Your email designer or email marketing colleague has approached you with a request: they want to include an animated GIF in their next email. Nice! Graphics Interchange Formats (GIFs) are an
So what’s the roadblock? Well, not all email clients, like Microsoft Outlook, fully support GIFs when they render your emails. Let’s take a look at why you should use GIFs in your emails, which email clients support GIFs, and how to ensure an ideal inbox experience – even in Outlook.
Why should I use animated GIFs in my emails?
great for showcasing multiple products using less room or for calling attention to important information using animation. That said, GIF files are also quite large, and their 8-bit palette means you can expect some color reduction.
Here are some benefits of using GIFs in your emails:
If plain text emails are the standard for boring, animated GIFs and videos lie on the other end of the spectrum. Don’t be afraid to use a GIF to lighten up your email template or add a little extra pizzazz. We’d recommend sticking to one per email, though – you want to use GIFs tastefully and not overwhelm your subscribers.
Not all clients support email GIFs, and not all clients support videos in emails. Check out the requirements for each client and see if a GIF might resolve your video issues.
We’re used to the social media onslaught, and our attention spans are usually one Tik-Tok video or Twitter GIF long. Using a GIF in your email marketing is a powerful way to grab your reader’s attention, even if their eyes glaze over at your clever copy.Any email marketer will tell you the secret sauce to click-throughs and conversion rates is getting your user’s attention Réunion Business Email List and keeping it. Use GIFs creatively in your email template to develop your visual brand identity and differentiate your email from your competitors. Always sticking to the same email designs? Design new email templates with GIFs to provide marketers with different options for their campaigns.
But before we run away with this, remember: not all email clients support GIFs.
Which email clients support GIFs?
Most email clients support the use of GIFs. As the latest from Can I Email shows us, only certain versions of Outlook are problematic and have partial support.
That’s right. Desktop versions of Outlook are the would-be problem child for GIF-support in emails since Microsoft Outlook desktop applications from 2007 and after use Microsoft Word to render HTML emails. In fact, the desktop versions of Outlook 2007+ only Without any animation, that pretty much defeats the purpose of a GIF. Outlook 2019 will play an animated GIF once. Then, it displays a play button over the image, which subscribers can click to play it again.
In addition, animated GIF images are already supported in Outlook’s UAE Cell Number mobile apps and their webmail client, Outlook.com. Microsoft notes the following for Outlook versions with GIF support:
- GIFs play automatically. Looping GIFs play three times and then pause. Users can manually click them to replay.
- There are no file size limitations for animated GIF files.
- Animations are enabled by default but can be turned off in the user’s Outlook settings.
GIFS are great for email marketing, and your marketers are clamoring for them. Just one snag: your email recipients use a version of Outlook which doesn’t fully support GIFs.
Note: None of these solutions actually allow you to work around Outlook’s lack of GIF support, but they give you a way to create effective emails which are the same-same-but-different versions of their GIF-supported counterparts.
