- How To Add Confetti To Outlook Email
- How To Add Gif To Email Outlook Signature
- How To Add Gif To Email Outlook Email
- How To Add Gif To Email Outlook
You can enable animated GIFs in Outlook by doing one of the following: In Outlook for Office 365 before version 2008, select File Options Advanced. In the Display section, check the box to Play animated GIFs. If you have Outlook for Office 365, version 2008. With Tenor, maker of GIF Keyboard, add popular Happy Dance Animation For Email animated GIFs to your conversations. Share the best GIFs now. Enabling Gfycat in Outlook Web. If you have an @outlook.com, @hotmail.com, or @live.com email address, or your work email address is hosted by Outlook, these are the steps you want to follow. Make sure you have the Outlook application open on your phone or tablet before getting started. Step 1: Go to Settings Gear icon.
When creating email signatures, one of the most common questions we get asked is “Can I use an animated GIF image in my email signature?”.
You shouldn’t use animated GIF’s in your company email signature because there are many negative side effects such as a higher spam rating, and bigger email signatures (in KB) resulting in higher infrastructure costs.
As usual, don’t just take our word for it, let us explain everything there is to know about GIF images in email signatures, so you’re aware of the benefits and drawbacks.
What Is a GIF Image?
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is an image format which was created by CompuServe in 1987. It is one of the most popular image formats in the world today and is most known for allowing images to have multiple frames.
With GIF’s you can quickly create animations that are simply stored as images in a .gif format. They are widely used all over the internet and have also been used in emails for decades.
Examples of Email Signatures with Animated GIF Images
To get you familiar with email signatures and GIF images, here are some email signature examples with GIF images for the logos/profile pictures.
Advantages of Using Animated GIF’s in Email Signatures
Looks Fancy
It goes without saying, email signatures with GIF images look the part, if done right. You could take multiple pictures of your face showing different expressions and compile them into an animated GIF.
This not only makes the signature look fancy, but it can also be a conversation starter.
Higher CTR for Email Signature Marketing Campaigns
It’s a known fact that animated GIF’s will give your CTR (Click Through Ratio) a boost when used in conjunction with an email signature marketing campaign. However, there are drawbacks to this, which we’ll explain later.
Disadvantages of Using Animated GIF’s in Email Signatures
Much Bigger Email Signature Size
The size of animated GIF’s is a lot greater than single frame JPG, JPEG or PNG images.
The reason is that a standard PNG image only has to hold the information of one frame, whereas an animated GIF needs to store the data for multiple frames that are in the animation. As you can probably imagine, the more frames your GIF image has, the bigger the size.
So, using an animated GIF means your email signature size will be bigger, and this is a really bad thing. In a previous post, we explained how an oversize email signature could cost you upwards of $25,000.
Uses More Bandwidth
Continuing on from the previous point, since the size of the email signature is bigger, this means you’ll be using more internet bandwidth to send the email. In addition, your recipient will be using more bandwidth to receive the email, too.
Although this seems like a minuscule cost, when you have 100 employee’s and every single one of them is sending animated GIF’s with every email, this can add up.
Higher Spam Rating
Some email server administrators set the spam rating on emails with GIF’s to be higher than regular text-only emails. The reason is simple, a lot of newsletters and spam emails contain GIF images in them. Blocking GIF’s is an easy way to weed them out.
You don’t want your emails to end up in the Junk Mail folder of your recipients’ mailbox.
Anti-Virus Scans Will Take Longer
The bigger your email is (in KB) the longer it will take your recipients’ mail server to scan and safely deliver the email to their inbox.
This results in delayed send/receive times, which is not ideal.
Not a Scalable Solution
It really isn’t a scalable option for your business. Can you imagine taking 5-10 photos of each staff member, then compiling it into a GIF image? It’s hard enough to coordinate taking 1 picture of a staff member, let alone 5-10.
Also, what if the staff member doesn’t want to take a picture of different facial expressions and just wants a single image? All of a sudden, you have branding inconsistencies.
Can Look Immature
Depending on what industry you’re working in, it could be perceived as immature having a GIF in your email signature. If you got an email from your lawyer or doctor with an animated GIF, would you be put off?
It’s safer to not have an animated GIF than it is to have an animated GIF and wonder if your recipient(s) will find it immature. This is the sort of thing that can ruin a company’s reputation.
