Animated elements allow you to:
- Catch the reader’s eye
- Emphasize a promo or message
- Drive subscribers to convert
Due to various levels of support across inbox providers, animation in email marketing requires thoughtful design to ensure deliverability. Using animated GIFs is the best way to ensure your email renders well across the majority of email clients.
There are endless ways to use GIF animation in your email designs, here are seven of our favorite email animation examples.
1. Highlighting Text
An easy way to draw attention to your headlines is to add simple frame animation highlighting each word.
2. Rotating Photos
If you have a variety of products or photos you want to highlight without the email feeling content-heavy, you can easily rotate photos using frame animation.
3. Frame Animation to Show Motion
With custom photo assets, you can bring a photo to life by showing slightly different angles or a sequence of events with a simple frame animation.
4. Animation for Depth
Who said your animations have to stay in the same place in the email? You can create depth by having your animation float above other design elements and throughout the email.
5. Video as a Hero Image
If you want to bring your hero layout to the next level, consider using video as the background element instead of a static image.
6. Looping Motion
A great way to grab attention is loop a texture to give it motion. This technique is more complicated as you’ll need to find the right assets to feel seamless, but if done correctly, it can be very effective!
7. Mystery Sale Promotion
A great way to promote clicks, this mystery sale promo GIF leaves the view curious what is next by leveraging animation.
Animation in Email Best Practices
Beyond these great creative examples, here are some of our best practices for exporting your GIFs to make sure they delivered, opened, and clicked:
- File Size: We recommend any GIF that is included in your email be under 2.5 MB. This is key to ensure it quickly loads for a good user experience and deliverability.
- Key Information in the First Frame: Not all inbox providers support GIFs (Outlook being the major one), so you want to ensure all the important information is in the first frame of the animation. We recommend avoiding animating key promotional text (i.e. 50% OFF or FREE SHIPPING), just in case the GIF doesn’t load properly.
- Looping: Be sure to loop the animation while exporting so it will continuously repeat.
- Single CTA: Your GIF exports as a single file so you’ll only be able to link it to one landing page. If you need to include a CTA in your GIF, be sure the design will support your linking strategy or merchandising. Animation is great, but should not come at the cost of creating shoppable emails.
The more creative you are, the more sophisticated and attention-grabbing your email animation will be.
If you’re looking to add creative innovation to your email designs (or any other designs for that matter), our Creative Services team is here to help.
Want to learn more?
Anatomy of An Email: Email Template Design Best Practices
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