GIFs are more than wiggly cats and sassy pugs. They give us an easy way to communicate ideas, make emotional connections, and delight customers. Maybe that’s why 23 million GIFs are posted to Tumblr daily.
With more and more marketers embracing GIFs, we thought we’d give you a little something to wow your subscribers this holiday season.
As AWeber’s gift to you, we’ve created more than a dozen GIFs you can use in your holiday emails.
You can use these GIFs to promote a holiday sale, seasonal newsletter or simply wish your subscribers a happy holiday. Keep scrolling to find 12 essential tips for using GIFs in your emails, plus your GIFs!
12 Tips for Using GIFS in Your Emails
1. Always test your GIF-tastic emails before sending. Most email clients will display GIFs, but there are a some exceptions – Outlook 2007-2013 and Windows Phone 7 are two of them. Litmus can tell you exactly which email clients will work with your email.
2. Want to create your own GIF? Try one of these tools:
3. Keep your GIF’s file size as small as possible when you’re using it in an email – less than 40KB is a good size to aim for. You can use Photoshop to decrease the file size if need be.
4. If you’re creating your own GIF, include your call to action in the first frame. That way, your subscribers can click through even if the animation doesn’t work.
5. Your GIF should be relevant to the rest of the content in your email. Make sure it fits in with your subject line, call to action and other text in your message.
6. Not every single email you send needs a GIF. In the words of Lydia Leavitt from NextWeb: “Think of GIFs as the Sriacha sauce of email marketing: use sparingly and it will add incredible flavor and spice to any email. Use too liberally and you’ll basically go blind.”
7. No matter what GIF you use, make your call to action loud and clear.
8. GIFs can help you explain complex ideas with simple animation. If you’re a technology company, you can use a GIF to show your latest app in action. If you’re a crafter, you can show a step-by-step tutorial of your latest project. Or if you sell physical products, a single GIF can show a wide range of offerings.
9. GIFs give you a great excuse to show some personality in your emails. You can create a GIF of yourself welcoming people to your list or thanking them for signing up.
10. Check out these awesome examples of companies using GIFs in their emails.
11. Subtle animation is key in any good GIF. If you’re creating your own GIF, you only need to animate part of the picture. Use only as many frames as you need to.
12. Don’t be afraid to experiment with GIFs! Try one of our GIFs and run a split test to see if it resonates with your subscribers.
We hope you have as much fun using these GIFs as we did creating them. Happy holidays from the AWeber team!
The post Your Holiday GIF Guide: Festive GIFs for Your Last-Minute Holiday Emails appeared first on Email Marketing Tips.
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