It’s Repetitive
Imagine you receive 3-4 emails from the same person every single day. After the first day, it will get annoying and repetitive if you have to keep watching the same GIF playing over and over again.
Which brings us to the next point…
Distracting
The world is full of distractions, we don’t need any more. One problem with GIF’s is that you cannot pause or stop the animation.
So, imagine you receive an email with an animated GIF and you open another window over the top to do some other work, but in the background, you keep seeing the flashing animation which is constantly taking your attention.
Which email clients support animated GIF images?
All of the major email clients and webmail service providers support animated GIF’s, except for Outlook 2007 – 2019.
With Outlook being the third most popular email client in 2019, this could be a problem if you’re sending GIF’s to recipients using Outlook.
Usually, if an email client doesn’t support GIF image types, it will simply display the first frame as a still image.
How To Add Confetti To Outlook Email
When is it fine to use animated GIF’s in email signatures?
Seeing that GIF’s in email signatures can present many of the problems above, it’s safer to simply never use them for business emails.
However, if you’re using emails for private use and aren’t too concerned with the above disadvantages, there’s no reason why you couldn’t use animated GIF’s in your email signature.
How to Create a GIF Image to Use in Your Email Signature
There are many ways to create GIF images. There’s even some online solutions which are completely free to use.
InVideo
InVideo can help you convert any video into a GIF in just a few minutes and you can easily share it anywhere you want. InVideo is a full-fledged video editing tool that can help you make GIFs in minutes.
Converting videos to GIF on InVideo only takes three steps:
1. Upload your video to InVideo from desktop or mobile and click on the convert button.
2. Adjust the start and end markers of the video to trim it.
3. InVideo’s converter will convert your video into a GIF which you can download in your preferred quality.
Giphy
Giphy is a free online tool where you simply upload the pictures from your computer, set the duration of each frame (image) and then create the GIF image. However, the file compression is quite bad and you generally end up with a file that is about 1.5Mb instead of 100KB (when you create the same GIF using alternative providers).
Out of all the online, free GIF generators, this one seems to be the easiest to use and also has quite a few features such as overlay text, stickers and more.
Here’s an example that we created in just a few minutes.
Adobe Photoshop
Photoshop is the premier software solution for image manipulation. Using Photoshop, you can easily create high-quality GIF images.
Here’s a how-to guide from Adobe.
EZGIF
Similar to Giphy, EZGIF has an animated GIF maker which is fairly easy to use and can help you create the GIF for your email signature.
EZGIF offers really good GIF file compression which is what makes it one of the most popular GIF generators.
Wrap Up
As you have probably learned, the disadvantages far outweigh the advantages. We are firm believers of the KISS Principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid). Why make something so much more complicated than it really needs to be?
Keep your email signature simple, and you’ll run into fewer problems.
Using an email GIF is a great way to make your email stand out and catch the eye of your subscribers.
When you insert a GIF into an email (the right way), your emails become more interesting, more engaging, and ultimately more effective at helping you meet your goals. An email GIF can be purely decorative, it can demonstrate an idea, or even preview a video you’re featuring in your email.
In this article, I’ll show you how to insert a GIF into an email the right way, plus some examples of the best ways to use animated GIFs in emails and some email GIF templates you can use to get started. Let’s dive into the world of email GIFs!
What is an email GIF?
Simply put, a GIF is an animated image. It can be anything from a 2D illustration to a piece of video that’s been converted into a GIF or a 3D animation.
What’s important to know about GIFs is that they can be directly embedded into emails, adding motion right into your email’s design. This is different from videos, which can only be attached to emails (where the user needs to download the video file to view it) or linked from an email to an outside source like Youtube or Vimeo.
In short, if you want to have something in-motion in your email, the only way to do that is with a GIF. Let’s take a look at a a few different examples of GIFs in emails
Example of Email GIFs
The role of animated GIFs in marketing
Nowadays, the animated GIF is wildly popular, and has become an emblem of pop culture for marketers, social media aficionados and millennials alike. Heck, even your mother and grandmother probably know what GIFs are.
Unlike the clunky, slow-to-load GIFs of the past, today’s GIFs are now reasonably sized for modern wireless connections. Designers have also largely developed an understanding of how to incorporate the animation into website and email design, making them a great addition to your marketing emails.
Types of email GIFs
Email GIFs can be separated mostly into two types: Foreground GIFS and background GIFs. Foreground GIFs are embedded into the body of the email, as in the example below from asana.
