Gifs are a long-standing and beloved part of internet culture. As familiar to anyone who grew up with the internet as memes and YouTube videos, gifs are one of the longest standing internet phenomena.This is due to their continued popularity because of their ease of consumption, their high-entertainment value, their ease of creation and, above all, their sheer versatility.
If you run any type of online commercial enterprise – or your enterprise has any kind of online marketing component – then gifs are aways a safe bet to foster positive identification. It’s also exceptionally handy that they cost next to nothing to make as well. Production values do not need to be high.Gifs came out of, and are part of, that internet culture that values a certain “online DIY” aesthetic. When you post a gif for commercial purposes, the return on investment is huge – just because the investment is so little!
Gifs and Video Marketing
WMV Productions, a video production services, say that gifs can be very successfully incorporated into even a high production value video marketing campaign. Gifs are moving images, they are videos. Thus, they have a natural place in video marketing.
But what kind of videos are they? Getting this straight is essential for making effective use of them in marketing. Gifs are moving images that loop continuously, they have no sound, they cannot be paused or stopped, they are almost never viewed full-screen, and they have a small file size. These are absolutely the most important things to consider about gifs where video marketing is concerned. All their benefits derive from one (or, more often, a combination) of these attributes.
The small file size is particularly beneficial. Gifs allow for dynamic visual content that does not take time to load,which is a massive benefit for marketing.
How Brands Can Incorporate Gifs into Video Marketing Strategies
If you are working out a video marketing strategy, you should seriously consider gifs for at least part of it. Here’s how gifs can improve video marketing:
They Are Engaging
We don’t need to waste too many words here. People love gifs, they are part of online communication, and therefore using them is a terrific way identify with your audience.
Great for Dynamic Product Imagery
Static images of products will only go so far, especially when seeing the product in use is essential for your video marketing. Videos that need to be manually started are good for longer product displays. Gifs, on the other, can put that one, very short, magic moment of the product in use right before your audience’s eyes. Think of a coffee brand showing the moment their product hits the cup.A two-second gif can make that moment known to millions.
Can Provide Useful Information
Whether that’s the location of an upcoming event or a product release date. Briefly cycling through slogan-like information in the form of a gif can draw the eye and convey the information long before the viewer gets bored.
Liven Up E-mails and Blog Posts
Text has its place as part of any marketing strategy. And when you send out your videos via e-mail to loyal customers or as part of a blog post, the viewer – or reader, as is more often the case – will not necessarily click the video or watch it for its duration. Using those magical mini-videos though, you can provide a dynamic video dimension to text-based marketing.
The level of identification with gifs and the affection people feel for them is significant. Furthermore, seeing as they are, after all, technically videos, they make for a powerful addition to any video marketing campaign.
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