Commentary

Google Raises The Stakes: AMP For Email Is Here

Google is rolling out the long-promised AMP (accelerated mobile pages) for email, a feature that will fuel interactive email messages, the company announced on Tuesday.

AMP is an open-source framework designed to make mobile pages load faster. Now being extended to email, it will lead to “more engaging, interactive, and actionable email experiences,” Google said when first announcing it was working on the project in 2018. 

Email experts largely agree with this seeming hype. 

“AMP for Email represents a significant development in the interactivity possible in the inbox,” says Len Shneyder, head of industry relations for Twilio SendGrid.We all know that email is the most pervasive digital communication channel with the highest ROI; however, it remains mostly static.”

In contrast, “AMP for Email brings the capabilities of email closer to what is possible through a mobile app or mobile website,” Shneyder continues. “Marketers can build dynamic elements into the bodies of messages that allow users to RSVP to events and have fresh content whenever they open the message to detail just a few use cases.”

“I love the idea, but fail to see this taking off without more widespread adoption by other email providers (i.e., Yahoo, MS) and email clients (i.e., Outlook, iOS mail, etc.),” comments Tom Sather, senior director of research at Return Path

Sather adds that “for this particular feature, it would need to be supported and enabled at the Email Service Provider level that sends the emails.” He adds that Return Path’s professional services team is equipped to help with development.

For its part, Twilio SendGrid is offering that its Email API customers on the V3 platform will soon be able to send AMP-enabled emails.

“Since AMP is a new, never before seen content type, ESPs have to make changes in their system to allow the sending of AMP content,” Shneyder notes. “Twilio SendGrid’s v3 Mail API currently allows our customers to define custom MIME parts as their businesses require.”

"Senders using Twilio SendGrid’s v3 Mail API can include the text/x-amp-html content type in addition to the standard TEXT and HTML content types that all email are built with today,” he says.

Those clients will also have to make sure they have a positive sending reputation with Gmail, Twilio SendGrid notes.

Google wrote  last year: “Imagine you could complete tasks directly in email. With AMP for Email, you’ll be able to quickly take actions like submit an RSVP to an event, schedule an appointment, or fill out a questionnaire right from the email message.”
 

Another positive view is offered by Tyson Quick, CEO & founder of Instapage, a firm that specializes in providing relevant post-click experiences to drive conversions.

“Google’s recent launch of AMP for e-mail further validates the importance of page speed, dynamic content and user experience,” he says. “This announcement puts emphasis on the need to pair AMP e-mails with AMP landing page experiences overall providing a more meaningful journey for both current and prospective customers.”

Quick notes that his firm supports AMP pages, mostly for digital ad campaigns. It has seen dramatic increases in conversions with fast-loading pages.

“It’s a fast experience, there are no downsides to it,” he says.

Quick is not worried about Google getting too powerful.

“They talk about Google controlling more and more of the web, but it’s also opt in, and Google doesn’t own the technology--it’s open-source technology.” 

Consumers want interactive, fast-loading technology. Anything else is “bad business,” he says.

Ajay Gupta, CEO of Stirista, comments, Google can re-define emails by changing it from a static channel to something fully integrated and enthused with social and digital. This could be a step closer to omni-channel integration for marketers.”

 

 

 

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