A: Most of us would like to know some tips or tricks for how to make our banners or logos more memorable. And it’s only natural to think that movement would be one great way to highlight things.
However, while flash is a great thing, it (like a lot of .gif animations) doesn’t play very well with the majority of email clients. Still, even without flash or animation, there are ways to make your banners stand out. Here’s my favorite:
Video and Banner in a One-Two Punch
This little trick of adding a video piece and a logo piece together brings you the promise of a moving visual without risking stripped out content.
Like it? Here’s how you put it together:
- Start with a template that has two columns.
Tip: I picked a template (Restaurant Pack - Casual Dining II) that had a narrower left-hand column so I could put my video on the left. If you want your video to the right of your banner, just pick a template with a narrower right-hand column. - Usually, there’s a Company Logo or Header block in the template that spans the whole width of the email. Delete that block and any extra accent blocks until you have just two column blocks at the top.
- Insert your banner or logo into your wider block and jot down how many pixels high it is.
- Add your video link to the narrower block. Make sure the thumbnail is wide enough to fill the whole block by moving the slider that adjusts size all the way to the right.
- Once you’ve inserted the image, click Save. Your screen should look something like this.
(And yes, I speak from experience. I uploaded five resized versions of my logo before I remembered you could do that.)
Even if you don’t have a video, you can still use this framework in your banners. Instead of a video, for example, use a clickable image that might lead a customer to more information on a great deal. Just keep in mind that any clicks to either the video or the image take your readers from your email. So don’t waste that interest, make sure that the content you give them on the other end is interesting and worth the look.
For other ways you can spice up your images, banners, or logos, check out these resources:
Support Blog: Banners at your fingertips
Support Blog: Using Logos for Great Looking
FAQ 2884: Optimize images for upload into Constant Contact
FAQ 2983: Email getting cut off - too wide for the screen
Contributed by: Jaime McCall, Knowledge Base Writer, Constant Contact
2 comments:
I do not really see how this adds movement to your email. Its just a static image that will take you to another place when clicked on. Putting it at the top of your piece can even take the reader anyway from your email right away which is not a good idea. I tested animated GIFs a while back and found that except for Outlook 2007 (at that time) all other email clients supported them. In cases where the client does not support them only the first frame is visible, but this still created a workable situation.
Points to note. The animated GIFs tend to create a larger file size so you have to keep the footprint smaller, but as opposed to your placement at the top I used them in the middle and lower portions to bring the readers attention down in the piece and attempt to make them scan the content.
And most import most email clients have images disabled so you have to design with that in mind.
Tony,
Thanks so much for your comments. You make some great points and offer some really interesting alternatives. We certainly appreciate your added suggestions!
Thanks again and have a great day.
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