It was about a year ago that we launched SnazzEmail to make email marketing a breeze for contractors. Since its launch, we have signed up nearly 1,000 contractors and lately the number has been growing faster than ever.

One question that I have gotten quite a bit lately is, "Can we include video in our emails?"

It's no surprise that people would like to include video. It's a powerful medium, it's cutting edge, and there's no doubt people enjoy it. Just look at the success of sites like YouTube and MySpace TV and it's clear - the use of video online has never been more popular.

The rise in broadband speeds over recent years means the process of downloading information has become much faster - enabling users to get more from their online activities.

As a result, the time has never been more ripe for pepping-up email marketing campaigns with state of the art video advertising to get your message across.

These days, not only can you determine exactly how many people have opened your email and clicked through to watch your video but you can see who and how many of your target audience are actually engaging with your brand.

But there are certain issues to be aware of. Although video advertising is an exciting prospect it's a relatively new development and there are risks which need to be taken into consideration.

• The main issue with sending video via email is whether to embed the video in the email itself or host the video online and provide a URL link from the email.
• If you take the plunge and decide to embed a video stream remember that you are reliant on several scenarios:
• The user has to have the right player installed on their machine, which means the plug-in for the player has to be installed in the webmail user's web-browser. There is no unified format and it's even in question as to whether Flash '.swf' files are the best delivery method.
• Emails need to be designed using HTML 4.0. However, this cannot stably use the <embed> tag, required for embedding video, as it was introduced for the current working model of XHTML 1.0. For the purpose of safeguarding the user, most email clients, whether Hotmail or Outlook, usually deem a message containing either <embed> or <object> tags as unsafe and block them. That's if it hasn't already been stopped at source during the mail exchange.
• Video embedded emails can have a negative impact on deliverability rates. If there are high volumes of emails being opened and viewed at the same time there will be an inevitable surge on demand for the sending server. This surge will slow down the overall send and any campaigns being sent by those sharing the same server.

Thankfully there is a helpful work-around for these issues.

The simplest option is to include a static, linked image of the video in your email and embed the actual video in a branded web page using a video provider such as YouTube. This way the video provider takes the strain of hosting, rather than your own server.

That said it's important to choose your hosting site carefully. You risk losing the viewer's attention if the video doesn't load quickly and if the video quality is poor you could potentially even damage your brand.