Author: Joel Kristenson
Last Updated: 2015-03-30
Overview
This article walks through the steps to take a screenshot of a video you have hosted on something like YouTube, Vimeo, your own personal website, and save that screenshot as an image file.
Next it covers how to upload the screenshot, insert it into an email template, and hyperlink from the screenshot to the location where the video is hosted.
This can be quite beneficial to track who’s actually clicking to watch the video(s) after the campaign goes out, it also makes the email appear to have the video embedded, making it enticing for recipients to click on.
Tip: View the related resources at the bottom to find quick links to screen capture programs & tips for taking a screenshot on your Macintosh or PC.
Outline
#1 Take a Screenshot of the Video where you have it Hosted (YouTube, Vimeo, your Own Domain, Etc.)
#2 Upload the Screenshot of your Video to your Trail Blazer System Gallery
#3 Insert the Screenshot Image into your Email Template
#4 Create a Hyperlink from your Screenshot to the Location where your Video is Hosted
#5 Related Resources
#1 – Take a Screenshot of the Video where you have it Hosted (YouTube, Vimeo, your Website, Etc.)
Save the screenshot to your local machine, I prefer a .png, but a .jpg and a few other image file types work fine.
(I called mine “2015-02-17-you-tube-video-screen-shot-01.png”.)
You are now finished with this step, you can move onto the next section to learn how to upload the screenshot to Trail Blazer’s System Gallery.
#2 – Upload the Screenshot of your Video to your Trail Blazer System Gallery
Open your database and follow Application Menu > System Manager > System Gallery (requires appropriate security clearance)
Select the ‘Image’ folder, and click [Import File].
Right-click the new screenshot image and select Publish on web. This allows you to select that image in the next steps when you're inserting it into your email template.
#3 – Insert your Screenshot Image into your Email Template
Navigate to your Templates list.
Click the [+ New] button to begin creating a new template.
Give the template a name and click [Create].
This will open the new CK Email editor.
Compose your template, and insert the mouse cursor in the area where you want to insert your screenshot image.
(Example below – I chose a small area in the right-hand column to add a thumbnail; you might want to insert a larger image into the body of the email.)
Once you select the location to insert the image, click the [Image] button.
Select the Images folder on the System Gallery screen, click on the screenshot image that you took in the previous steps, and click [OK].
Input the Height/Width values for your image.
(In my example I inserted the image as a thumbnail in the right-hand column and chose dimension of 200x121 you may choose to insert a larger screenshot.)
Below is an example of how my final email message looks after inserting the screenshot image as thumbnail, if everything appears as you would like click [Save].
#4 – Create a Hyperlink from your Screenshot to the Location where your Video is Hosted
Click on the screenshot image, and then click the Hyperlink button.
Enter the web address of the location where your video is hosted into the URL field, and click [OK].
*Optionally you could also set the Target of where the hyperlink will open i.e. New Window or New Tab.
The image below is an example of my finished template, click [Save and Close] when you’re finished.
(You’ll notice a very thin blue line around the image now that it’s hyper-linked, this is just to let you know that there’s a link but it will not display when the recipient opens the email message.)
You’re now finished with this task. The Related Resources below link to many related email articles, videos as well as some useful 3rd party tools.
If you have any trouble going through these steps give us a call on our support line.
#5 – Related Resources and 3rd Party Tools
Article: How to Prep and Upload an Image and Insert it Into an Email Template
Article: Images in emails (how do I get them in there?)
Video: Eblasts Create and Send Eblasts – Includes Image Management
3rd Party Tool (Screen Capture Program): WinSnap
3rd Party Article: How to Take a Screenshot on a Macintosh Computer
3rd Party Article: How to Setup a YouTube Channel
3rd Party Article: How to Create a Vimeo Account
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