Background GIFs are an animated GIF file that exists in the background, overlayed by content. Background GIFs provide a dynamic look to a static email. Check out the below example of how UBER used a background GIF to make their email more festive.
When to use GIFs in your emails
Whether you’re using a GIF in the foreground or background of your email marketing campaign, it’s important to know when is the right time to use an email GIF and how to do so effectively Conduct and character 6th edition pdf.
Even though adding an animated GIF in email can add value, it can also be burdensome if used excessively or unnecessarily. Here are some excellent opportunities to incorporate GIFs into your next marketing campaign to ensure it’s a major success.
1. Add a reaction GIF
Use GIFs within your email body to entertain your readers, provide relevant humor or express how you feel about something. Tumblr and Twitter are rife with these moving memes, and even Facebook has bowed to the pressure to allow them.
Reaction GIFs can be a little cheeky and a fun way to spruce up an email. For instance, if your pizza place makes an update to its menu:
How To Add Gif To Email Outlook Signature
2. Provide a preview of a video
You can also use a GIF to preview a video or piece of content that you’re linking to, like in the example email GIF below:
3. Show subscribers how to do something step-by-step
Or, add a GIF to illustrate how to use your product. Forego the long, boring content block of instructions and give your readers a straightforward video explanation. In fact, I’ll be using GIFs throughout this post to show you how to insert a GIF into an email.
How to make an animated GIF
The GIFs in the examples above were made using GIPHY Capture, a free tool that allows you to capture anything on your computer screen. Once it’s captured, you can download the GIF, upload it to be hosted at GIPHY, insert the GIF into your email campaigns, and much more.
You can also use GIPHY Create to make a GIF from a YouTube video, just copy the video URL and paste it into the tool. Choose the starting point, the length (3 to 5 seconds is recommended), and add a caption.
After your GIF processes, you can right click on the GIF and save it to your desktop.
Once saved, you can insert the GIF into your email, just as you would with other image formats. More on how to add a GIF to an email below.
How to embed a GIF in an email
Adding animated GIFs to email is surprisingly simple. In fact, email GIFs essentially have the same file format as any other type of image.
Here’s how to add a GIF to an email step-by-step: Plug.
- Download the GIF you made or wish to use and save it somewhere you’ll remember.
- Create a new email.
- Drag and drop the file into your email (or click insert > image if you need to browse for it on your computer).
- If you’re using a pre-existing GIF from GIPHY, simply right-click to copy it, then go to your email and right-click to paste the GIF into your email.
- Make sure your GIF is appearing in your email as intended.
- Send your email with your GIF!
To see how to easily add an image, including an animated GIF, into your Constant Contact email campaigns, check out this detailed tutorial.
How to add a background GIF to your email
Now let’s dive deeper into using background email GIFs to add some animated decor to your email campaigns.
1. Create a new email
In your Constant Contact account, click “Create” to start a new email. Not using Constant Contact? No worries! You can start a free trial for 60 days.
2. Choose a template that has a background image on it
3. Change the background image of your email to an animated GIF
In your email’s Design tab, click on the image box under “Outer Background Color”, select the image from your library (or paste the URL of the GIF if you’re using one from GIPHY), and insert the GIF into your email.
And that’s it! You’ve embedded a GIF into the background of your email. You can play around with different GIFs and color combinations until you find a design that works for you. Just be careful not to make your email too busy. You want your email GIFs to help gain the attention of your audience, but not to overwhelm them.
Email GIF templates
The easiest way to include an animated GIF in your next email is with a pre-built template. Using an email GIF template takes all the work and technical know-how out of the equation, so you can focus on your email’s message.
Macbook air apple music. To find email GIF templates, you can simply search “animated” in Constant Contact’s template selector. The animated emails are the ones marked with “GIF.”
Here are a few of my favorite GIF templates from Constant Contact:
Text message GIF
This simple email GIF template lets you recreate the look and feel of iPhone messaging.
Hello Summer GIF
Martin Luther King Day event GIF
March Madness GIF
This March Madness template is one of my favorites. And as you can see below, it looks great on a mobile device!
How To Add Gif To Email Outlook Email
Inspired to add an animated GIF to your emails?
How To Add Gif To Email Outlook
A little animation can go a long way in making your next email stand out. Now that you now how to insert and send an animated GIF into an email, try it out in your next email campaign and see what your subscribers think!