GIFs are one of the best ways to enhance email campaigns from within.
GIFs provide movement; they allow for ideas to be supplemented instead of mere words and static images, and they compile a great experience for the reader.
Furthermore, since GIFs are merely moving images and not videos, they are simpler to upload and integrate into a brick-and-mortar store.
GIFs can improve click rate, highlight important information, or bolster a branding campaign for better recall.
However, while GIFs can be effective enhancements that help emails appear and feel better, if done incorrectly, they can reduce efforts through increased load time, ineffective rendering, and spam triggers.
Not all email clients support GIF rendering, meaning that if they’re too large, the email loads too slowly; it may be deleted before it even fully renders, or it can go to spam.
Thus, understanding the best practices of using GIFs can encourage engagement without jeopardizing email effectiveness.
Using GIFs to Highlight Key Messages Without Overwhelming the Email
GIFs should have a reason for existing within an email rather than merely existing for aesthetic pleasure.
A GIF can draw attention to key information, show a specific feature or step, and redirect attention to a call to action.
For example, a retail site’s email announcing a new feature could have a GIF of the product in action and a GIF that cycles through all the features.
A discovery app could have a GIF that shows off the new look because it allows users to see what they’re reading about in real time without needing to redirect elsewhere.
However, too many GIFs can distract from an email. When inundated with GIFs, users forget the main call to action instead of clicking through to investigate the new feature or see more information.
Instead, one strategic GIF can do wonders for maintaining focus. As long as a GIF does not distract or take away from what the brand needs the reader to focus on, it will work in terms of readability.
Optimizing GIF File Sizes for Faster Loading Times
The biggest issue regarding quality performance with GIFs for email marketing is avoiding render delays.
If the GIF is too large, the images could render in the email for too long, especially for recipients who are accessing email on their phones or those who have slower internet connections.
There’s also a danger that if it takes too long for the email to load, people will delete it before they even get into the email itself.
Warmy.io can support overall email performance by optimizing deliverability and ensuring emails land in inboxes, giving your visuals the best chance to be seen and engaged with.
Therefore, relatively, the file size of GIFs needs to be as small as possible without compromising visual graphics abilities.
This means fewer frames, not making them too long, and GIF compressors help reduce file size.
Even transforming those high-frame animations into small looping versions with low frame rates can shrink file sizes significantly without losing the quality of visual aspects.
In addition, using specific colors helps with compression; the fewer colors in a GIF mean less data required, which assists in render quality.
If characters are animated, it’s best not to have too many motions as well as combinations to prevent this from getting out of hand rendering-wise.
Ensuring Compatibility Across Email Clients
GIFs don’t render for every user since not every email client supports GIFs. For example, Outlook does not support animated GIFs and renders any content as just a static image of the first frame.
Therefore, to ensure that an email’s intention is known, especially if the animation does not work, marketers should ensure that the most critical message is in the first frame so that, at the very least, the email is understood upon delivery.
However, by utilizing different email platforms to test their sending options Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail marketers can more accurately understand the potential use of GIFs.
When they receive an email sent to them to test how it works in one platform, they can see how it renders in the others and adjust if need be for the sake of consistent messaging.
Thus, some email clients do not support GIFs at all, offering the option of a static image with a strong message can go a long way for people to have something, even if it’s not the final version they prefer.
Marketers must always have a backup plan so that their message is never lost due to rendering complications.
Balancing GIFs with Text for Better Deliverability
Too many images in emails, especially GIFs, can result in spam placement and reduce deliverability.
Email clients think that messages with not enough text are questionable and promotional, as there’s not enough explanation of what’s being offered with images being easier to create quickly and obscure and therefore, these messages are sent to spam.
Therefore, emails that have better deliverability need to have more text than images in general, a good subject line, headings, and explanation text as to why the GIF is there.
The animation should merely be supplementary to the larger message that’s made clear without it.
In addition, using alt text for GIFs enhances accessibility and ensures that those readers using screen readers or who cannot load the visuals understand the point of the email anyway.
This creates a better experience for the user and better awareness of accessibility compliance.
Using GIFs to Reinforce CTAs and Drive Conversions
Another advantage of using GIFs for marketing email campaigns is that they can enhance attention to a CTA and increase conversion potential.
Due to the GIF’s moving images, it can help readers hone in on CTA buttons, countdown clocks, or sale prices since people are drawn to movement.
For example, someone may receive an email with a countdown to a sale, and the GIF will be the flashing “last chance” or something similar.
A company that relies on subscriptions could dedicate a GIF that makes someone look at the subscription button that reads “Sign Up Now” located in the email.
However, if the GIF does not play or it is turned off, it is important that the CTA is still easily discernible and actionable.
If the email is complicated to navigate after the GIF is turned off, then the GIF fails its purpose. The intention is that people can easily find the appropriate navigation and still be swayed to click.
A/B Testing GIF Performance in Email Campaigns
Assessing GIFs’ effectiveness for email marketing is strictly situational. For example, a printable way to A/B test a campaign is to send one version with the GIF and one without and see how they measure up.
Open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates can determine whether or not GIFs enhance the email experience.
If the email with the GIF has a higher engagement than one without, this indicates that the GIF intrigued users enough to at least click through.
If the opposite is true and the email with the GIFs performs worse, this may indicate that the GIF was distracting or that it caused rendering issues.
Over time, campaigns can be tested and results reviewed to determine which types of campaigns are enhanced by GIFs and which are not.
In turn, marketers get a sense of which GIFs work better and with which audiences to either support or hinder performance.
Using GIFs to Enhance Brand Personality and Engagement
In addition, though, beyond the functionality and practicality of GIFs, they are an excellent way to bolster brand identity and provide a uniquely personalized, pleasurable experience for recipients.
GIFs render emails more personal because they inject personality and excitement into what could otherwise be a static piece of correspondence.
Additionally, GIFs allow brands to carve out their identity tone and voice amid the GIF’s extensive inventive and communicative opportunities.
For instance, a more playful brand can use GIFs that incite humor or an enthusiastic vibe as the GIFs themselves play in the email.
A more sophisticated, classy brand can use more elegant and simple GIFs that reflect high-quality executions.
Furthermore, brands can use GIFs that reflect seasons and holidays which renders the email more relevant and a higher emotional investment.
Finally, it’s easier to create an experience that interacts with GIFs. Instead of merely presenting a promotional email, a brand can use GIFs to present a series of events a before and after, transitions, or GIFs of reviews. Such endeavors can capture and hold attention.
Ultimately, no matter which GIFs are selected, they need to align with the brand aesthetic and the feel of messaging consistency.
If they conflict or distract from what’s already being done visually or in text communication, GIFs should not be used. If, however, the animation assists in bolstering brand voice, it’s encouraged.
Conclusion
GIFs can enhance email marketing campaigns for the right reasons. Using them as an extension of visual engagement, as an ancillary to more important brand-related messaging, and as a device to create immediate appeal for brand CTAs, they can boost engagement and conversion.
But only if done with proper attention to detail file size reductions, compatibility, balance between text and images, and image positioning as subtleties for easier visibility of CTAs.
Therefore, leveraging GIFs for the proper reasons can allow brands to create otherwise eye-catching emails that work for conversion and not just aesthetics.
Provided that proper testing is done with time-tested reliability across industries, GIFs will act as another weapon in the email arsenal to help brands boost engagement and conversion.
