How Using GIFs in Email Prospecting Can Help Increase Cold Email Response Rates

You have to stand out, there’s just no way around out. Being a part of the crowd – a crowd that is growing by the day – simply isn’t an option.

Everyone in sales, especially those grinding away on the prospecting side, know this. I mean, without being different in some way, how is your email going stand out from the hundreds of others filling up your prospect’s inbox?

Differentiating yourself, however, is easier said than done. Some SDRs lean on jokes, some have thrown out their templates, while others have decided to increase the number of touchpoints in the hopes of getting that demo.

But for Andrew Gazdecki, CEO and Founder of San Diego’s Bizness Apps, it’s all about the GIF.

“As a CEO, I get a ton of emails. So, I’m on the other end of this problem as well. For instance, I get 100 unsolicited emails per week from HR companies, software companies, and on and on. There is a problem with the oversaturation of emails. There is not a lot of personalization, context going on. So, we, as a business, looked at this as an opportunity to stand out,” says Gazdecki, on a recent edition of The Predictable Revenue Podcast.

“So, we started with video intros in our emails. It was just a simple ‘click this button, hey my name is Sam’ intro. We just wanted to put a face to a cold email. The problem is, no one reads an email, clicks a link or watches a video from a cold email, typically. So, we thought why don’t we force people to watch them? We put them, a GIF, right into our introduction email.”

That simple decision has had huge effects for Bizness Apps. Since starting to use GIFs in their prospecting, Bizness Apps has seen:

300% increase in cold email response rate;
100% increase in demo scheduled rate;
100% increase in demo hosted rate.

Note – these results are strictly from first touch emails, although Bizness Apps is using GIFs in different emails throughout the prospecting cycle.

Not too bad, right?

According to Gazdecki, the company has, thus far, primarily used GIFs for one simple reason: to break the ice with prospects. For example, Gazdecki uses a GIF of himself with a surfboard, while a colleague sends prospects a GIF of himself on a basketball court.

It’s just a seconds-long clip that highlights an interest, but it humanizes the prospector – a critical element that a typical sales email doesn’t do.

“When you talk to me after this, you’re gonna ask me if I like surfing,” says Gazdecki.

“Now, you know a little bit about the person you’re speaking to. It adds a face to the name and adds a common interest. It’s powerful.”

For those prospectors out there worried that they don’t possess the technical know-how to add GIFs to their sales gig, don’t worry. Gazdecki has some simple tips:

Film a short video on your iPhone
Upload to EZGIF or import to Photoshop (Photoshop has great quality, Gazdecki says)
A/B test emails with and without GIFs – and test slowly (try 500 prospects?)
Test emails at every step along the prospecting cycle
Show people how easy it is to use your product
Incorporate humor / your personality

Of course, consider your market when deciding how much “personality” to include in your GIF, Gazdecki adds. If you’re selling to the C-Suite, you may want your GIF to reflect a more professional tone. Always reflect your brand accordingly.

“When using GIFs, your eyes go directly to the image. That’s what is so powerful about this. And, there are so many ways to use this too. GIFs can show the ways we can work together and help the prospect learn about the company from an image,” says Gazdecki.

“This is where I think people can get really creative with this. People are looking at the image. And, as we know, you have a short period to capture attention – and this is different.”

For more information on how Gazdecki and Bizness Apps are using GIFs for email prospecting, check out his edition of The Predictable Revenue Podcast.