Mailrelay now supports AMP for Email (Accelerated Mobile Pages)

AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages, a project developed by Google and other partner companies to improve how fast websites load on mobile devices.

It matters for email marketing because it has specific sections for adding this code to emails, giving them very interesting features and adding a lot of value to campaigns and newsletters in ways that weren’t possible until now.

Here is Google’s link with an overview and its benefits:

https://amp.dev/about/email

As with most Google projects, one of two things usually happens: either it sinks or it becomes a global standard. AMP has been around for more than a year now, many ISPs are implementing it, and on the email side the industry giants are already accepting it as a standard: not only Google, but also Outlook, Yahoo and others.

So at Mailrelay we think this is the right time to offer support for it on our platform, so that our customers can benefit from its features. Let’s look at them below and go into them in more detail.

· What benefits does AMP offer in email marketing?

The first benefit is that AMP is based on HTML and its own JavaScript libraries, but with code similar to what is used today; in other words, it uses equivalent tags and commands, so implementing it is relatively simple.

In addition, “AMP for Email” (Google’s name for the part dedicated to email) lets senders include AMP components in engaging emails, bringing the functionality of modern apps into the email itself.

This dynamic email format provides a subset of AMPHTML components for use in email messages, allowing recipients of AMP emails to interact dynamically with the content right inside the message. Let’s look at the most relevant ones in more detail:

► Forms in the body of the email

One of the recurring requests from thousands of customers and users: being able to have elements for collecting data and running searches inside an email, without having to jump to a landing page in the browser. This will increase conversion by removing intermediate steps.

► Multimedia and visual elements

Such as videos, image carousels, animations, etc., which make the visual side of emails much richer: they will now be able to contain practically any element a web page can have. Finally, something with more substance than a sad animated GIF!

► Search boxes and web elements

We won’t only be able to include visual elements, but also any web resource we’re used to working with in the web browser that until now has been blocked in emails for security reasons, such as search boxes, login requests, etc.

► Real-time dynamic content from web sources or databases

Similar to the RSS-based layouts Mailrelay already offers, but in real time.

The content of our campaigns can be pulled from web sources and SQL-type databases, so the designs can be laid out automatically.

But, very importantly, the data will be retrieved in real time, unlike now, when it is retrieved when the message is sent and stays fixed in its body.

In other words, what the recipient sees can be updated in real time when they open the email. This is very useful for changing prices, updating information and news that change over time, improving offers, etc.

· How does AMP work to bring these new features to an email?

To put it simply, it is something like a frame on a web page. In other words, the body of the email will contain a section of dynamic code, similar to JavaScript, in which we can include whatever is needed to give the message these features.

This isn’t actually anything new: there have been several earlier attempts to create a standard that would pull emails out of the content stagnation they have suffered for two decades.

For example, Microsoft made considerable progress in this direction with Silverlight.

Even emails with dynamic web code, scripts, etc. sent without this protocol work in some webmail clients. The problem is that many webmail services and all desktop clients block it because of the serious security problems it can cause.

So what’s different now? Well, AMP does seem to be catching on and advancing as a standard that the main B2C email providers already support and allow.

In addition to Gmail, which developed it, Outlook and Yahoo already support it.

· How does AMP guarantee security and ensure that dynamic elements won’t be harmful?

Google takes several measures to guarantee the security of email sends with AMP content, including:

1. It requires a prior audit of the sender, which checks their authentication systems, website and privacy policy.

2. Senders must first register as authorized senders of AMP code.

3. A caching proxy is used that removes dangerous or tracking elements such as cookies, etc., and also validates the code to make sure it is correct.

4. Emails must be sent with TLS encryption.

5. URL redirects are restricted.

6. Google oversees the code by requiring certain control parameters such as tokens, the destination of data requests, the use of JSON, etc.

7. Recipients must enable the display of AMP content in their email settings.

8. JavaScript is blocked, except for AMP’s own version with its libraries.

· What do I need to send newsletters that take advantage of AMP?

These are the steps and requirements we need to complete and meet to send dynamic newsletters and take advantage of AMP:

1. First, have an email marketing platform like Mailrelay that supports AMP sends, declaring the content in the headers and supporting TLS sending and the authentication requirements Google demands.

IMPORTANT: AMP is only supported in Mailrelay V3, and you need to request activation of the AMP headers on your account before you can send.

2- We need to set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC for our sender, since the ISPs that accept AMP require them. Here is Mailrelay’s guide to SPF and DKIM.

DMARC doesn’t require any specific configuration in Mailrelay. We should ask our webmaster or domain provider to enable it.

3- The website of the sender domain we’ll be using must also have a link to a privacy policy.

4- We must send an audit email beforehand and register as an AMP sender with Google.

From here, we hand over to Gmail’s “AMP for Email” guide for developers and senders, since, once these steps are done, the next ones are generating the newsletter code with the dynamic content we want and sending it via SMTP with TLS through the host provided by the Mailrelay account.

Here is all the documentation developers and sending administrators need:

For initial testing, we can use any Gmail account and Google’s examples and validation system (see box).

These new features fit in with modular email design trends and with the use of elements such as GIFs to make sends more dynamic.