How to add a video to a cold email without an attachment

Most cold emails get skimmed on a phone, between other things. The reader decides in a few seconds whether this came from a person or a sequence.

A short video of you, recorded for that one person, answers that question faster than a sentence can. The work is getting it into the email in a way that opens on every device and is less likely to be flagged as spam.

Why a link beats an attachment

A one-minute video file can run to tens of megabytes, and many mail servers reject large attachments. Even when the file arrives, the prospect has to download it and then open it in whatever player their laptop happens to have.

Spam filters also look closely at attachments from unknown senders, and a large file in a first email from a stranger looks a lot like spam.

A link avoids all of that. The email stays small and the video plays in the browser on a phone or a laptop. The prospect does not install anything. If you record with hi.video, you also get a notification when the video is viewed, which helps you decide when to follow up.

Where to put the link

Put it early. The first line names the person and says why you recorded something for them. The second line is the link, on its own.

I have seen people hide the link in a signature or under four paragraphs of context, and readers often stop before they get there. If the video is the point of the email, the email should get to it quickly.

Paste the link as plain text or as a short linked phrase such as "a 40-second hi for you". Skip "click here", which reads like a phishing email. Adding the length in brackets tells the reader what they are committing to before they tap.

What goes in the subject line and the first line

The subject line should be specific to them and short enough to read in a notification. "A short video for Dana about the Q4 onboarding backlog" works. Subject lines fail when they could have gone to anyone.

The first line does two jobs. It names something you noticed about them, and it explains that the video exists because of it. One sentence is enough.

Leave out "I hope this email finds you well". The video already does the warming up.

A full example email

Here is an email I would send to a head of operations who posted about a hiring push last week.

Subject: A 40-second hi for Dana about the new support hires

Hi Dana,

I saw your post about bringing on eight support people before December. I recorded a short video for you about how two other teams handled the first-week training load without pulling senior staff off the queue.

[link to the video, 40 seconds]

If it is useful, there is a booking button under the video. If not, there is no need to reply.

Pranav

That is under 70 words. The video carries the rest, and the email makes one ask and lists no features.

What the prospect sees when they open the link

The email is only half of what the prospect reads. The page behind the link is the other half.

With a hi.video link, the page shows the recipient's name at the top, so Dana knows this was made for her and not for a list. Under that is the note you wrote, then the video, then one button. The button is whichever you chose when publishing, either an email address for a reply or an https link such as a calendar.

The prospect does not need an account or an app. The page works on a phone in a hallway or a laptop at a desk.

hi.video records in the browser with your camera, or your screen plus camera, so the prospect sees you speaking to them. We built it that way on purpose: there are no AI avatars and no uploaded files. Every page also carries a "Recorded in hi.video" label, which means only that the video was made with the recorder. It does not prove who is on camera, so the note and the video still have to sound like you. The trust page explains what the label does and does not show.

Mistakes that undo the whole thing

• Recording one generic video and pasting the same link into 200 emails. The page shows the recipient's name, and a mismatch is worse than no video.
• Opening with your company name instead of theirs.
• Running past a minute. The free plan on hi.video caps videos at one minute, and in my experience a stranger gets about that long before the tab closes.
• Sending the link with no text around it. A bare link from an unknown sender looks like spam.
• Following up three times in a week because a view notification arrived. One follow-up, a few days later, is plenty.

A checklist before you send

1. The subject line names the prospect or something specific to them.
2. The first sentence says why you recorded the video.
3. The link is on its own line, within the first three lines.
4. The email is under 80 words.
5. There is one ask, and it matches the button on the video page.
6. You watched the video back once.

Watching it back is the step people skip. Trim the first two seconds if you were reaching for the record button, and retake if you stumbled over their name.

Recording can take less time than writing the email. Open your browser, allow the camera, add the prospect's name and a two-line note, record, publish. You can record your first hi on the free plan without a credit card, which gives you five published videos a month at up to a minute each. If you send more than that, the Pro plan at $14.99 USD a month raises the limits and lets you put your own username in the link. The pricing page has the details.

For what to say in those 40 seconds, read video prospecting that gets replies. What to write in the note with your video covers the note that sits above the video, and how long should an intro video be covers the length question.