A co-worker sent me a link about MarketingSherpa’s study that embedding videos in emails boosts engagement and open rates.   While this may be true, there are a few problems with video in emails among them: email clients blocking movie files from being displayed, attachment file size limits (videos being fairly huge), and production difficulty (sometimes you must edit a file 10+ times before finding a balance between file size and quality).  The thought came to me that the only reason marketers today want to embed videos is that they would be seen as pushing the envelope technologically.  There is some value at being a little different, after all.

My question to all those who read this is:  What ever happened to the animated GIF?  It seems that the animated GIF is mostly relegated to a world of annoying avatars on forums, but it used to be used in a much more stylish way.   I would challenge email marketers to take another look at this old technology if for no other reason that it is supported by default by all modern browsers and email clients (as long as the person enables images to be shown).  In that sense, there’s no downside to what  you’re already doing if you are using images in your emails.  Before you go off the deep end, I’d caution you that there’s a stylish way to use animated GIF’s, and a way that is overly distracting.

First, check out a host of examples on Linda Bustos’ article on animated gifs.  Pay particular attention to this one created by a retailer by the name of PiperLime:

Notice the extremely subtle use of animation, and it makes the idea of “free shipping” sparkle amidst a conservative design aesthetic.  I think it’s quite a good example, and one that could easily be used in other ways in an email.  Note that you’d probably only want one animated GIF in your email.  Anything more than 1 would make the email busy and distracting.

What about a bad use?  Take a look at #5 in Linda Bustos’ article, which shows 5 offers being rotated throughout 5 different squares on the grid all at once.  This is an example of a designer or marketer taking a good idea and misusing it to the point where it is both distracting and a negative impression on the brand.

As anything in technology, these are just tools for making the right impression in the right way.

If you happen to be using QD’s emarketing system, I thought I’d share the little known fact – normally the image upload process prompts you to upload a JPG or JPEG image, but if you open windows explorer to wherever the .GIF file is, and rename the file (make sure the .gif is showing in the name, otherwise read this). When you rename the file, just change the file extension from .gif to .jpeg – you’ll get a warning box, but as long as you’ve made a copy of the file, all is good.  Once the file has a .jpeg extension on it, upload it to your Image library in the emarketing system when you’re designing content.  Presto!  You have a animated GIF dressed up like a JPG, and one that works in an HTML email sent to clients like Outlook & Gmail.  Be sure to test this against your email clients to ensure integrity.

In any event, if you find yourself talking about the latest email marketing fads with another marketer, remember to stick up for that oft-forgotten step-child: the animated GIF.

This was a test that an animated GIF could be shown correctly in Outlook. It worked quite beautifully both in Outlook and Gmail ! (this image is a screenshot not an animated gif itself)