What Are Marketing GIFs and Why Are They Helpful?

Are you thinking of incorporating GIFs into your digital marketing strategy?

Marketing GIFs constitute great ways to connect with your audience and build a positive rapport with people on the internet. Known for being engaging and often funny, GIFs help you express your company’s personality and keep you from feeling like an unapproachable business.

GIFs also give you the ability to point your audience to new deals within your company. They catch their attention and quickly let them know what’s happening.

You might be wondering, “But what are marketing GIFs, and should I use GIFs in marketing?”

We’ll answer all of that and more below! Keep reading for more information.

What Are Marketing GIFs?

Before we define marketing GIFs, let’s go into what constitutes a GIF.

A GIF (pronounced either as “Jif” or “gif,” depending on the person) is an animated image file. Often, these images have been taken from clips of the longer film and shortened to just a second or two of motion. If you’ve ever been on the internet and seen a short, moving image, you’ve seen a GIF.

But what are marketing GIFs?

Put simply, marketing GIFs consist of any GIF that is used by a business or brand to engage their audience and draw attention to the company. They are usually posted to a company’s social media page or used in e-mails in order to evoke emotion, point to a special deal, or anything else the business wants to highlight.

Why Should Companies Use GIFs?

Now, you might be wondering, “Why would a company go about using GIFs in marketing?” 

After all, many people associate GIFs with casually scrolling through the internet or sending funny messages to their friends, not professional businesses. 

Yet, more and more marketing teams are employing the use of GIFs in their digital strategies, and they’ve been largely successful at it. Why is this the case? And why should you also consider adding GIFs to your marketing techniques?

They Create an Emotional Bond with Your Brand

Quick question: when you see a brand’s logo, do you automatically associate it with a personality, or do you simply see a corporate company?

In truth, most of your clients won’t associate your business with an actual human being until they have some interaction with the brand. This poses a challenge to companies, as people tend to purchase items based on the emotional bonds they’ve established with a company, and people often form these bonds when they can relate to a brand.

So, it’s your job to make sure that your brand’s personality comes across and relates to your consumers. GIFs accomplish this because they often evoke an emotion. If you’ve noticed, many GIFs used across the internet display a relatable reaction, and people use them to express themselves.

Using GIFs, then, helps you convey the personality behind your company and facilitate an emotional bond with your clients.

Increase Audience Information Retention

You want your audience to remember the information you share with them. Of course, the primary point of most marketing campaigns is to get your audience to click through to a certain deal or product and make a purchase, but if they don’t have time to do so now, you want them to remember to come back.

Instead of using text to engage your readers, use images like GIFs. Why? People online usually don’t read carefully. Instead, they’re skimming for the information they need. 

Studies show that people only retain 20% of the information they consume without the aid of visuals. GIFs provide the needed visual components to make your campaign interesting and memorable.

Marketing GIFs Cause People to Stop Scrolling

Have you ever scrolled through a social media feed?

If so, you probably haven’t read every single word of what was written. Most people skim their social media feeds, flying right past information that doesn’t immediately catch their attention. 

Images are much easier to notice than text. People have to stop and read text to comprehend the message. Yet, images can be understood at a glance and might even catch someone’s eye.

They Tell Stories

Want to know another way you can connect to your audience?

Stories. People love stories, and they often evoke emotions that help you build the bond between your company and your clients.

GIFs assist you in telling stories. Sure, the stories must be brief, but you can create GIFs that evoke a similar level of emotion. this makes them useful to many business marketing teams.

GIFs can also inform. If one of your products requires a short tutorial, for instance, you can use a GIF format to show how it’s used. This captures the audience’s attention and allows them to picture themselves using your product. 

They Promote Products

Do you have a new product you’d love to showcase?

If so, consider creating a GIF! This allows your potential customers to see the product in a new light and maybe even get a better look at it. Sometimes, seeing something from a new angle is all someone needs to make a purchase!

People Love GIFs

Simply put, people love GIFs. They use them to communicate with their friends and family members, express what they’re feeling, and interact with the world around them.

As a company, it’s your job to listen to the things your consumers care about and try to interact with them. Since many people react to the world around them with GIFs, you will be perceived as relatable if you use GIFs as well.

Want to learn how to make GIFs? Try using the information at https://setapp.com/how-to/how-to-make-a-gif.

Want to Get Better at Business Technology?

Marketing GIFs often help businesses improve their online presence.

By using these animated image files, companies can engage their audiences. They also increase their retention rate, tell stories, promote products, cause people to stop scrolling, and foster an emotional bond with the brand. This is why many marketing teams choose to use them.

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