GET CREATIVE – use GIFs in your Newsletters

Those „oldschool“ animated GIFs have recently had a real come-back in the social media realm. There’s nothing better for getting their attention!  Your recipients will be amazed to see such “moving” newsletters from you.

Animated GIFs are super easy to add to your Mail Designs. You can find a whole set of animated GIFs in your Mail Designer Pro Graphics-Palette, ready to bring your newsletters to life. You want to create your own GIF animations for Mail Designer? Here’s how!

Animated GIFs are super easy to add to your Mail Designs. You can find a whole set of animated GIFs in your Mail Designer graphics palette, ready to bring your newsletters to life.

• Announcing a big sale? Strike out the old prices!
• 50% off everything – use a twinkling percent sign
• You want to highlight your REGISTER/SIGN-UP button? Make it pulsate!

To use an animated GIF, just choose one and drag it into the picture area of a layout-block. Adjust the size and position to your liking. You’re done!

 

Some short tips

• Keep the amount of data in mind: Mail Designer renders the entire picture area as an animation even when the graphic only takes up a small portion of the box.

• Try to position your animations in a separate, small picture area.

• If you want to save as much data as possible, then use as few pictures as you can. Normally, small, subtle animations are more affective anyways.

• Because GIF is a relatively old format, it’s only possible to view it in 256 colors. No problem at all for clever graphic headlines, but for videos, this can take away from the picture quality.

 

Do it yourself: Create your own GIF-animations - Here’s how…

It’s possible to take your time and create an animated GIF picture by picture in Photoshop, or you can try one of the many affordable apps or free web-tools which make it easier and quicker to get creative.

 

Ready for Stop-Motion? Graphic GIFs

You’re sure to have Pixelmator or some other affordable image processing program. For this example, we’ve created a small animated teaser using 10 pictures, frame by frame, and exporting them as a png.

Don’t worry. For simple animations, normally 10 pictures are enough to create a catchy animation effect. You can also signup for specific platforms online such as makeagif.com or GIFMaker. Here you can upload your pictures in .png or .gif format then create and download an animated sequence within seconds. With makeagif, it’s even possible to regulate the speed of the animation.

 

Movies

If you already have ready-to-go videos on your hard-drive or on YouTube, try extracting a short sequence as a GIF. Grab GIF Brewery for only 5 Dollars, and you’ll have tons of options for adjusting speed, adding effects, and more.
Lively eye-catchers in your newsletters are sure to make a big impact on the recipients. If you’d like some inspiration, check out giphy.com.

GIFs are a possibility to make your newsletters stand out from the crowd. It’s definitely worth it to experiment with them to give your newsletters that extra bling. Just be sure not to go overboard with the amount of data you use.

 

Can't wait to add some GIFs in your next email or newsletter campaigns? Try it out now with Mail Designer Pro.
If you have any questions or comments, please contact us by clicking here.