There’s lots of controversy around gifs – namely, how the heck you’re supposed to pronounce the word. (If you haven’t guessed from the alliteration in the title of this blog post, we’re firm believers of the hard g – gif as in ‘gif’ not ‘jiffy’).
Whether it’s pronounced gif or jif – we’ll leave you to fight about that in the comments – one thing is crystal clear: they’re great little inventions, and add just the right amount of pizazz to the content on your blog or social media platforms.
Here’s our handy guide for using gifs to make your content stand out from the crowd.
Gifs: Great for Social Media Marketing and Content Marketing
As we said before, gifs (which stands for graphics interchange format) are a great addition to just about any social media or content marketing campaign. Whether your brand is conversational and humorous and you’re looking to hit your target audience with some of the latest memes or you want to incorporate a subtle touch into a post on a serious topic, a gif can add interest and a unique take on your content.
Here are just a few of the benefits of using animated gifs in your content:
They’re eye-catching and easy to consume
Including gifs in your marketing campaign is a great way to capture a user’s attention for the perfect amount of time. A user may ignore a still image because it’s nothing special but choose not to watch a video because it’s too long – therefore, animated images such as gifs are the perfect middle ground, as they’ll quickly engage and interest the user without boring them. Like Goldilocks said: “they’re just right”.
You can use them as calls to action
Tired of the traditional call to action? Gifs can easily liven up this marketing strategy up as well. The eye is automatically drawn to whatever is moving on the screen, meaning that you can strategically place a gif above or below your call to action. This will make it stand out and increase the likelihood of the user reading it and taking action.
Great Gif Libraries
So you want to add gifs to your own content – but where can you find them? Here are some of our favourite websites:
If you’re feeling creative and want to make some of your own gifs, go for it. We particularly like using these sites when it comes to creating gifs:
Examples of Gif Useage
One of our clients, Teletext Holidays, uses gifs in their blog posts and it really makes their content pop. From humourous Stars Wars gifs in a post on… well… Star Wars to gifs of Disney characters in love in a post about romantic holidays to the Caribbean, these moving pictures have made their content visually engaging and attractive.
Travel brands aren’t the only ones who can use gifs to their advantage, either – DiGiorno posted this tweet to spice up their Twitter and catch the eye of hungry users.
From blog posts to Facebook posts, gifs are a great addition to your social media and onsite content.
Looking to improve your content marketing strategy? Whether you want to make your blog posts pop with gifs and fascinating content or need copy for your website’s landing pages, Weblify Media is here to help. Get in touch with us today for more information.