Even today, in the new age of digital communications, email remains a key platform through which businesses communicate with customers. With brands constantly striving to produce a visually captivating content, Animated GIFs in HTML emails has proven to be an effective tool. Developed for various email clients, these visuals do not only arouse attention, but they also boost the user experience. This post details what Animated GIFs are, how they work, and what to avoid while implementing them into your email marketing.
Why Should You Utilize Animated GIFs In HTML Emails?
Enhanced Engagement: Animated GIFs can drastically increase engagement. Research has shown that emails with animation help to improve click-through rates (CTR) and motivate recipients to stay engaged for longer.
Video Stories: GIFs can give you an opportunity to communicate or create a story in a way that pictures alone cannot. They can show product attributes, explain how to use a product, or elicit feelings that words can’t do.
Brand Persona: GIFs allow brands to express their personality, making communications more authentic and believable. A good GIF can imply humor, excitement or urgency and can be in-keeping with the voice of the brand.
Highlighting Offers and Announcements: You can use animated GIFs to highlight important announcements, offers or call-to-actions. For example, the “Limited Time Offer” banner can evoke a sense of urgency that encourages the users to click immediately.
Understanding Compatibility
As beneficial as they are, HTML email clients don’t all support Animated GIFs. Here’s a brief description of how major platforms process GIFs:
Outlook (Windows): The majority of Outlook for Windows does not support animated GIFs. Rather, they only display the first frame of the GIF. This restriction does force brands to be smart about GIFs if the audience they serve only uses this email client.
Web-based Clients (Gmail, Yahoo, etc. ): Most of the web email clients such as Gmail and Yahoo Mail fully support animated GIFs and display them inside the body of the email.
Mobile Clients (iOS, Android): The majority of mobile email clients allow GIFs too so that they see the full effect of the animation and can optimize the mobile user experience.
It is therefore important for marketers to research email client preferences before including GIFs into their campaigns.
Best Practices for Animated GIFs in Emails
1. Optimize for Size
Load time is one of the biggest issues in designing emails, when it comes to large files, it slows users down. Make your GIFs as sizeable as possible to ensure a seamless experience. Try to keep your files below 1MB. When compressing images, minimizing the number of pixels can maintain the quality and increase device-based loading time. Remember that a fast-loading email can make the difference between someone opening your message and clicking on to the next.
2. Limit Duration and Looping
When not used appropriately, animated GIFs can quickly get too distracting. Animations that are only a couple of seconds long, like between 2-5 seconds, are sure to draw attention without interrupting your message. And don’t use GIFs that keep looping forever as these videos can become more distracting and even frustrating for viewers. Rather, take a spurt of creativity and let your audience keep it interested without dragging it out too long.
3. Plan for Static Alternatives
Even with GIFs becoming increasingly popular, not all email clients allow animations. Consequently, static fallback images must be included to echo the message or theme of the animated GIF. This means that your email will still be in the same underlying spirit when the animation doesn’t appear. By preparing for this, you keep your communication clean and serve everyone regardless of their email client capabilities.
4. A/B Testing
When adding GIFs to your email, test A/B and see what resonates with your audience. You can test different animations and evaluate which ones get more engagement, either in the form of clicks, conversions, or general satisfaction. This data-based approach makes it possible to optimize future campaigns to be more effective as a whole.
5. Keep Content Relevant
GIFs should have an object in your email. They need to add value to the text rather than serve as visual entertainment. Make sure the animation you use fits your content and complements your message strategy. A well-placed GIF can add whimsy and context, but without a proper strategy it will likely drown out important facts or the narrative.
6. Use Clear Calls to Action
If you want your GIF to encourage users to take action, make it easy to understand. You need to make the CTA clear and relevant so that users can take a particular action — either click on a product page, subscribe to a newsletter, or whatever. With clear CTAs in place, the animation becomes a catalyst for action, and not an individual thing to which people don’t pay attention.
Conclusion:
The animated GIFs are now a staple of email marketing, giving brands an interesting alternative to communicating with their followers. There are a few issues with compatibility and user experience, but GIFs, if deployed appropriately, can make your email campaigns extremely effective. When using best practices and understanding what limitations email clients offer, marketers can send visually engaging and eye-catching messages to their audience. In the ever changing digital communication landscape, animated GIFs will continue to be a tool in the marketer’s pocket.
