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GIFs can send you into uncontrollable fits of giggles with every rotation. But jokes apart, mainstream marketers are now using GIFs to boost email opening rate. You can increase the CTR and conversion rate by using GIFs in email marketing.
Once you have learnt how to create a GIF, they can be a part of your KPI (key performance indicators) resulting in:
- Increase your email open rates
- Better click through rates of your email campaign
- Driving user engagement /connections
- Creating excitement in an email offer
- Your email is more likely to be noticed
- Get more clicks /conversions
- Fun and Humorous
- Makes email marketing more lively
- Increase conversions and raise revenue
They say that a picture is worth thousands of words. Imagine the impact of an animated picture.
In this post, I’ll be covering exactly how to use animated GIFs in emails. Animated email with GIF is a great option for adding moving and live content to your email.
What’s a GIF in email?
Graphics Interchange format or GIFs are short clippings of moving images lasting typically for a few seconds. They come with amusing captions and are meant to be humorous.
Some GIFs connected with celebrities are protected by copyright, but the average ones used in marketing are free to use.
#1) Optimization of Animated GIF
The size of your GIF files could become big with animation and colors. Control the size and optimize it:
- Animate only certain sections or parts of the image. If there is more number of moving parts in the image, the file size will increase when saving it in the email. Animate only layers that you want to focus on.
- Size matters. Keep the image dimensions small. Crop the image and limit it to the section that you want to animate.
- Subscribers might view your email on their mobile phones. If the size is too big, it takes longer to load and users might just give up the idea of viewing it. Keep the size as near 1 MB or even below it.
- Keep your gif for email brief. Limit the number of animation frames. This will make the GIF shorter and also reduce the file size. Eliminate unwanted frames; viewers will not be able to see minute movements. Remove each third frame from GIF videos, if importing them.
- Limit the colors used for the animation in email. When you use more colors, the file size will also increase.
- While saving, save the image for the web, as this also reduces the file size.
#2) How to Use Animated GIFs in email
- Using Animated GIFs in emails for tutorials
- It may not be possible to provide a complete tutorial in GIF form through your email. Yet, you can add GIF to email for illustrating a complex concept, so that it can be better understood.
- For instance, here’s an interesting example of how to insert GIF into email, showing all the things that users can do with the Google Drive. It’s beautifully elucidated through a short GIF.
- Explaining a process by incorporating GIFs into your email marketing.
- Serving Some Purpose.
- They are great storytelling tools. Don’t use them just for decoration purposes. They must add value to your product.
via GIPHY
In the above GIFs, the first one is purely decorative, the second serves to show the brewing process.
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- For creating GIFs with a purpose, you can show a shoe from different angles; different types of outfits to match a jacket; range of different colors for a handbag; range of designs and so on.
- Check out some of these amazing animated GIF email examples.
- Guiding your viewers to a call to action with the GIF.
via GIPHY
- This is the spot where the viewer’s eyes land. So your call to action should also be somewhere around.
- If you want your email to be successful for your CTA, the story you’re narrating through your GIF should be short but clear and focused.
- For instance, I once saw a GIF of an hourglass, with the arrow portion in the middle being animated and directly pointing towards the call to action button GO.
- You can also use the GIF as an animated button that is also used for the call to action button.
- Ensure that all your GIFs are linked to your landing page or the page where you want your viewers to visit first.
- Your call to action can be defined by a single gif.
- You can also opt for an animated email signature for all your emails.
via GIPHY
#3) Importance of the First Frame
- If a subscriber has turned off the settings for viewing images will not be able to view your GIFs.
- Moreover, some email clients might not support GIFs, but they will show the first frame of animations.
- It’s important to design the frames in such a way that the first one conveys the main message, assuming that some users might not be able to view all the frames.
Animated GIFs are great way of engaging with users through your marketing emails. However, don’t overdo it. Use it sparingly. Initially, viewers might get a buzz and be captivated by them. But if you keep using them in every email, they might get fed up. Keep it for special occasions or when you feel they can really add some value to your product/service.
Don’t overuse animated GIFs in a single email. Even if they are optimized, too many of them will result in taking a long time to load.
One animated GIF in an email should be sufficient to draw attention to a key aspect of your mail. So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and add that element of surprise to your email.
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