Google has rolled out an accelerated mobile page (AMP) feature to help diversify email content. This will be music to the ears of affiliates worldwide, who can now be more creative when developing their communications.
Thanks to Gmail’s changes, you’ll be able to personalise better and therefore strengthen your relationship with your audience. But what other problems does it solve? And how can you make the most of these new capabilities? Keep reading and you’ll discover the answers to these questions.
When did Google start implementing these changes?
The rollout for this update, which spans across both iOS and Android devices, started on 21st November. These changes mean that you’ll now be able to send more dynamic emails. New introduced features include real-time information, along with recipients being able to buy items from within the message. In effect, it works like a mini-webpage.
Gmail’s November updates are a continuation from July 2019’s dynamic email introduction on the web version. It’s worth noting that to use AMP emails, you need to sign up with Google and agree to meet their requirements and guidelines.
Microsoft are working on their own AMP features, too, and released a developer preview in September 2019.
What problems does this update help to solve?
Because you can now utilise real-time information within your email body, you remove the risk of content becoming outdated before being read by a user. You’ll there be able to ensure that your email provides value, whether people read it one minute or 10 hours after being sent.
The ability to produce more dynamic emails is also beneficial for personalisation. Using the recipient’s name is a great start, but did you know that Mailing Merger reports that going further than this could boost your open rates by between 11% and 55%?
If you know what your audience likes, you can then use this feature to provide with something more interesting than static text and images.
How could affiliates make use of this feature?
Following on from the above point, real-time information could especially be useful for sports affiliates. Considering that a recent Sportradar report mentioned that 56% of sports fans would mention more interactive content, this is even more significant. In this context, you could try displaying live odds for an upcoming event. You could also enable the placing of bets through the message interface. Doing both of these will help you to improve user experience and give players a reason to look out for future emails.
But the interactivity doesn’t need to stop at kick-off. Many big events are consumed through mobile devices, so you could also provide live scores and key statistics through email. Doing this will benefit those accessing your message while on-the-go, and could also help to boost engagement rates.
Some final thoughts
Google’s AMP updates show that email marketing isn’t going away anytime soon. Instead, it’s adapting for the modern digital landscape. Gmail’s new capabilities provide the opportunity to nurture closer relationships with your audience by encouraging interaction, in addition to keeping content relevant and current. If you properly utilise these new features at your disposal, you’ll be in a good position to improve your open rates and continue growing your mailing list too.
