Why Use GIFs in Your Email Campaigns

Did you notice the moving box and triangle at the top of this post? Of course you did; a moving image catches the eye. In a perfect world, emails would be full of video to make them stand out and communicate their messages quickly. The problem is, you can’t embed a video into an email because the file is simply too big. The best we marketers can do is to include a still picture with a play button and hope that our readers will click to be taken to the web page where they can watch the video. But GIFs are game-changers.

#ProTip: GIFs make video compatible with email marketing.

GIF is actually a photo format – it’s tiny in size and your computer reads it as it would read a still image. But the wizards of the computer world have programmed GIFs to behave like short videos. So it’s a photo… that moves. That magic mix is perfect for email. Most email programs will read GIFs, which means that your email can finally have moving elements. There are quite a few restrictions – the size has to be compressed, remain relatively low-quality and the length can’t be over a few seconds – but just a few seconds of motion are all that you need to catch a busy reader’s eye.

Katie Rutter is the executive producer of Thing in a Pot Productions. She has received multiple awards for her videos and the overall quality of her work, including being honored as Video Producer of the Year in 2018 by the Catholic Press Association. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive our video Pro Tips in your inbox every month!