How to use GIFs in emails

Whether it’s iMessage, Slack, or Twitter, GIFs are everywhere. They’ve evolved into a unique way to express feelings without words. Many businesses have also started using them in their marketing emails to express emotions and add personality.

But before you start delighting your contacts with dancing cats, let’s discuss the do’s, don’ts, and best practices for using them. Using GIFs effectively in your emails will boost engagement, add humour, and even help simplify complex information. However, using them incorrectly can make your emails look unprofessional.

Why use GIFs in emails

There are several benefits of using GIFs in your emails, let’s go through them one by one.

Grabs attention

One of the primary benefits of using GIFs in your emails is their ability to instantly grab attention and hook your audience.

GIFs effectively capture the viewer’s attention and hold their interest, making your content more engaging. Therefore, you should strategically incorporate GIFs just before the sections of your email where you need your readers’ attention the most.

By doing this, you make sure that crucial messages and vital details don’t get lost in the mix because of other aspects of your mail.

Shows emotion

GIFs are also an excellent way to express your emotions, which might be challenging when relying solely on words. They add an extra layer of expression that text alone often cannot convey.

For example, a GIF of a dancing cat can easily show your excitement and joy, making it clear to the recipient just how thrilled you are about an announcement. Feel free to use your GIFs in situations where emotions are important, and you want to ensure your feelings are understood, such as when you’re announcing good news or celebrating a special moment with your subscribers.

Adds personality

GIFs add personality as well as a personal touch to your emails, making your communications more engaging and relatable. Have a look at the below example.

GIFs like these make the email look a bit more personal and help the recipient feel a stronger connection with the business and the people behind it. They also add warmth and friendliness that words might not show.

Boosts engagement

As already mentioned above, GIFs easily grab attention, show emotion, and add personality to the email, all of which help boost email engagement.

GIFs create a dynamic, memorable email experience, but use them strategically and mindfully. Ensure they don’t disrupt accessibility and keep file sizes small. When used effectively, GIFs can boost click-through rates and brand recall.

Video replacement & guides

Emails don’t yet have the capability to directly embed videos, making GIFs a great and only alternative. They can be used as an interactive snippet to easily show a complex process that you see in the “how to” videos.

However, it’s important to ensure that GIFs are kept short to prevent any potential deliverability issues that may be caused by larger file sizes.

Whether it’s demonstrating a product feature or showing a complex process, GIFs can help transform a static email into an engaging tutorial that readers can easily follow and learn from.

Things to keep in mind while using GIFs

While there are several benefits of using GIFs in your email, there are also some things that you should keep in mind while adding them. Here are the primary ones:

Choose the right GIF

When adding a GIF, it’s important to keep in mind that it carries emotion, and using the wrong one can do more harm than good. Try to double-check your added GIF to ensure it’s appropriate, safe to send and doesn’t hurt any feelings.

It’s essential to be mindful of your audience and avoid anything that could be considered offensive or inappropriate.

Check the size of the GIF

The size of the GIF also plays an important factor, adding a larger GIF may affect the deliverability of your email or get it clipped. It’s recommended to keep your GIFs below 5 MB.

If your GIF is larger than 5 MB, then you can use tools like Ezgif to compress it before adding it to your email.

Don’t overdo it

GIFs can be exciting and you may be tempted to add a few more, but it’s important not to overdo it. Adding too many GIFs in your emails might make it distracting and also increase the email file size, which may cause your email to get truncated.

Provide alt text

Occasionally, email inbox providers such as Gmail and Outlook may not load or show your GIFs for various reasons. In such cases, it’s essential to have an “alt text” to ensure that the recipient still understands the meaning or message behind the GIF. This feature is available in all email marketing tools, so it’s important to add clear and informative alt text to explain the GIF. By doing so, you help maintain the effectiveness of your message even when the GIF cannot be displayed.

Adding a GIF to an email in EmailOctopus

Adding GIFs to your marketing emails and newsletters is easy with EmailOctopus. Simply insert an image block to your email and click on change image. Upload your GIF and add its alt text in the left-hand panel.

How to find GIFs

There are several websites on which you can find GIFs, but Giphy is the most popular of them. You can also make your own GIFs by recording a video clip and then using any online video-to-GIF converter to make a GIF for your email.

Making your own GIFs does come with some additional work but gives your emails a personal touch, which is otherwise hard to achieve.

Conclusion

GIFs are a great way to spice up your emails with personality, humour, and visual interest. When used well, they can increase engagement and make your emails more memorable.

Remember to choose relevant, high-quality GIFs that match your brand and message, and keep an eye on file size and accessibility. This will allow you to create captivating email campaigns with GIFs.