Amp for Email vs. Interactive Email Form Block in Salesforce Marketing Cloud

More interaction in the inbox

Interactive elements in emails enable direct interaction in the inbox: Without leaving the email client, the recipient can click through picture carousels, fill out surveys or view the current status of their order. On the one hand, this should generate more attention for the content of the email. On the other hand, marketers expect to receive feedback or data from their recipients in an easier way: The hurdle of, for example, submitting a review directly in an email is lower than when redirected to a landing page. (Please also read our blog posts: Using interactive elements correctly in email marketing and Moving email newsletters )

Both the Interactive Email Form Block and Amp for Email can be used to design interactive emails. However, the two features differ in terms of the underlying technology and the possible applications.

Amp for Email vs. Interactive Email Form Block use cases

The Interactive Email Form Block is — as the name suggests — a content block preconfigured by Salesforce that allows interactive forms to be integrated into emails. Recipients can use these forms, for example, to supplement profile data, participate in surveys or submit reviews. The collected data is stored in data extensions in the Marketing Cloud.

Forms can also be created with AMP. But there are also a number of other applications: For example, accordions, sidebars and picture carousels can also be created. In addition, real-time data can be displayed in emails.

Of course, functions such as the image carousel are no longer completely new — but when combined with real-time data, there are interesting applications. For example, you can build a picture carousel that shows the current prices and availability of a product to match every (product) image.

The technology behind

The AMP version of an email is embedded as an additional MIME part. If you use AMP for email, you send a third version in addition to HTML and text. Since the AMP version cannot be displayed by all clients, the HTML version acts as a fallback. Both versions must be edited separately. Before sending the first AMP email, senders must register via a registration form Sign up for shipping with Google.

In contrast, the Interactive Email Form block is inserted into the existing HTML version. This is done in Content Builder using drag-and-drop functionality. Among other things, it should be noted that the stylings of the form comply with Marketing Cloud standards. Users of custom templates must therefore manually incorporate (template) stylings into every email form block.

What is important to consider?

If you incorporate interactive elements into your emails, you should consider a few points. First of all, the effort required to create this content is significantly higher than with non-interactive emails: Anyone who creates forms with the Interactive Email Form Block must first not only define the data to be entered and think about saving it sensibly in data extensions, but also manually rework the form so that it matches the styling of the rest of the template. If another MIME part is created with AMP, it must be maintained in addition to the HTML version. The interactive AMP elements cannot simply be inserted by drag-and-drop, but must be programmed by a user with AMP knowledge.

The effort involved in testing emails should also not be neglected: Interactive elements should always be subjected to intensive live testing to check how they are displayed in various clients and whether any planned data transfer is working. In addition, AMP emails must be validated in a web-based validation tool or in the AMP Playground before being sent.

Supported clients

So far, interactive elements in emails have only been supported by a very limited number of clients. For AMP, these include Gmail, Yahoo, and Mail.Ru. With Interactive Email Form Block, Apple Mail and iPhones/iPads, Gmail, as well as Yahoo and AOL Webmail.

conclusion

There have been some exciting developments in the area of interactive content in emails in recent years, which we are following closely. In addition to some “gimmicks,” there are also functions that are definitely useful for recipients (and marketers) — in particular forms and real-time data. However, there is one big “but”: So far, the effort required to create and quality assurance of such content has been relatively unfavorable compared to the number of clients that support interactive emails.

Should the idea of using interactive elements be discarded right away? We mean: No! However, anyone who is thinking of sending interactive emails should be planned. The first priority is an analysis of the email clients used by your own recipients: If the focus is more on T-Online or Outlook, the effort may not be worthwhile. However, if a great many recipients use mobile devices (iPhones or Android devices with Gmail app), a well-thought-out, attractively designed interactive email can certainly perform much better than the “classic” version.

If you want to read more about this topic, check out the Salesforce AMP for Email documentation and the Interactive email form block.