Maybe you don’t like to talk about your flair, but… we think it’s worth a quick conversation since it could very well boost your fundraising efforts.
We all get oh-so-many emails every. Single. Day. So how can you grab the attention of your supporters and stand out among the masses? I mean, they’re your supporters, they do want to hear from you, but they are busy people. So how do you quickly grab their attention?
Use a GIF!! (That’s right, I lead by example.)
Breathe new life into your fundraising emails by using an animated gif. This strategy is a great way to catch your supporter’s eye and make that message even more memorable.
Fundraising professionals know that open rates really aren’t worth as much as we’d all like them to be. Plenty of email recipients open an email just to delete it. The click through rate is what really matters and an animated gif will help. What if someone opened an email just to delete it but an animation caught their eye? I’m willing to bet that it would catch their eye enough to engage them just a tad bit more. And, if you gif has a connection to your cause and includes a call to action you might just get that click!
But, not to be a bummer, you must follow some best practices when wanting to dabble in the world of animated gifs. Here are a few of ours to get you started:
- Moderation is the key. Use these at a minimum. If you start to use them in everything you do, your audience will get bored with the cute.
- Keep the length of your file simple. Don’t have so many frames that it takes your audience over 5 seconds to get the point of your gif!
- The longer the length, the greater the file size. So again, keep it simple so it downloads quickly and efficiently on any device!
If your gif is in email, you must test across multiple email clients. Did you know that newer versions of Outlook will not display your gif, but only show the first frame? Make sure that you have your call to action consistent on every frame of your gif so it makes sense if it is stuck on that first frame. (Boo, Outlook. BOO!)
Adding flair (via a gif) can be a great idea for several different types of emails, not just fundraising campaigns. A gif can work to announce an upcoming peer-to-peer event to inspire registration, it can simply send a more memorable ‘thank you’ message or get their attention for that end of year campaign fundraiser.
Our designers and strategic consultants team up to develop something that works seamlessly within the organization’s email campaign, quickly grabs attention and directly connects to its cause. We’ve done animated gifs with a number of clients already and they’re getting more engagement on their websites and emails. Contact us today to let us help you get inspired and have your audience exclaim, “THIS IS THE BEST! I MUST CLICK!”
