If your business needs to improve your email
response rate, consider incorporating a GIF file into your email marketing
campaign.
Animated GIFs in email work well. They capture the reader’s
attention and encourage an interactive response.
If you’re a small business owner, you may feel that creating
an animated GIF file is out of your league. You couldn’t be more wrong. More
email systems than ever before accommodate animated files. And it’s easier to create
an animated GIF for your emails than you may think it is.
In this tutorial we provide a quick guide on how to get
started working with animated GIFs. Then walkthrough what you need to know to include
animated GIF files in your next email marketing campaign. We also share a list
of best practices for adding GIF images to your marketing emails, as well as provide current examples of animated GIFs used in emails from popular brands.
First let's get started with the basics.
What Is an Animated GIF?
An animated GIF file is a special type of GIF image. The
term GIF is actually an acronym for Graphic File Interchange. GIF images were
pioneered in the 1980s.
The animation in an animated GIF is created by including
more than one image (called a frame) to the file. The individual images are
compressed so that the GIF file doesn’t become too large. As the GIF plays through
the image frames the effect for the observer is animation.
Although animated GIFs have been around for over twenty
years, they are still a popular means of adding motion to web banners,
articles, and even email. In fact, one of the latest email marketing trends is
to use GIFs more prominently in marketing emails to improve reader engagement. Read more about
that trend and more current email marketing trends in this Envato Tuts+ article:
Email Marketing
10 Email Marketing Trends in 2016: To Make Your Strategy Perform Better
Laura Spencer
One of the reasons for the continuing popularity of animated
GIFs in email is their effectiveness. They have a proven record of increasing
customer response.
One company that benefited by adding animated GIFs to their
email marketing campaign is Dell. Dell’s revenue increased by 109% after
launching an email marketing campaign with GIF images to promote a new product.
Read the complete
case study from Allison Banko at MarketingSherpa.
Using an animated GIF in email has some definite advantages:
increased reader engagement
fairly easy to create
well-suited for simple animations
lossless
don’t need a plug-in to view
supported by a majority of email clients
Animated GIF files also have some disadvantages for use in
email:
files can become too large if you're not careful
limited to 256 colors
no audio included
not suited for complex animations
may cause a web page or email to load more
slowly
not supported by some versions of email such as MS
Outlook or Windows Phone 7
may come across as distracting if not well designed
If you’re interested in using animated GIF files for your
email marketing campaigns, you’ll want to get the most from them by following best practices.
7 Animated GIF Email Marketing Best Practices
The following best practices for using animated GIFs will help your email marketing run more smoothly, as you take advantage of using this file type:
Smaller is Better. Files that are too large, take too long to load. Many experts agree
that the ideal GIF file size for email is around 100KB, although some email
clients support larger files. Keep in mind that larger files take longer to open.
Analyze Your Deliverability.
A few platforms may not support GIFs. If you know that most of your audience
uses a platform that doesn’t support GIF files, choose a different means of
getting your message across.
Include
Call to Action Text. Just having a GIF isn’t enough to get your readers to
respond. Always include a Call to Action to instruct them what to do next. Also, it’s
a good idea to mirror the Call to Action using text for those readers who
couldn’t open your GIF file.
Place Your GIFs Prominently. To get the most impact from your GIF files, make sure they
are in the top third of the email. Many readers don’t read beyond the top of
the email. By placing your GIF file at the top, you reach more of your audience, helping boost your conversion rates.
Keep it Simple.
Simpler GIFs are more effective. A complex GIF is more likely to confuse the
reader. Also, a complex animation probably means a larger file. Large GIFs create their own set of problems.
Be Extra Careful With the First Frame. If the email client can’t display GIF images,
all the reader will see is the first frame. So, make sure that the first frame
tells as much of your message as possible.
Don’t Forget about Email Best Practices. Just because you used a GIF doesn’t mean
you should ignore other email best practices. For example, target your email to
your audience and use professional designed templates for a cleaner, sharper look.
Remember, with email marketing you need to capture the
reader’s attention quickly to be effective. The best practices above help you
do that.
Now let’s look at how animated GIF files are created.
How to Create an Animated GIF file
Creating an animated GIF file is not difficult. There are
many tools that can help you build your animated GIFs. Tool options range from
full-fledged graphic design tools like Adobe Photoshop to tools
like Gif Maker from GIFY, GIFMaker.me, Ezgif.com,
and many others.
The exact steps for creating an animated GIF file vary
depending on the tool you are using. Basically, there are two approaches:
Convert a Video File to an Animated GIF. With
this approach, you start with a video file and your tool breaks it down into
frames to create the animated GIF.
