to your video in a beautiful, smart way.
Step 1: Drag-and-drop the video content tile into your email
Use the BEE editor to design your custom or templatized email just as you normally would. When you’re ready to add your video content block, navigate to the Content menu in the right margin. You’ll see there’s a new Video tile available. Drag it into your design to get started.
Once dropped in the body of your email, the empty video block will look like this:
Step 2: Link to your video
Select your video content block by tapping on it. In the Content properties menu in the right margin, paste the URL to your video. Your URL should be from either YouTube or Vimeo, the popular video hosting services that we currently support.
Once you paste in a valid URL, the content block in your email will display a cover image for your video. Voilá! 
Note: The editor can’t provide a cover image for password-protected videos.
Step 3: Customize the play icon
You can edit the style of the play icon that appears on your cover image. Just use the drop-down menus in the Content properties menu on the right to customize.
Select the icon type:
Choose a light or dark color that shows up best against your cover image:
Then, choose a size.
Yes, the process really is this easy, and your BEE video block will now look great and be clickworthy! Also, make sure to learn more about the power of BEE by checking out our other BEE tutorials.
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