Create top-notch marketing campaigns by adding animated GIFs to your emails. Find out where to get the best GIFs, how to make your own GIFs, and how to embed GIFs in an email newsletter.
GIFs (short for Graphics Interchange Format) are a type of animated image that you can embed in emails. Email GIFs are a fun and engaging way to get attention. Imagine replacing dozens of lines of text with a simple GIF to illustrate an idea or showcase a new product. 🤩
You've probably heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, but according to Alex Chung, CEO and co-founder of Giphy, a well-placed GIF is worth 60,000 words!
No wonder email GIFs can be found on the most successful websites.Email Marketing Strategies.
In this guide to animated GIFs in marketing emails, we'll show you where to find the best GIFs and show you how to embed GIFs in popular webmail providers.GmailjPanorama.
Next, we'll explore how email gifs can multiply the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns before diving into GIF marketing best practices.
- Where to find the best GIFs
- How to Insert a GIF in Gmail
- How to Insert a GIF in Outlook
- How to Embed a GIF in an Email Campaign
- 12 ways to use GIFs in marketing emails
- Animated GIFs in email best practices
Where to find the best GIFs
Don't have a finished GIF yet?
You can find the perfect GIF with aGIF search toolor create your own GIF with aGIF maker.
GIF search mechanisms
The best place to look for GIFs isGIPHY.
Just type a word or phrase that describes what you're looking for into the search bar. Then press Enter or click on the search icon.
GIPHY will show you the most relevant (and popular) results from over 10 billion GIFs.
Click on any GIF to open the embed options page. You can modify the HTML code directly or just right-click on the GIF and download it for later.
Popular GIPHY alternatives includeTogether,Tenorjimgur(including still images).
Most of what you'll find is royalty-free. This means you can use them as part of a GIF marketing strategy without having to pay any fees.
wie social networking sitestumblrjpinterestare good places to find business GIFs. You can also search the web for GIFs withgoogle images.
gif models
It can be difficult to find a GIF that doesn't have captions (so you can add your own) and that's the right size for your marketing needs.
Customizable GIF templates save you the hassle of finding and editing GIFs created for a different purpose (e.g. meme GIFs).
Visme is our top pick for free GIF templates.
GIF maker
Visme (mentioned above) is also our favorite GIF maker due to its amazing selection of editable GIF templatesGIF Creation Guide.
However, it is a free service that you have to pay for to enjoy its most useful features. Upgrading to a paid plan is required if you want to remove the Visme watermark.
So, here are the best free GIF makers that make creating custom GIFs (almost) easy:
Converter videos to GIF
All email service providers have an email size limit. If you embed more than one or two videos, you can easily exceed this limit.
Embedding a video in the body of an email or adding a GIF attachment also risks being flagged as spam by popular ESPs.
Marking some of your emails as spam will harm yousender reputationand may result in your IP address being blacklisted.
Converting a video to a GIF results in smaller, mobile-friendly and responsive emails. GIFs were originally invented to solve the problem of videos being too large to email.
EzgifjCloudconvertirare among the most popular ad-supported options.
How to Insert a GIF in Gmail
Be sure to select your GIF before following these steps to embed a GIF in a Gmail email.
1. Download the GIF
Right click on the selected GIF and select itsave Image Asto save it to your desktop.
2. Insert an image
Create a new email draft and selectinsert photoin the options menu.
make sure thatOnline Optionis selected. then clickSelect photos to uploador drag and drop your GIF from the folder on your desktop to the highlighted area in Gmail to upload it.
3. Send your email GIF
Create a new email draft and selectinsert photoin the options menu.
How to Insert a GIF in Outlook
Make sure you have the GIF you want on hand before starting this guide on how to embed a GIF in an Outlook email.
1. Download the GIF
If you already found the GIF you want online, right-click on the GIF and select itsave Image Asto save it to your desktop.
2. Insert an image
If you use theDesktop version of Microsoft Outlook— Create a new email, clickinsertionand chooseinsert image.
If you use theMicrosoft Outlook web version— Create a new message and select Insert inline image.
3. Send your email GIF
Upload your GIF. Resize as needed. Finish writing your message and click Send.
How to Embed a GIF in an Email Campaign
Regular email service providers don't have an easy way to create and create personalized emails.
For example,Create and send newslettersnoGmailÖPanoramait is a long and slow process.
A professional marketing tool like Sendinblue will cut the time it takes to launch your campaign from hours to minutes.
1. Choose an email template
Use a prepared template as a starting point.
Open your email campaign in Sendinblue and start working on one of the 40+ email template designs.
2. Place an image block
Use an image block as a placeholder to highlight the area where you want to place your animated GIF.
Select and drag the image block borders to resize your image.
3. Upload your GIF
Now click and select the image box you placed earlier in your templatereplace imageon the side of your control panel.
Select the GIF from your computer and drag the loaded GIF into the image box. The loaded GIF will play in an infinite loop.
And that is! Now you can further customize your email before launching your campaign.
Sendinblue has many other tools to explore. You can design every aspect of your email campaign, preview your emails before you send them, and get detailed tracking analytics.
Start your next email campaign with Sendinblue
The free plan includes access to all essential email features, 300 emails per day, 40+ email templates, and customizable subscription forms to grow your subscriber list.
