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Your email designer or email marketing colleague has contacted you with a request: they want to add an animated GIF to their next email. Great! Graphics Interchange Formats (GIFs) are an easy way to add some fun to your digital marketing.
So what's the obstacle? Not all email clients, such as Microsoft Outlook, fully support GIFs when displaying your emails. Let's look at why you should use GIFs in your emails, which email clients support GIFs, and how to ensure an optimal inbox experience – including in Outlook.
Why should I use animated GIFs in my emails?
Big brands use GIFs to create effective email campaigns. We've discussed how to spice up your email campaigns with images and some best practices. But GIFs are much more than a regular static image.
GIFs are an animated, lossless format with an 8-bit color palette. They're great for showcasing multiple products in a smaller space or using animations to draw attention to important information. However, GIF files are also quite large and due to their 8-bit palette, you should expect some color reduction.
Here are some benefits of using GIFs in your emails:
Give your email more personality
While plain text emails are the default for boring, animated GIFs and videos are on the other end of the spectrum. Don't be afraid to use a GIF to liven up your email template or add a little extra pizzazz. However, we recommend limiting yourself to one per email—you want to use GIFs tastefully and not overwhelm your subscribers.
Replace videos that are not supported by certain email clients
Not all clients support email GIFs and not all clients support video in email. Check out the requirements for each client and see if a GIF could solve your video problems.
Grab your reader’s attention quickly
We're used to the onslaught of social media, and our attention span is usually limited to a Tik Tok video or a Twitter GIF. 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.
Stand out from the crowd
Any email marketer will tell you that the secret to click-through rates and conversion rates is grabbing and keeping your users' attention. Use GIFs in creative ways in your email template to develop your visual brand identity and make your emails stand out from your competitors.
Switch
Do you always stick with the same email designs? Design new email templates with GIFs to give marketers different options for their campaigns.
But before we get started, 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, only certain versions of Outlook are problematic and offer only partial support.
That's true. Desktop versions of Outlook are the problem child when it comes to GIF support in emails, because Microsoft Outlook desktop applications from 2007 onwards use Microsoft Word to render HTML emails. In fact, the desktop versions of Outlook 2007+ only display the first frame of a GIF. Without animation, that defeats the purpose of a GIF. Outlook 2019 plays an animated GIF once. Then a play button appears above the image that subscribers can click to play it again.
In addition, animated GIF images are already supported in Outlook's mobile apps and its webmail client Outlook.com. For Outlook versions with GIF support, Microsoft points out the following:
- GIFs play automatically. Looping GIFs play three times and then pause. Users can manually click them to play them again.
- There are no file size limits for animated GIF files.
- Animations are enabled by default but can be disabled in the user's Outlook settings.
GIF fallbacks for your Outlook subscribers
GIFS are great for email marketing, and your marketers are clamoring for them. There's just one catch: your email recipients are using a version of Outlook that doesn't fully support GIFs.
note: None of these solutions will allow you to get around Outlook's lack of GIF support, but they can help you create impactful emails that are identical but different versions of their GIF-supported counterparts.
1. Use the first image of your GIF
Make sure your call to action (CTA) or key information is in the first frame of the GIF. This is the most commonly given advice for dealing with email clients that don't support GIFs.
This isn't bad advice and doesn't require a lot of extra work on your part, but it is incredibly limiting and provides a subpar user experience for your subscribers. Use this in a pinch, but your users deserve better!
If you choose this option, you'll want to avoid an unsightly first image. If your animated GIF starts with a blank white space, that's exactly what subscribers will see. If someone makes a weird face in the first image, your email will look weird too.
2. Use conditional code to meet your subscribers’ email client specifications
Another solution is that you can target both subscribers who use email clients with GIF support and those who don't.
Use conditional code to show your animated GIF to email clients with GIF support and provide clients without GIF support with a static image that provides the same information, look, and feel as your animation. The conditional code shows the static replacement image to Outlook desktop clients, while all other subscribers see your GIF.
To do this, create a new message and insert the following code:
Now the majority of your Corgi-loving subscribers will see an animated GIF like this:
However, subscribers who view the email in the desktop version of Outlook will see the static fallback image you defined:
Photo by Dave Crosby. 2004. Source: Wikipedia.
Conditional code enables a more targeted experience without compromising the design or choice of a GIF in your email marketing campaign. Learn more about targeting Outlook with conditional formatting on Stack Overflow
Testing GIFs in Emails on Acid
When you view email previews during email testing in Email on Acid, remember that our previews are static screenshots of your campaign. This means you won't see any animations in action. However, you will be able to see if the GIF appears.
There is a chance that the screen capture process might capture GIFs in the middle of the animation, but rest assured that this is perfectly normal. It means that the animations will run fine! When you use the conditional code above, the Outlook preview will display the static image you selected for subscribers without GIF support.
If you don't set a replacement image, you can use Email on Acid's image validation features to set the first image of your GIF. This will help you avoid something blurry or unusual showing up in some Outlook inboxes.
Setting the first frame of a GIF in the campaign precheck
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need further assistance.
This article was updated on May 3, 2022. It was first published in September 2018.
Author: The Email on Acid Team
The Email on Acid content team is made up of digital marketers, content creators, and real email geeks. Connect with us on LinkedIn, follow us on Facebook, and tweet us at @EmailonAcid on Twitter for more interesting stuff and great conversations about email marketing.
Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
