At It Again I See Gifs

GIFs in Email Marketing: 6 Brands with Corking Ideas

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Effective emails engage the reader and motivate them to accept activeness. There are plenty of means to try and do that, but GIFs in email marketing have something near magical about them.

Why? For one affair, people don't actually expect to come across moving images in an email.

But it'southward also because images are more powerful and more than memorable than words. They go attention. They elicit emotion. GIFs in email marketing can communicate a key idea quickly and effectively.

GIFs aren't merely for social media. Yes, they do well at getting attention in that crowded mural. But the email inbox is crowded besides, and when readers scan through an email afterward opening information technology, a GIF is sure to catch their attending and make them spend more than time with your email.

Of class, it's most more than than but throwing in random finds from Giphy. You lot'll go the about out of adding and creating animated GIFs for email campaigns if y'all do then strategically. Nosotros're going to explore some brands that are using GIFs to make their emails more impactful.

But offset – let's reply a few questions about GIFs in e-mail.

Are GIFs in email supported?

You would think that by now, supporting GIFs would be pretty standard among electronic mail clients. And you would be correct… except for some versions of Outlook.

Desktop versions of Outlook (2007 – 2016) do not support animated GIFs. Outlook 2019 plays an animated GIF once and then produces a play push to run across it again. However, GIFs will work merely fine for subscribers using Outlook.com and on the app using iOS or Android.

Electronic mail developers can address Outlook GIF support problems with some conditional code that creates a GIF fallback, which displays a static prototype instead. The other option is to make sure the showtime frame of a GIF has the most important information, since that'south what desktop versions of Outlook will display.

Don't miss our other tips for fixing Outlook email rendering issues.

One fashion around this is to write code that tells Outlook how to handle GIFs in your email. That doesn't completely solve the problem, but it does provide a better experience for the reader.

Why use GIFs in emails?

A amend question might be, why not utilise GIFs in e-mail marketing? Let's be honest, information technology'south a great (and pretty easy) mode to bring static emails to life. Just that's not the but reason.

Ways to apply GIFs in email:

Create an animated call-to-activity (CTA)
Include as an alternative to video in e-mail
Evidence how something works with an animation
Add humor to an electronic mail campaign
Draw attention to something important in an electronic mail
Showcase multiple products in ane image

When Dell used GIFs in one of their email campaigns, they saw a 42% increment in clicks. More importantly, they earned a 109% increment in revenue. Granted, that was back in 2014. However, it'southward nonetheless an instance of how electronic mail design changes can make a large divergence.

Let'southward expect at the strategy from five brands that have used GIFs in emails more recently.

6 brands using GIFs in email creatively

It's pretty simple to head over to Giphy and expect for pre-made GIFs referencing pop civilization, current events, animals, and plenty more. And in that location's naught wrong with that — so if yous find something that fits within the tenor of your e-mail, go with it.

But in terms of marketing that nudges customers and subscribers to take action and receive truthful value from your email, you ordinarily desire to brand your ain GIF images. Let's look at a few examples.

one. Apple: GIF every bit how-to content

Apple sent an electronic mail showing subscribers how to manage and simplify their iTunes subscriptions. The electronic mail included a GIF, shown below, that walked subscribers through exactly how to locate the correct settings on their device.

This GIF delivered value to users past giving helpful information and solving a specific problem many faced.

2. Adobe: GIF illustrates a characteristic

To spread the news of i of their coolest product features, Adobe used a GIF to bring their email to life. Their subscribers could immediately run into the power of the tool. For their existing customers, this could further solidify their reliance on and loyalty to Adobe. And for many of their potential customers, the "wow gene" of this sit-in was likely plenty to catechumen them.

3. EPIC: GIF promotes a auction

A common employ of GIFs is simply to draw attention. Ballsy sent out an email promoting big discounts. People go these sorts of emails all the time and discounts alone often don't become enough attention. But anyone who opened this email would exist drawn to the colorful GIF animation and give the message in a higher place-average consideration.

