6 Interesting Ways To Use GIFs in Your Marketing

These visual elements aren’t just for teens and individual social media users. Brands can implement GIF marketing in multiple ways to add personality and dimension to their marketing.

1. Bring Data Alive

Infographics and other visual methods of displaying data are often popular because they provide useful information in a very digestible format. GIFs can help bring your data alive, like this example from Indeed. In addition to being a leader in helping people everywhere find jobs, they also provide some very insightful data related to hiring. In the post below, they’ve animated a map of the happiest cities for workers.

2. Add Personality to Social Posts

It’s pretty clear that whoever is running the Denny’s chain’s Twitter account is having a lot of fun with it. Their posts include a mix of random thoughts (often related to pancakes or eggs) and quirky images and content marketing GIFs. Here’s an example of one recent GIF that exhibits the personality of the brand. While not every brand is as informal on Twitter as Denny’s, this is a great example of how brands could loosen up once in a while with the help of GIF marketing. (And yes, that is a root bear float.)

3. Show off Your Products

When GIFs feature video segments, they’re an effective way of translating a lot of information. Sizzler is a great example of a company that isolates a key selling point of their food (the deliciousness of flame-grilled steak) in a well-crafted GIF on Twitter. The image is mouth-watering and Sizzler-branded.

4. Spice up Emails

Did you know you could put GIFs in emails? You do now. GIFs are a great way to keep people’s attention in email marketing. The example below is from Urban Outfitters, the popular fashion retailer targeted at teens and 20-somethings. The GIF animates a slightly retro-inspired image for an effect that’s attractive and eye-catching.

5. Add them to Landing Pages

Landing pages need to communicate value to viewers quickly and in the most effective way possible. You can take a tip from Hubspot and try using a GIF to demonstrate a feature of your product and influence how your audience interacts with your page. This simple addition might help elevate your content marketing.

6. Make Your Documentation More Useful

Not everyone has the same learning style. For some, it’s easier to be shown that told. GIFs can make documentation for web tools and software much more useful by animating specific steps. This example from Macaw, a web design tool that was acquired by Invision, shows the use of subtle GIFs in documentation.

GIFs can be used in all areas of content marketing, from social to emails to web design. Get inspired by these unique and varied ways of using GIFs then figure out how you can start doing GIF marketing yourself.