In the last two years, GIFs have grown immensely in their popularity and pervasiveness. These looping photos akin to tiny movies have provided the inspiration for red hot upstarts like Vine and the inclusion of video in Instagram’s lineup of offerings.
Without question, GIFs are now a major player in pop culture. Pay a visit to BuzzFeed or Tumblr and you will find your screen filled with GIFs made from movies, television shows, YouTube videos, and more. Almost anything that can be GIFed has been GIFed.
But where do these popular GIFs fit into the marketing world?
It would make sense to take advantage of the format, as it is engaging and extremely trendy right now. But many marketers have been stumped over making GIFs work when it comes to email marketing. The bottom line is that the looping images are great for showing more than one product in a space or to tell a short story, both of which boost engagement.
The best way to use a GIF is to keep it small, keep it short, and keep it simple. Use it to pique interest, not to distract from the real content. Too many GIFs are too large and make an email difficult to load, which will not endear your customer to the product or service you are promoting. This means the GIF’s loop should be short.
In the past, not many email carriers supported the GIF format, but now almost every single one does. Nonetheless, before blasting out your creative GIF gift to the masses, double-check your work, get a second opinion from a savvy marketer’s eye, and make sure it functions as planned.