In this instance, Epic's electronic mail GIF isn't what nearly of call back of equally a typical GIF. The brand used the GIF file format to add a moving background to a graphic. There's no popular culture reference, no products, not fifty-fifty whatever animated text. It's simple, but information technology'due south also kind of… hypnotizing.

four. Loom: GIF every bit an culling to video

Some other effective way to use GIF animation in emails is to preview or promote an actual video — like what Loom did hither. Videos don't normally play in emails, but if you create a GIF from the one with a 'play' button overlaying the prototype, it can attract more clicks to the existent thing.

v. Everlane: GIF showcases multiple products

Hither'south an email example from Everlane where the GIF does the selling. This sort of animation works well for products that are very similar but come up in a variety of colors, shapes, flavors, sizes, etc. In this example, the GIF shows different t-shirts worn by unlike models.

So, correct in the e-mail, without even clicking, the subscriber has already started the shopping procedure.

vi. Starbucks: GIF to assistance create fizz

When yous've got a special event or a big declaration, a piddling animation can spice up your email campaign, making it more memorable. Starbucks did this with an original animated GIF to promote pop-up parties where subscribers could get gratuitous coffee.

If the news you're sharing is exciting, information technology only makes sense to create a more exciting email!

Quick tips for using GIFs in electronic mail marketing

GIFs are a great addition to your email design, but that doesn't hateful you can throw a few in and call information technology a 24-hour interval. Here are some tips to get the almost from using GIFs.

1. Don't overdo it

Putting a GIF in every email will, in the end, exist like putting a GIF in no emails. In marketing, if you do something all the time, information technology inevitably ends up becoming background noise. Use GIFs smartly, strategically, and selectively.

2. Consider e-mail accessibility

Animations that are too fast and flashy can actually cause damage to people who suffer from seizures. So go easy on the movement.

And if you coffin important copy within the GIF image itself — as with any other paradigm — you run the risk of people not seeing that text if the GIF doesn't show up for some reason. And for people with visual impairments, including color blindness, you run the risk of them missing your bulletin.

So be careful when including cardinal messaging on the actual GIF unless yous repeat the aforementioned message elsewhere in the electronic mail.

3. Include fallbacks

Anytime you add complex elements to an email, you increase the chances of it not working. While there is much you can practise to minimize this, as you'll encounter in a fleck, you do want to include a static paradigm that will show up in place of the GIF if for some reason information technology doesn't role.

4. Use GIFs to tease video content

You saw this before in the Loom instance. Video typically doesn't play in emails. It tin can be done, but information technology's tricky and not universally supported by email clients. At that place's a good hazard many subscribers won't run across it.

So if yous want to ship a video via email, you unremarkably take to simply include a screenshot with a play button that clicks through to the video. With GIFs, you can make the video announced to be playing, which can increment clicks.

5. Sentry the file size of GIFs in email

This again is true with any graphics. Large file sizes increase load time, and subscribers quickly lose patience if they have to sit at that place while the image slowly comes into view.

Just similar you desire to reduce file sizes for regular photos and graphics, be sure to go on your GIF file sizes small too.

Optimizing GIFs for the email inbox

Slow load times. GIF animations non showing up or non animating (Outlook!). Incorrect image placement. At that place are a diversity of ways your GIFs and other graphics can show upwardly incorrectly when your subscribers open your emails on the dozens and dozens of possible devices and platforms.

Email on Acid's Campaign Precheck automated checklist includes the Image Validation footstep, which tests load time for images, ensures correct borders and widths, and confirms that your GIFs are working properly.

Nosotros even make information technology easy to practise the workaround mentioned before for subscribers who may be opening your emails in Outlook. You lot tin can quickly choose the frame in your GIF that y'all want to prove up every bit an image for Outlook users, in case the animation doesn't function.

Keep in mind that when you examination with Email on Acid, you won't be able to see the GIFs in action, as our previews are static. Odds are the platform volition grab them mid-animation, but rest bodacious this is perfectly normal. It means they're animative just fine!

Explore everything else E-mail on Acid has to offer when you sign upward for a free trial today.

Writer: The Email on Acid Squad

The Email on Acid content squad is made up of digital marketers, content creators, and straight-up email geeks.

Connect with us on LinkedIn, follow us on Facebook, and tweet at @EmailonAcid on Twitter for more sweet stuff and groovy convos on email marketing.

Author: The Email on Acid Team

The E-mail on Acid content squad is made up of digital marketers, content creators, and directly-up email geeks.

Connect with u.s. on LinkedIn, follow us on Facebook, and tweet at @EmailonAcid on Twitter for more sugariness stuff and peachy convos on email marketing.

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Source: https://www.emailonacid.com/blog/article/email-marketing/5-brands-that-are-using-gifs-to-elevate-their-email-marketing/