Convert Still Images to an Animated GIF. With
this approach, you start with still images, which become your frames.
Under either approach animation occurs as the frames are
played together quickly. With most tools you can set the animation to loop
(play continuously), or to play through once and end. Once you have created the
GIF, compress it to make the file size smaller.
An important choice when creating an email GIF is deciding
how many frames to use. If you use too many, your GIF file could be too large.
If you use too few frames, the animation could seem too choppy.
As we pointed out in the best practices, it’s important to
include a call to action in your email. The call to action tells the reader
what to do next and provides them a way to do it. If you suspect that some of
your readers will not be able to see your graphics (including your animation), put
the call to action in text form as well as graphic form.
From our archive, learn how to create animated GIFs in Photoshop and optimize them. Also, review the following guide to GIF compression:
GIF
How to Compress Animated GIF Files Without Losing Image Quality
Harry Guinness
Once you’ve created your GIF file, you’re ready to add it to
an email. Many popular email formats support GIF animations. In Gmail, for
example, use the Insert Photo tool
to add an animated GIF file to an email.
Examples of GIF Animation
So what does GIF Animation look like? You’ve probably seen
it, but you may not realize it. Many well-known brands use it to promote their
products and services.
You can recognize animated GIFs by the motion and lack of
sound, which distinguishes them from videos on the web. They're ideal for adding simple
motion to your branding and graphic illustrations.
In this section we look at some examples of GIF animation and explain how they stack up to our best practices list.
Envato Market
Here’s an example of one of our own GIF animations from an Envato Market email promoting our top trending presentation templates.
As you can see, the GIF alternates between three informative
illustrations, simply animating on the screen of a monitor.
It also fits with best GIF email best practices because:
It appears towards the top of the email.
It’s simple. It’s the only GIF file in the
email.
The file size is kept down, with few frames used.
I found several more examples of animation in my own email, including some email animated GIFs from some big brands. Let's take a look at a few of those:
OutBack Steakhouse
This race-themed email from the popular restaurant promotes their
special onion appetizer. Here’s a
screenshot of the GIF portion of the email:
In this animation, the race flag in the center of the onion waves back and forth.
This email animation illustrates several best practices:
It’s simple. The waving flag is the only
animation in the email.
The animation is near the top of the email.
The email opened quickly and easily, indicating good deliverability.
Neiman Marcus
This department store uses animation in an email
to confirm a user subscription. Here’s a screenshot of the GIF portion of the email:
In the animation, the butterfly image rotates between five
different types of butterflies. You can't tell from the screen capture,
but there's another animation (lower down on the graphic different customer
benefits rotate as well).
Note how the animation in this email also illustrates
several best practices:
The animation appears near the top.
The calls to action are clearly visible (note: Update Your Email Preferences and Shop Now).
The email opened quickly and easily indicating good deliverability.
Email Marketing Tools and GIF files
GIF files work with many popular email marketing tools. For
example, both MailChimp
and Campaign
Monitor support adding animated GIF files to campaigns.
One of the
many advantages of using a professional email marketing tool is that they save
you time. This software also helps you deliver your sales messages reliably and measure your results. When you
add GIF files you'll know exactly how effective that tactic was in your campaign, as you can add a link to it and measure how many clicks it drives through.
On Envato Tuts+, we have a lot of resources to help you use
professional email marketing tools. Get started with our beginner guide to Mailchimp or learn how to create your first email newsletter with Mailchimp. Or you can get started with Campaign Monitor templates and learn how we use Campaign Monitor here at Tuts+.
To work efficiently with these email marketing tools, templates save you time. With an email template, you don’t have to create a professional looking marketing email from scratch. You have a head start. Here are some great examples of popular email templates:
Email Marketing
20 Responsive Email Newsletter Templates—For Your Next Marketing Campaign
Marc Schenker
Animated GIFs and Your Email Marketing
Using animated GIFs in email is effective when it comes to capturing your audience’s attention and driving engagement. GIF
files may be just what your small business needs to get more from your next
email marketing campaign.
Creating an animated GIF is not difficult once you
understand how to do it. There are many tools available to help you create and
optimize them. When adding animated GIF files don’t forget to follow best practices. They help you maximize the effectiveness
of your emails when done right.
Now discover how to take your email marketing
strategy strategy further:
Email Marketing
What Makes Readers Click Buy? The Secrets to Great Sales Emails
David Masters
Do you use email animated GIFs in your
marketing? If so, how did it impact your customer engagement and response?
Graphic Credit
Animated Email icon designed by Matt Pusateri, from the Noun Project.