Using Animation to Promote Your Brand
Written By: Shane Clark on June 11, 2020
Animation can be an effective way to promote your brand and increase your conversion rates. Animation can come in the form of an animated GIF to showcase services or highlight a part of your website you wish to draw your audience’s attention to. I find animation to be highly effective when it comes to social media marketing.
Identifying Animation Use Within Your Branding
The person(s) responsible for your marketing plan will need to identify areas where the addition of animation can lead to increased conversion benefits. The best type of animation will depend on the types of business, budget, and campaigns. Here are some examples of how animations can be used in your marketing campaigns.
- Email Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Website Call to Action
- Website Page Content
Using Animation in Marketing Emails
Many marketing companies are discovering that the addition of animation in an email can lead to increased subscriber engagement. One Study found animated GIF’s inside emails had increased clickthrough rates of up to 26%. Animation can be an efficient method to make use of the limited “real estate” in an email to convey the message to your audience. It is vital to make sure the animation added is supported by your audience’s browser or email client.
Using Animation within Social Media Marketing
Using animation is a compelling method to get your branding message across in a social media campaign. In many cases, there will be a minimal opportunity to catch the attention of your prospective audience. An animated post can keep users attention long enough to desalinate the message. Additionally, the use of animation can demonstrate creativity to add credibility to your brand. I find I use animation more within a Twitter campaign. The use of animation is a great way to circumvent the limitations of Twitter’s 280 character limit.
Enhancing Website Calls to Action with Animations
The use of well-placed animations can direct your users to the desired areas of your website. If you take a look at Ruskin Consulting, you will notice the flashing phone number. Using animation in this way can stress the importance of specific areas on your website that requires user attention. Using heat maps such as “Hot Jar” can be a useful way to test how effective your animation is. It is essential to catch the attention of your user and not distract him or her with the overuse of animation.
Enhancing Webpage Content Using Animations
The longer a user spends on your website, the more it increases the organic search engine ranking score. Search engines such as Google will rank a web page based on how valuable the information on the page is to the user. Adding animation to your page content will not bring organic SEO value by itself. The benefit of adding animation to your page content will be when it enhances the information already on the page. I find that animated graphs can help clarify a message to your user.
Best Practices for Adding Animations to Your Website
The primary considerations for adding animations to your website will be file size, relevancy, browser/device compatibility, and naming practices.
- File Size
The file size of anything added to your website should always be a significant consideration. I recommend keeping any image sizes (including animations) to under 500KB. If the by-product of your animation is a larger video file, you should consider using a 3rd party host such as Youtube, Vimeo, or Amazon S3 to reduce website load time.
- Relevancy
You will want to make sure anything you consider adding to your website is relevant. Animations have these same relevancy requirements to rank higher organically. The most important thing to consider is making sure any animation added enhances the overall user experience. It’s not a good idea to add an animation to your website if it is distracting from your primary message.
- Browser/Device Compatibility
The most crucial consideration when adding an animation to your website is the compatibility with your user base. An excellent example of an animation technology that would be problematic is Abobe Flash. Many browsers automatically block Flash by default for security reasons. Additionally, the end of life for Flash will be at the end of 2020. A safe route is to make sure your animations are using a well-supported format like an animated GIF.
- File Naming Practices/Conventions
As with any file you add to your website, it is vital to name everything in a way that the search engines can adequately index it. Adding an animation with a file name of animation001.gif will not allow the file to be indexed. I find that it can be a big help to use best naming practices in the creation stage.
Tools Used To Create Animations
There are many tools to create animations, but I find I can do most of what I need to do with Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop will allow you to create animated Gifs that are easily saved/exported. The “best” tool to use will be the one you’re most comfortable using. It will also depend on the complexity of the animation.
Summary
Animation can be an effective way to promote your brand as well as organically rank your website to search engines. It is crucial to not engage in overuse, as animations can be a distraction for your users. Animations should be used in combination with a well thought out marketing plan. Let me know if you would like any help with animation, SEO, or general website advice.
