According to a GIPHY report, 10 billion GIFs are shared daily. If you are not using them for your social media marketing, you may be missing a lot. When well used, they can make your interactions with consumers more meaningful. Already, top brands such as McDonald's, Pepsi, Gucci, and Wells Fargo are using them in their local media stories. In this article, we will guide you on how to use GIFs in social media marketing and avoid some common mistakes.

Tips on Enhancing Your GIF Marketing Strategy

The basic rule for using GIFs in your social media marketing plan is to remain true to your brand identity. On top of that, you should use the following tips: 

Add Your Brand Subtly

The main reason you are using GIFs is to market your brand, so you want to ensure that you do this subtly through features such as product placement, watermarks, and other branding references, including fonts and colors. However, remember to keep the branding light and focus first on entertaining your audience.

You can add your brand logo to the bottom-right corner. Ensure the logo is gray and opaque so that it doesn't distract from the GIF. Remember that if you make the GIF stand out, users will view it several times and eventually notice your brand logo. For instance, Amazon subtly adds its brand logo, blending it into its GIF in a fun, playful way.

Turn the GIF into a Meme

GIFs and memes in digital marketing are cut from the same cloth: informal and fun, often leveraging emotions and culture. Some top GIFs include some descriptive memes, enabling them to improve video content and turn it into a reaction GIF. By adding a caption in your GIF, you can improve your chances of ranking organically in the search results.

Including text in your GIF can help search engines understand the context of its use in digital marketing. If you can add the target keyword in the GIF text, you will be informing the search engine of the terms for which the GIF will appear.

Combine GIFs with their Stickers

Using GIFs in your messaging apps can help make the conversation more intimate. You can use GIF stickers in Snapchat and Instagram stories. If your target audience finds them interesting, they can share them, increasing your brand awareness. GIF stickers are a great way to turn your consumers into brand ambassadors.

Add Human Emotions

The goal of GIF marketing is to express emotions, and this is why the majority of GIFs that go viral are reaction GIFs, which express reaction. Instead of writing so excitedly, it can be more effective to send someone a funny and excited reaction GIF. If you are marketing a product or service tied to human emotions, such as thirst, you can engage with the emotion your brand addresses.

Perform Keyword Research

Using the relevant keyword will ensure that the appropriate audience sees your GIF. Otherwise, if you spend a lot of time creating a GIF and your relevant audience does not see it, then it will serve no purpose. A good idea would be to include your branded keywords in the GIF. You can also perform social media keyword research before getting into the GIF creation.

Consider Your Campaign Goals

Consider what you want to achieve with your GIF campaign and which keywords you are targeting. You can use tools like Ahrefs and Semrush to research relevant keywords and build your GIF content around them. This will increase the chances that your GIFs will rank for the appropriate keyword.

Plan Your Timing

GIFs last for a short time, making it hard to tell your story in a short time. A recommended GIF length is 2 to 6 seconds. If you create a GIF that is too short, it may not work well. If it is too long, it will lose your audience's attention due to their reduced attention span. You also want to ensure that the GIF is suitable for the target audience. Make the last frame transitions smoothly to the first frame, with no noticeable changes in motion or color.

Make Your GIF Timeless

A good GIF should be evergreen content rather than viral content for a long-term strategy; it doesn't mean you should settle for ones you created years ago. A good idea would be to use GIFs for various holidays and seasons, pop culture, movements, moods, and more to support your marketing campaigns and initiatives.

Take the time to understand when a cultural phenomenon or phrase resonates with your target audience and incorporate it into your conversation. By identifying your GIFs with pop culture moments, you can increase the chances of going viral.

What to Avoid in GIF Marketing

There are inevitable mistakes that can impact the effectiveness of your GIF campaigns. These include:

Overbranding Your GIFs

Remember that people aren't interested in sending ads to their families and friends, but a GIF. That means that if you overbrand your GIFs, customers will ignore them. After all, the goal of a GIF is to improve the conversation in the digital world. 

If you want people to share your GIF, focus on entertaining your audience first. Making them smile or laugh can encourage them to watch multiple times. As noted earlier, subtly incorporating your brand into the second or third loop demonstrates the value it provides to the audience.

Re-Using Old Ads

A common mistake brands make when getting started with GIFs is to take their old commercials and turn them into GIFs. While this may seem like the easy route, it may not be effective. As with other marketing channels, you need to create content for each channel.

Therefore, do not repurpose your old content into GIFs. Suppose you must reuse old video content or commercials. Ensure you find clips that are amusing and suitable for reactions, then turn them into a funny caption or meme.

Promoting a Product in a GIF

When creating GIFs, ensure that, just as with the branding, the product placement is subtle. If you are selling a tangible product, you can add it to your GIF in a subtle, fun, and helpful way.

Final Thoughts

Remember that no marketing strategy will work well if all touchpoints are transactional rather than trust-building. To better build the trust of your audience, you need to give to them without expecting anything in return. This is the basic rule of GIFs.

While GIF marketing can help you subtly connect with your audience, you need to plan your campaign carefully. If you want a GIF that your advocates and consumers will love, use the dos and don'ts above. These will ensure that you create GIFs your audience can share, helping increase your brand awareness.