GIFs sum up your feelings in a three-second clip. They help you say, “Happy Birthday,” or “This is crazy,” in one convenient click. You and your siblings have entire conversations using them, fully understanding the coexistence of, “I’d drop everything to do anything for you,” but “If you chew near my ear again, you’re going to lose your teeth.” GIFs are capable of saying so much, and that’s exactly why they need a solid space in your marketing strategy.
Companies are increasingly using GIFs to claim a spot in those text conversations with your brother and your reactions on social media. But, like anything with marketing, there’s a lot that could go wrong. You need this quick guide before you start throwing GIFs around of your boss snorfing his morning cereal. Oh…snorfing? Not a real word, but you pictured it, didn’t you?
Keywords: Keywords are just as relevant as ever, and you need to keep them in mind if you’re including text in your GIFs. This is not the place for longtail keywords; it’s more the quick hits that go in your GIF.
Think Subtle: A GIF is not a place to feature your logo prominently in the center of the screen. Your best bet is an almost-translucent or gray imprint of your logo at the corner of the screen, or a funny way of including your logo or colors that uses humor to draw attention away from you. It is sort of like your logo is photobombing, but without the jazz hands or “hey, it’s me!” face. You know that face.
Get the Length Right: A GIF will add to your marketing strategy, but it’s important to not make it too long or too short. Less than two seconds and your audience won’t even know what they’ve seen. More than six seconds and they’re sick of you.
Think Quality: Like any content, the focus should always be on the audience and on a high level of quality. That means that you need to be sure that you have a clean loop on your GIF, so that it’s not jarring when it keeps going ‘round and ‘round.
Also, resist the urge to take an existing video and chop it up into GIFs. It’s not the same thing, you won’t get much valuable mileage out of it and your customers will see right through it.
If only there was a team of creative types who couldn’t wait to make funny GIFs for your brand. Oh, right. SJC Marketing is already gathered in the conference room, revving up on coffee and chocolate and getting started on some ideas. Don’t worry; we locked the door.
Let’s get started on some GIFs and helping you with a comprehensive marketing strategy. Our team at SJC can’t wait!