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7 ways to use GIFs in marketing emails
GIFs are the best way to convey a long message or visual guide. Expect more engagement as GIFs get more shares on social media.
1. Promote a sales campaign
The average inbox is bombarded with sales pitches year-round.
Despite intense competition, email marketing is still incredibly profitable and mind-blowing$36 back for every $1invested.
Encourage customers to click through to your landing page with a promotional GIF banner that captures their interest.
Check out how KIDLY announced their Black Friday Weekend Special. It's fun, silly, and makes you want to click through to see what's on offer.
Remember that pictures come before words. Your audience will "read" the image before absorbing the text.
2. Create your own meme (and go viral!)
Check out social media trends and use these visual cues as inspiration for your own GIF banners.
Hawthorne did this brilliantly when he launched an email campaign on the eve of a new season of Stranger Things, an extremely popular Netflix series.
Consider putting your own spin on a popular meme or trending topic.
The fastest way to create your own GIF email banner is to find a meme you like, add a product photo or price tag, then add a fun caption to tie it all together. you can use aimage editing serviceTherefore.
3. Create a quick start guide
Nobody likes to read manuals. But almost everyone will love a step-by-step guide that can be read quickly.
Winsor & Newton turned a customer reference into a visual example of how to use their new line of character models.
If an email takes more than two minutes to read, most of your customers are too busy to read it.
A short GIF that conveys everything the customer needs to know in just a few seconds is well received.
4. Introduce a new feature
By turning some screenshots or a product video into a GIF, you save your customers a lot of time and show how your product works in a more intuitive way.
For example, Dropbox introduced the Dropbox Rewind feature with a short GIF.
While product update GIFs are particularly useful for companies in the SaaS industry, they are just as effective in any business context where something new is being introduced.
5. Expect a fresh start or offer
By teasing your customers about an upcoming product launch or content, you can draw attention to your brand.
Havenly knew exactly how to keep her customers in the dark with a tongue-in-cheek email that said absolutely nothing about what was to come.
Promotional teasers are also a great way to get free press coverage. Media companies and influencers have more time to review past posts and tell you what to expect next.
A cleverly designed GIF (even if it's just a mockup) will generate a lot of fanfare for your next release.
6. Warm up customer emails
Customer emails don't have to be formal and boring. In most cases, an uplifting email is much more likely to be remembered and taken seriously.
Let's take Hulu as an example. Combining a free trial with a fun birthday GIF is just awesome. This goes way beyond a regular happy birthday email.
Try adding GIFs to youremail automation. A little light humor will help you win back customers, new and old.
7. Animated graphics and infographics
GIFs are the best shortcut when you need to animate elements of a presentation.
You can alsoExport a Powerpoint presentation as a GIF. Each slide is converted into individual frames.
Showing how useful your product is or how beneficial it can be for your audience's business is a surefire way to attract more potential customers.
Grammarly, for example, shows its customers how many grammar corrections they've made in their Grammarly Insights spreadsheet.
If you'd rather skip PowerPoint, tools likebodyCreate your own animated graphics quickly and easily and export them to a GIF.
Email best practices animated gif
Let's go through some best practices for GIFs in email so that your GIF marketing strategy is well prepared.
Combine your GIFs with a CTA
Guide your customers to the action you want to take with GIFs that clearly indicate buttons or show the user where to click.
In this example, Postable wowed their customers with the perfect trio: a sale discount, a promo code, and the cutest GIF!
Animate only part of your GIF
There are two main reasons to only animate certain parts of your GIF.
It reduces the overall size of the GIF file and keeps it at a size that can be easily shared. And it keeps things exciting without going overboard.
This fossil GIF is only partially animated. Subtle design draws attention.
When played correctly, GIFs bring a touch of joy to your emails. They help you tell your story visually and grab the recipient's attention.
Attractive images can even enhance thisDesire to read content at a whopping 80%.
Give personality to your brand
It takes a lot of work to get recipients to open an email, let alone read it to the end. A prominent brand is more than a fancy logo. It's the story of how your brand came to be and what purpose it serves.
The beating heart in this email from Starbucks speaks volumes.
Make your GIFs interactive
Still images cannot tell a story as efficiently as a moving image. Remember how we love Harry Potter newspapers more than real-life boring ones?
GIFs tell your brand story and help explain big concepts while saving space.
Headspace is a reminder (pun intended) of all the benefits of restful sleep and meditation at the end of a busy day.
The email GIF above provides a clear and compelling narrative of why your product is so valued in so few words.
Each email GIF should serve a specific purpose and not just blend in with the background.
Replace videos that email clients don't support
GIFs are great alternatives toVideos in Emailswhile broadcasting your story without consuming a lot of recipient data (when viewing the email on your phone).
While most webmail providers don't allow embedding video in emails, they all support GIFs and even recommend using them.
In this example, Formula 1 turned an exciting race video into a GIF and used it as the background for a race report email.
Email GIFs my Sendinblue
The use of GIFs in emails is becoming an increasingly popular marketing tool.56.6% of marketersThey already use animated GIFs in their emails "at least sometimes".
Sendinblue allows you to test different versions of your email campaigns with A/B testing and optimized metrics to help you analyze the effectiveness of the email GIF.
Sign up now and start sending GIF-inspired email campaigns in minutes.
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