GIFs are wonderful tools for digital marketers for several reasons. Not only are they fun for viewers, but they can also make your brand more relatable to your audience, give off an air of relaxation, and also help create a sense of excitement.
In the case of GIF countdown timers, they can do all of that while creating a sense of urgency around a given event or product. Therefore, in this tutorial I will teach you how to create one and use it in any advertising strategy.
What is a GIF?
A GIF is an image file similar to a “JPG” either “PNG”However, a GIF can (often does) contain animation. These animated image files can be made up of individual images placed together to create an animated sequence or they can be isolated clips from movies and videos.
On the other hand, GIFs provide marketers with several valuable tools for their “marketing plan”. The GIFs are:
- Amusing.
- They provide information.
- Useful for providing consumers with a different way to absorb information.
- Effective for creating a sense of urgency.
Only on a popular website, viewers watch more than 2 million hours of GIFs a day. So these short little animations are clearly worth looking into, especially if your marketing team is working on something special.
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“Career Interactive” use a GIF to create a sense of excitement around something new they’ve been working on.
What is a countdown GIF timer?
One way marketers can make great use of GIFs is by creating countdown timers. While some countdowns can be short and simple, others can be created for use in real time.
Furthermore, at people like entertaining images, and GIFs give them exactly that. In the case of countdown timers, having a GIF that can count down in real time works wonders to generate excitement and urgency.
Where to use a countdown GIF?
A countdown GIF can be used throughout your digital marketing strategy, both for social networks and for advertising emails through this medium. These work especially well in promotional emails and time-sensitive emails.
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It’s hard to scroll through Twitter, and even without finding the use of GIF, and more and more brands are becoming familiar with this practice. Instagram even launched a GIF countdown timer for users to add to their individual stories, which many brands are taking full advantage of for various events, announcements, and more.
Additionally, Instagram now allows users to add GIF countdown timers to their stories. You may have even seen “Campaign Monitor” use Instagram story countdown GIF examples on how to create urgency in emails.
On the other hand, since countdown GIFs can be used virtually anywhere online, it’s no surprise that many email marketers have added them to their email marketing templates for a variety of reasons.
GIFs not only provide a new element to emails Not only do they help retain your readers’ attention, but they are currently one of the best ways to include video content without having to hyperlink to external sources or attach large files to your emails.
However, the main reason for add countdown GIF to any aspect of your digital marketing strategy is to create a sense of urgency. The goal of your marketing materials is to make your audience see you and want to take action, which urgency is one of the most effective ways to get them to do so.
This is due to the fear of being left out of something considered “special” either “important” considered a scientific phenomenon. This makes urgency one of the most powerful aspects of human psychology, driving individuals to make that desired conversion.
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Although compelling copy is a great way to create this sense of urgency, many people respond better to images than copy. That makes countdown timers essential to your marketing process, especially when you’re trying to play with the “FOMO” of your audience.
3 Countdown Timer Best Practices
As with any aspect of your digital marketing strategy, there are several best practices to consider when using GIF countdown timers.
1. Not everything requires urgency
Creating a sense of urgency is a great way to convert leads in conversions. However, not everything requires urgency, so you should only use countdown GIFs when you actually have a deadline that’s important to your readers.
In this case, marketers want to create a sense of urgency because there really is limited time until the event begins. But you don’t want to include a countdown GIF in every email you send. This not only tires readers, but also comes across as a marketing gimmick. The idea is to create a genuine sense of “FOMO”.
On the other hand, political fundraising emails are a great example of when “NO” include countdown timers, simply because they have multiple deadlines throughout their campaigns that require them to raise a lot of money to outperform their competitors.
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If a candidate includes a countdown timer in each and every message you send, then those potential voters may be put off by the candidate’s constant pleas for money.
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2. Keep it simple
One of the worst things a digital marketer can do is include an overly flashy and complicated countdown GIF in their marketing materials. This is especially true when it comes to incorporating a countdown timer within your email template.
Which, the more complicated the countdown timer is, the larger the file, which increases the chances of it not loading properly. The best countdown GIFs are not the flashiest GIFs. For example, “Joybird” uses a simple bubble countdown GIF timer to indicate the time remaining on your sale.
So, this simplistic bubble countdown GIF design is seen all over email marketing because it’s just that and it’s simple. This simply marks the days and time left until a certain event or the end of a sale so that your audience member is fully aware of what is happening and when.
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Additionally, These countdown timers are created to display in real time, so if an email is sent on Wednesday and then the viewer reopens it on Thursday, the timer will reflect the correct time remaining.
3. Have your CTA nearby
No matter where you are using your countdown GIF, you should make sure you have your CTA nearby so your audience members can take action right away. When you use a countdown timer on social mediayour best option is to include a link to your CTA in your post.
In an email, you can embed your CTA button near your countdown timer to give readers information before encouraging them to take action. An example of this, the page “Harry’s” Include your countdown GIF, CTA, and relevant material all in the initial part of your email.
Plus, Harry’s does a great job of keeping your countdown timer within the same section as their main CTA buttonwhile providing readers with quick, relevant savings information.
The rest of the email continues to speak in more depth to readers, keeping the main focus on the countdown and CTA.
Create a countdown GIF
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While many digital marketers are experts in HTML coding, many need one more solution . There are many marketing tools available online that can help you quickly design a countdown GIF timer that you can include in both your emails and on your websites.
Therefore, the following websites provide tools to help marketers create simple and easy-to-use countdown GIFs for free.
- Countingdownto: just edit the countdown title, date, time zone, style and add your link before hitting the option “insert” for your code.
- TickCounter: Edit your countdown information, time zone and colors before pressing “create countdown” to share on social media or “embed” to receive your embed code.
Alternatively, Medium shares a simple code that anyone can use and edit: The highlighted part is what you would edit according to your countdown needs.
With these few tips in mind, you can add GIF countdown timers to your social media posts and emails. Play with your options and always be sure to test before you submit.
If you want to know other articles similar to How to Create a Countdown GIF and Use It on the Web you can visit the category.
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