Use VideoAsk with your email marketing tool

Get the conversation going by using VideoAsk with your email marketing tool to send emails, newsletters, or campaigns.

Using a snippet of HTML code, grab your audience’s attention by embedding your videoask in an email as an animated GIF and link.

Note: Email marketing tools don't allow a true embed of video content. So, when you embed a videoask in an email it displays as a GIF. When recipients click the GIF they're directed to a new tab to view and interact with the videoask.

Not using an email marketing tool? You can embed a videoask in an email with your email client.

💡Tip: Explore more ways to share a videoask with your audience. 

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Embed a videoask as a GIF using an email marketing tool

Use merge tags with Mailchimp

Embed a videoask as a GIF in a HubSpot email

Pass contact details from HubSpot to your videoask with variables

Embed a videoask using an email marketing tool

In this example, we're using Mailchimp to send out our email. We'll add a Code block to our template.

Note: The email embed code doesn't include any contact details by default. You can enable a contact form in your videoask to collect respondents' contact details or follow the instructions below to use merge tags.

💡 Pro tip: To center align the GIF and link, add <center> to the beginning of the embed code, like this:

Here's how it will look:

Use merge tags with Mailchimp

The videoask URL that's included in the code you copy doesn't include contact variables. Without variables, you won't know who has responded to your videoask unless you enable a contact form.

However, you can use variables and merge tags to dynamically populate respondent contact information. This means respondents don't need to fill out a contact form but you still know who the responses are from. To do this, you need to manually update the embed code.

You can add the following variables to the videoask URL to pass contact name, email, and phone number:

#contact_name=

#contact_email=

#contact_phone_number=

To use these variables with merge tags, add them to the end of the videoask URL in your embed code following the appropriate formatting for your email tool.

Add the variables after ?autoplay=true in the embed code, in both places.

That's it! Click Save & Close to save your changes.

Now, when you send your email, each person on your mailing list will receive a unique videoask URL that already includes their contact information. When they respond to your videoask, you'll receive their responses in your VideoAsk account along with their name and email address. They won't need to complete a contact form in your videoask.

Embed a videoask into a HubSpot email

If you want to embed a videoask in a HubSpot email, the process is a little different because of some code-copying limitations in the HubSpot email editor.

Follow the steps below to create a clickable, animated GIF in your HubSpot email that directs your readers to your videoask in a new tab.

Nearly there. 💪 Now, all you need to do is add a link to your GIF so it directs your readers to your videoask when they click it.

And that's it!

Note: We recommend sending yourself a test email to check everything is working as expected before sending out the email to your customers.😉

Pass contact details from HubSpot to your videoask with variables

Since you'll already know your respondent's name and email address when sending an email from HubSpot, why not pass their contact details from HubSpot to your videoask with variables? Your respondents won't need to fill out the contact form but you'll still be able to see their contact details with their responses.

After you've embedded your videoask into a HubSpot email (check out the previous section of this article for help with that), follow the steps below to add variables.

#contact_name={{contact.firstname}} {{contact.lastname}}&contact_email={{contact.email}}

And you're all set! Now when your respondents answer your videoask sent from a HubSpot email, their contact details will appear with their videoask response. 

Note: We recommend using the preview feature in HubSpot to view the email as a specific contact. You can test out the link to make sure everything is working as expected before sending the email to your respondents. 

💡 Tip: You can also pass the variables into the overlay text for a more personalized experience.