To provide a better experience for consumers, the AMP Project was developed in 2016 as a collective effort between thousands of developers and publishers to create websites and ads that are fast, engaging, and high-performing. And now, due to the project’s phenomenal success, Google Developers are extending the open-source frameworks’ capabilities and formats to enable the creation of AMP for Email and AMP Stories.
For advertisers, these formats bring a surplus of new frictionless, actionable touchpoints ideas and additional opportunities for brands engaging in email marketing strategies or publishing news and content to tap into.
Modernizing Experiences with AMP for Email
To harness the power of AMP for new frontiers on the web, Google Developers have created AMP for Email, a way for developers to build more “engaging, interactive and actionable email experiences.” By using the AMP framework for email creation, AMP for Email works to include the popular AMP components within email messages across all platforms. These emails will be formatted and sent as AMP documents – allowing consumers to interact with content directly in an email, rather than redirecting to a webpage or cloud application.
Opportunities
As highlighted by Google, the AMP for Email feature allows developers to,
- Create interactive components for email with the library of supported AMP components like amp-form, amp-bind, amp-list, amp-carousel, etc.
- Design more engaging and actionable email experiences for consumers
- Help to keep content live, fresh and up to date
The AMP for Email enables marketers, editors or others to include filling out forms, live-updated widgets like scrolling through a feed of products or posts, sending RSVPs directly in a message, or create calendar appointments all within the email.
As can be seen in the GIF above, email subscribers will now be able to scroll through and save pins on Pinterest directly within email. This heightened and dynamic functionality reduces friction for the consumer and can be used to create beautiful, seamless experiences with unlimited potential for brands and advertisers.
Google will also be extending the support around AMP for Email with the Gmail Developer Preview of AMP for Email testing option. Meaning that once an email has been built out in the AMP for Email open-sourced framework, developers will be able to conveniently test the functionality in Gmail before sending to subscribers.
So far, companies like Pinterest, Booking.com, and Doodle are creating these new AMP-based email experiences, and the feature is available for use by everyone today. To get developer preview access to AMP for Email in Gmail, you can sign up on Google’s site here to start building and testing your own dynamic emails.
Google Gets Social with AMP Stories
Joining the ranks of Snapchat, and Zuckerberg’s portfolio of social platforms like Facebook and Instagram, Google has been testing their mobile storytelling experience – AMP Stories with a select number of whitelisted launch partners including publishers and content creators CNN, People, WIRED, the Washington Post and Mashable, to name a few.
These AMP Stories appear in a slideshow-like widget within Google Search Results on mobile and once clicked on, becomes a full-screen display of content you can swipe or tap through. At this time, ads are not allowed in AMP Stories, but we predict that a way to monetize the feature’s content via ads is soon to come. In the announcement, Google also spoke of “plans to bring AMP stories to more products across Google, and expand the ways they appear in Google Search.”
AMP Stories are different than AMP articles and will be used to share stories similar to Snapchat Discover content rather than utilizing the AMP framework to deliver standard webpage content.
Since it’s an open-sourced standard, any publisher can begin creating AMP Stories now, and to get started, we recommend checking out these tutorials and handy references. To see other brands taking advantage of Google AMP Stories, check out this link on your mobile device.