What is AMP Email
AMP for email is an extension of Google (Accelerated Mobile Pages) AMP, and is a technology to create more engaging and interactive email experiences.
Originally created for websites
You might be familiar with AMP as it pertains to search engine results.
That instance of AMP refers to Accelerated Mobile Pages, which operate at an optimal speed for mobile browsing in particular.
Google launched the AMP open-source framework in 2016, and since then, more than 1.5 billion AMP web pages have been created. You’ll see them marked in Google search results with a lightning-bolt icon.
But what is AMP for email? It’s actually an extension of AMP from speeding up landing pages, blog posts and full websites to improving email as well.
The goal of AMP for email is to create more engaging and interactive email experiences.
Features of AMP for email
Below are some highlights of the features:
Dynamic content the reader can interact with
In a traditional email, the content is relatively static, limiting the recipient to reading, watching or clicking on a link.
With AMP, recipients can engage with more versatility. Examples include form submissions within the email, potential online ordering and checkout inside the email and even the email content updating automatically (such as weather reports or webinar dates).
More layout and design options
With AMP for email, you don’t have to be as static in your email layout design. You can use a carousel for media, accordions for showing and/or hiding different sections and more.
Interactive media
Media is typically the biggest contributor to slower load times, but AMP for email helps ensure efficiency and speed while using images and GIF embeds.
AMP Email Examples – 11 ways you can use it for email marketing
We’ve put together 11 AMP email examples to showcase how you can use AMP in your marketing.
Real-time data updates
There’s nothing worse than constantly having to update your general welcome email. Actually, forgetting to update your welcome email with important information is probably worse.
But with AMP emails, your key information can automatically update itself. This can also be super helpful for any newsletter emails. You could have a “latest blogs” section where it truly reflects the latest blogs that you’ve posted.
Item selection
With AMP emails, items within an email can be selected. For example, you could have a promotion for a particular product, and recipients and select the size, color or more regarding that product and complete their order/purchase within the email itself.
The end result is a higher conversion rate because users did not have to go to another website where they could bounce or get distracted.
Gamification
AMP emails open up a whole world of gamification for you and your audience. Games are a great way to engage, amuse and raise brand awareness all at once.
Think simple since these games would exist within your AMP emails, but fun is definitely a must.
Carousels
A popular option for ecommerce businesses is the rotation of multiple images within an email, aka a carousel.
This is a layout opportunity that can work for brands outside of ecommerce as well since it’s such a dynamic design element.
Accordions
Another engaging design option you can do with AMP emails is accordions. What are they? Think “view more” buttons, except that with AMP, that button can expand content within the email.
No more diverting to another webpage. You can expand and show additional content upon request within AMP emails.
Quizzes
Just like you might do on your social media, you can run quizzes in your AMP emails. The format allows recipients to complete the quiz within the email itself.
Of course, what quizzes you might run are only limited by your imagination and what makes sense for your brand and audience.
Collect feedback
Feedback from your customers is critical for any business. Consider how many more responses you can get with AMP emails, where the feedback survey can be delivered to you through the email itself.
Users can immediately submit their thoughts, opinions and experiences to you without leaving the email.
Live email confirmations
Double opt-ins are very important. Traditionally, you might send an email to confirm the recipient’s email address. The recipient then clicks the link to confirm the email address. Then, a subscription or account confirmation email is sent.
But you don’t have to stick with traditional.
AMP emails can include a live email confirmation, where the recipient confirms his or her email address within that email and sees the account activation confirmation show within that same email.
It’s definitely a time-saver!
Dynamic forms
You can use forms in many ways. Perhaps you’re a financial institution that collects loan application details. Whatever the data you’re looking to collect, AMP emails enable recipients to complete your form with the email itself.
An AMP form is similar to a web form, but it’s part of the email and can be submitted directly in the inbox!
Appointment booking
Encouraging your leads to book a time for a demo of your product (or something else) is a huge piece to many successful sales initiatives.
With AMP emails, this can all happen within the email. Of course, this idea can expand to booking flight tickets, event invitations or movie tickets, even a table at a restaurant. The opportunities just depend on the type of business you have.
Again, this makes it easy for the recipient to take the next step.
Shipment tracking
Shipping confirmations are huge for ecommerce businesses. Consider the fact that instead of linking to the shipping website, you can offer real-time shipment updates within the confirmation email.
This is possible with AMP emails.
Mini-app treatment
Interestingly enough, you can treat AMP emails like mini-versions of your app (if you have one).
Consider Twitter, which could theoretically send out AMP emails featuring tweets that you can “like” within the email itself (for example).
If there’s functionality on your app or website that customers tend to use, you might consider pulling it into your AMP emails.
Should you use it?
It’s undeniable that Google AMP for email allows for enhanced personalization of the emails you send out. It also delivers a more web-page-like experience for recipients. Of course, the current low utilization of AMP for email could help you stand out from your competitors as well.
But while a dynamic option for email marketers and business owners, Google AMP for email does have some drawbacks that you should consider before going all in.
Not a lot of support yet
Emails using AMP can’t be built the traditional way, so if your email service provider isn’t yet supporting the technology to create them, you likely won’t be able to do so. AMP email is a typical HTML email, but it has a limited JavaScript markup where you can add AMP elements. Many don’t support the full range of JavaScript capabilities in an HTML email. They carefully control and limit the JavaScript library.
Mostly exclusive to Gmail
At the moment, the rendering is limited to Gmail.
Therefore, if your contact list is not primarily Gmail users, you’ll have to create a non-AMP version anyway. Of course, if only a small portion of your list are Gmail accounts, it might not be worthwhile.
It could confuse users
This refers to a case of potentially too much too soon. Change for users in general tends to be more effective with incremental steps. Features like dynamic content changes can lead to not only confusion but also mistrust. You have to ask yourself if your targeted audience is ready.
New language to learn
While AMP for email is an open-source technology, it can be intimidating to jump into a new technique-sensitive technology. It does have exclusive pre-requisites that have to be fulfilled as well. This can take more time than you might have available.
Tracking can get complicated
Email marketers traditionally measure opens and clicks to gauge successful campaigns. With Google AMP for email, a whole new set of metrics can open up. But the question is: Are you able to track them? Hover-based events or clicking through a range of different deals, for example, cannot be measured with conventional email metrics.
Conclusion
While Google AMP email is a relatively new technology, it hasn’t gained substantial adoption. Make sure that if you decide to start experimenting, you have the time, resources and the right audience for it.
Generally, it is considered a novelty and not widely adopted.
