Rich Media in Emails: Taking Interactivity to the Next Level

Are you an email marketer who aspires to create an amazing user experience and drive greater conversion rates? Rich media is the answer you’re looking for!

Rich media implies the usage of advanced interactive features like video, audio and other animation elements that allow recipients to engage better with the content.

Just like we're shifting to a world of “messages” and “chats” from “letters” in personal communication, text is being replaced by rich media in the world of marketing.

There was a time when using these elements in emails was considered to be an extravagant affair with no returns. However, in the present times, “plain text” is getting low returns whereas rich media elements are proving to be more and more effective. The possibilities are endless when it comes to rich media.

Let’s walk you through an enlightening digital tour to the world of static images, GIFs, cinemagraphs and videos, and learn how to use them in your emails.

1. Static Images

When words aren’t enough to get across your message, images do the trick. If you plan to use static images in your emails, make sure you provide alt text for the subscribers who don’t have the patience to download your images, and also for email clients that have images blocked in their default setting.

To add static images in an email, you can either embed them through <img src> tags or use Base64 encoding. Don’t send the image as an attachment as it can detect your email as spam.

2. GIFs

Suppose you wish to send out an email displaying multiple products from your e-commerce store, GIFs can make your campaign all the more effective. It also makes your email eye candy for subscribers.

The only thing you should keep in mind while using GIFs is that Outlook shows the first frame of animation. As a workaround, you should give a “View in Browser” link in your emails and make sure that the first frame holds the same meaning as the animated GIF.

3. Videos

Videos give you the opportunity to set your email apart from the scores sent out each day. How about including a video in your event invitation email for this year?

Just make sure you include a “View in Browser” link and suitable image fallback to ensure good rendering on email clients other than Apple Mail, Thunderbird and web browsers.

4. Cinemagraphs

Cinemagraphs are still photographs with subtle moving elements seamlessly looped to teleport subscribers to a surreal world. If you wish to give your emails an aesthetic feel, try cinemagraphs instead of GIFs. As the file size of cinemagraphs remains small, it doesn’t prolong the loading time of your email.

You can use Photoshop or tools like Flixel, Pictoreo and Kinotropic to prepare a cinemagraph. The compatibility with email clients is the same as that of GIFs.

EmailMonks presents to you an infographic, Rich Media in Email Marketing, that offers much more detail into the tips and tricks of using rich media in emails effectively.

Kevin George is the head of marketing at EmailMonks, an email design and HTML coding company.

Source: Rich Media in Email Marketing