Lackluster emails will kill your bottom line. It’s really that simple. Email marketing is a powerful sales tool, which means your customer’s inbox is an extremely competitive space. Over 90% of emails are read on mobile devices. This means that any messages that are difficult to read – whether they involve too much text, need to be manually resized to be legible, or just look boring – are rapidly passed over. In order for your email to stand out, it must be instantly appealing and engaging. The tool best suited to this task: animation.

The word animation can evoke images of cartoon like imagery, but that’s not what we’re really talking about here. Instead, you want to focus on the idea of motion. We are visual animals, hardwired to notice moving things. It is almost impossible for most people not to glance at least for a split-second when something stops staying still. With that in mind, animation techniques can be used to make elements of your email message pop, fade, slide, flip or bounce into the email.

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A Strategic Approach to Dynamic Email Marketing

People pay more attention to moving things, so you’ll want to choose these elements strategically – for example, if you really want people to come to an in-store event, a slide that shows the event name, time, and an appealing image coupled with a call to action button viewers can click to learn more can be used to raise awareness and generate excitement about the upcoming fun. Part of being strategic is thinking through the call to action element of any animated feature: ideally, you’ll want to have these links lead to a page where customers can take action, whether that means making a purchase, RSVPing to an event, downloading a coupon, or signing up for a newsletter.

How is an Email Animated?

There are a number of ways to add animated elements to your email, including the use of GIF files and HTML coding. It’s important to understand that not all animation elements work equally well with every email client, so you’ll want to work with your developer to choose the right tools. Any data you have about what type of email client your customers use to open and read their emails will be extremely helpful here; if you use a service like MailChimp or Emma Mail, they collect this data for you.

How Many Elements of My Email Should I Animate?

You can have too much of a good thing. You don’t want to animate every aspect of your email – the result would be overwhelming, visually confusing, and probably slow loading. Instead, concentrate your efforts on animating features your customers will see in the first few seconds. This is when it is most critical to capture the customer’s attention. Another approach is to introduce the animation after the customer has scrolled down far enough to indicate they’re interested in what you have to say.

Pay Attention To Your Metrics

If you’re not sure about the value of animation, test it. Split your list and send one half the email with the animation and the other half without. Is there a difference in conversion rates? There’s really nothing as eye opening as real world data, so I’d very much encourage you to try this for yourself. Need help making it happen? Our team will be happy to help. Here’s how you get in touch.