Studies show that people’s attention span online has steadily decreased over the past 20 years. Marketers must work harder to keep audiences interested, especially with email.

With so many companies vying for people’s limited attention, the type of imagery used in emails impacts a campaign’s effectiveness and people’s perception of the brand. The question becomes: When does it make sense to use static imagery versus animated gifs?

How people read emails

People aren’t reading online. They’re skimming. And with sales emails and newsletters, they do it even more so. One Jakob Nielsen study used eye-tracking software to analyze how quickly users decided whether emails in their inboxes were important enough to read through. They found that people tend to ignore the introductory text. On average, they spent about 51 seconds reviewing the email contents, and only 19% of participants read everything fully.

For businesses, there’s only a short amount of time to ensure that once people begin skimming through those emails, the content inside gets them to stop and pay attention.

As Campaign Monitor points out, limiting body copy and choosing imagery that “reinforces your message” increases readers’ understanding since graphics are easier to process.

The human brain parses through images 60,000 times faster than text in only a few milliseconds. From a design perspective, this is great because it creates opportunities to engage email readers visually.

It’s also why marketers have resorted to using animated GIFs in some of their email campaigns in addition to static imagery. According to GIPHY, there are over 2 million hours of GIFs consumed by people every day.

But how do viewers feel about seeing them in their emails?

People’s response to animation in emails

Incorporating video into email can increase click rates by up to 300%. Meanwhile, including other interactive elements, such as GIFs, improves the click-to-open rate by 73%. So there’s a reason to keep using them.

However, businesses have to consider how to use these graphics to create an elegant experience for people receiving their emails.

When someone receives an email, they usually don’t expect to see blinking lights and flashing graphics, which according to a study conducted by the Nielsen Norman Group, users found to be “annoying and distracting.”

In this study, researchers examined people’s responses to ecommerce marketing emails, where GIF usage is the norm. They evaluated positive and negative sentiments when comparing animated GIFs to static images. People were given a list of words to choose from, including “appealing, clear, and fun” (positive) and “annoying, distracting, and dull” (negative).

The researchers found that when animation was added to an email, negative sentiment increased by 40% while positive sentiment decreased by 30%. For every 1.3 positive words animated emails received, 1.7 negative words countered it.

On the other hand, static emails received 1.8 positive words for every 1.2 negative ones. And what about trust? Study participants believed the emails without GIFs were more trustworthy than those with animations.

When animated GIFs are misused, they can come across as gimmicky. No company wants to be seen as the email equivalent of a cheap car dealership.

So what can you do?

Find balance with GIFs

GIFs are useful for businesses that want to promote their products online. They can demonstrate your product’s use cases and features when used sparingly.

When Burberry released a new sneaker, they included a 360-degree view of it in their email. Recipients could see how every part of the shoe looks before buying it online. This use of animation was simple, yet it gave people an opportunity immediately get a sense of the product.

However, when animations are used without regard to they come across to the email recipients, it can leave people feeling overwhelmed and thinking negatively about the company hitting their inbox.

In this email GIF from Threadless, the cat’s movement is choppy and does little to promote their custom-designed shirts. The GIF is more of a distraction than an enticement. If the recipient reads until the very end of the email near the unsubscribe link, they’ll discover that this animation is a featured design from an artist.

But since most people don’t read through emails, this was a wasted opportunity for Threadless to use this valuable piece of real estate effectively.

When animation takes away from the message in the email, it defeats its intended purpose—to get the recipient to act. The goal of any image used in an email is to enhance the message it’s trying to send to the reader. If GIFs are added without thinking about the user’s experience, it often causes more frustration than awe.

Use static or animated gifs?

Email, when designed wisely, is still highly effective. However, part of doing it well means using text and imagery to engage, not annoy. To please the eye, not overwhelm it.

When deciding whether to use a static image in your email or GIFs, ask yourself if the animation serves a purpose. Is it highlighting a use case or product feature? If so, then use GIFs sparingly to show them off. If not, opt for incorporating a static image that doesn’t distract from the message you want to send.