Believe it or not, you still have some people who don’t know what a GIF is and how to use them in marketing. For the rest of us, it’s a part of our daily lives whether we’re sharing reactions or a friend’s posts, adding some visual interest to our websites, or sharing reactions on social media. It can be tricky, however, to use GIFs, as some people have trouble understanding how best to use them. This blog post will show you how to use GIFs without looking out-of-touch.

What is a GIF

Let’s begin with three basic facts regarding GIFs. Since they are designed to loop over and over again to create short animations, there is a type of file format that facilitates their creation. The format is described as “Graphics Interchange Format” or “GIF” for short. GIP is really instrumental for the success of social media. They’re also used for text conversations.

While gifs have emerged as a symbol for the connection between online culture and the internet itself, they have existed for much longer than the internet. Someone named Steve Wilhite created the first gif in 1987 as a means of compressing images with nominal data loss.

The introduction of the GIF gave way to a new file format that was not as high-quality (resolution) as traditional JPEGs. This gave them flexibility and made them easier to share. Since then, the GIF became an increasingly popular means for online communication.

Whether you like them or not, and despite how you pronounce it, GIFs cannot be ignored or denied: They have become an integral part of internet culture as we know it. Some people use them creatively, and often for humor.

The Benefits of GIF Marketing

Gifs are easy to create and highly useful. It’s a great way to engage viewers and impress your target audience. Gifs are more enticing to look at than static images, and they’re easy to take in at once and mobile-friendly. Also, gifs cause visual learning, which means viewers are more likely to remember your message and the content. Individual visual images are processed in the brain 60,000 times faster than text. That means a gif with complex information is actually easier to comprehend and act on.

If you’re looking for an excellent way to market your business, consider gif marketing. It’s an efficient, innovative, and engaging means of reaching your target market.

Can GIFs Backfire?

Like everything else on the internet, yes! The last thing you want is to make your brand cringey.

It is advisable to monitor internet trends to avoid cringe-worthy gif marketing. As such, if you want to avoid the cringe-worthy gif marketing, it would be advisable to stay on top of internet themes.

How to do this? Step 1, get on social media. Create a Twitter and TikTok account. These are treasure troves for meme trends. Keep your eye on popular social media pages and be prepared to adjust your GIFs accordingly. Perhaps, you might hire an intern to assist you with your marketing efforts.

Include relevant gifs. They should all have something to do with the message you are trying to convey. Funny cat gifs might be funny, but they won’t sell your product efficiently if they’re unrelated to your message or brand tone.

Humor is definitely a subjective matter, but you should try to avoid jokes that are too repetitive—you know, that one friend who always forwards those chain emails with corny jokes. In addition, try to steer clear of any GIFs that are too cheap for laughs. Instead focus on the quality of your jokes, quality trumps quantity every time.

With a little effort, you can avoid gif marketing fails. Often, you can also become a trendsetter yourself.

Where to Find Your GIFs

The quickest portal to GIf city is Giphy, a search tool specifically for GIFs. It’s an easy-to-use search engine for all your GIF needs. Simply enter what you are looking for in the search bar, and browse through the results.

Another favorite option for showing gifs and animated images is the Google Image Search. Just type into the search engine whatever you’re searching for, including any text that relates to your topic. Then scroll down to Search tools and pick on Animated. This setting will allow you to search based on an animated image.

Finally, imgur is an online site that is home to a sea of gifs. Among them are also to a number of gifs created by users. Therefore, whatever gif you are searching, one of these three options is certain to have it.

Can I Make My Own?

Sometimes you’re looking for a specific thing and you’re not exactly in the library. Ready to step up your game and become a master GIF generator? It’s time to be a GIF creator. Look up a list of Gif-Maker apps to make your own. The app’s will have an easy-to-use interface that allows you to add images and edit them. Most of them will provide you with an array of optional elements, including filters, borders, frame backgrounds, text overlays, images, emojis, and more. It’s all simple and accommodating. Just choose the images you want to cycle and the way in which you want them to cycle.

Where to use your GIFs for marketing

There are so many places you can use GIFs for marketing. Social Media posts, websites, blog-posts, e-mails – the list goes on. GIFs area great way to show off products, promote your brand to build trust or remind users how to do things. Once you have the hang of making GIFs, you’ll continually create them in no time at all. So get creative and start using GIFs to help take your marketing to new heights. Need help creating GIFs? Mad Creative Beanstalk is here to the rescue. We can help you step up your GIF game if that’s what you’re after.

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