Earlier this month Amazon launched an replace to Alexa that enables the service to entry and skim your emails. With that, we simply bought one step nearer to electronic mail evolving and giving entrepreneurs the power to supply auditory calls-to-action (ACTAs) of their electronic mail campaigns.
With this preliminary replace, you’ll solely have the ability to entry electronic mail by Gmail and Outlook.com. On condition that that is the preliminary launch, we count on extra electronic mail shoppers will turn out to be obtainable quickly.
Linking Alexa to Your Inbox
If you wish to have Alexa learn your electronic mail, step one is to obtain the most recent Alexa app in your cell phone or pill. After you have the latest app put in:
- Click on the hamburger menu within the high left nook
- Choose “Settings”
- Choose “E mail & Calendar”
- On the next display screen, click on the “+” by “Add Account”.
- Select a Gmail or Outlook.com inbox and supply your login credentials.
There doesn’t look like a restrict within the variety of mailboxes you possibly can hyperlink by Alexa.
Alexa additionally lets you set a four-digit voice code to entry the e-mail. This turns out to be useful if in case you have a number of shared units round your own home or workplace.
Learn how to Get Alexa to Learn Your E mail
Now that you’ve your account linked with Alexa, you possibly can say, “Alexa, learn my emails” or “Alexa, examine my electronic mail.”
When Alexa responds, it’s going to inform you what number of new emails you’ve acquired throughout the previous 24 hours and what number of of these have an vital label. It’s stunning that it solely goes again 24 hours no matter what number of unread emails you could have. I perceive the logic –on condition that inboxes are over-crowed—however  I wish to see the choice to return additional or an choice to learn all unread electronic mail.
Alexa will prioritize emails labeled as vital after which learn the remaining emails, no matter order acquired. If there are not any “vital” emails, it’s going to learn by the emails latest to oldest. For those who hyperlink a number of accounts to Alexa, it’s going to contemplate all of the inboxes as one and observe the identical learn precedence as I simply described.
Under is how Alexa reads by your inbox:
For John, from the final 24 hours you could have X unread emails, X marked vital. The primary [important] electronic mail is from [sender], [subject].
As soon as Alexa reads the e-mail topic line and sender, it’s going to ask you:
Do you wish to [read, reply, delete, archive or next]?
What Alexa Reads
By default, Alexa will learn the HTML model of the e-mail. If no HTML model is on the market, it’s going to learn the text-only model.
How Alexa parses the HTML is similar to how electronic mail shoppers parse and show the preheader textual content within the inbox. It’ll strip all of the HTML from the e-mail and skim no matter textual content is left. It’s vital to notice that Alexa will take away all HTML feedback however will learn any hidden HTML (reminiscent of show: none). So, if in case you have any hidden content material, or your HTML reveals or hides blocks of content material for desktop or cell variations, Alexa will learn all of the content material. This most likely received’t create an excellent expertise for the subscriber.
Emoji Assist
Given the recognition of emojis, I needed to check how Alexa would interpret emojis in both the topic line or physique of the e-mail. When Alexa encounters an emoji, it’s going to learn the identify of the emoji. Alexa helps emojis as much as Unicode Model 10. If Alexa encounters an emoji it doesn’t assist, it’s going to skip over it, as if it doesn’t exist within the copy.
Lengthy Emails
If Alexa is studying an extended electronic mail, it’s going to learn a portion of the content material, cease, and supply an estimate for the way lengthy it’s going to take to learn the remainder of the e-mail. Alexa will say:
The remainder of the physique takes about X minutes to complete. Would you prefer to proceed?
At that time, you inform Alexa both “sure” or “no.” For those who say “no,” Alexa will ask you, “What would you love to do?” and ask whether or not you wish to learn, reply, delete, archive, or transfer to the following message.
I discovered one irritating expertise with this characteristic: For those who say “sure” to proceed studying the remainder of the message, Alexa is caught studying the message till it finishes. I attempted telling Alexa “cease” and closed the Alexa app. Once I opened the app once more and requested it to learn my electronic mail, Alexa picked up the place it left off and I needed to wait till it completed. Hopefully, Amazon will have the ability to repair this consumer expertise in a future launch.
Monitoring Emails Alexa Reads
Sadly, when Alexa reads an electronic mail, it doesn’t set off an electronic mail open inside your electronic mail analytics. It is because it doesn’t open an electronic mail in a browser that will set off the picture pixel to load.
Alexa and E mail Accessibility
For those who’re not creating accessible emails, I extremely encourage to you study extra about it and begin incorporating electronic mail accessibility finest practices into your subsequent marketing campaign. Nevertheless, relating to Alexa studying electronic mail, there isn’t a accessibility assist.
As I discussed earlier, Alexa strips all of the HTML from the e-mail and reads the remaining textual content. This implies it additionally removes all ARIA HTML attributes (roles, states and properties), picture alt textual content and semantic components.
It’s vital to notice that correct punctuation is extremely vital given how display screen readers and voice assistants interpret the e-mail copy.
Learn how to Put together Your Subsequent E mail Marketing campaign for Alexa
Given the rise in reputation of voice assistants like Alexa and Siri, electronic mail entrepreneurs should now depend on textual content to convey their message, somewhat than textual content with the assist of pictures. It’s nearly as if we’re going again in time when electronic mail didn’t assist HTML and we might solely ship emails with ASCII textual content.
I’ve outlined some ideas that can assist you optimize emails for these auditory interactions.
Set a Reliable From Identify
All the time use a reliable and recognizable from identify. If you’re sending a marketing campaign on behalf of your organization and you utilize a person’s identify; you should definitely observe it up with the corporate identify as effectively. For instance:
John Thies on behalf of E mail on Acid
Create an Partaking Topic Line
The topic, together with the from identify, is the primary interplay the subscriber has with the e-mail by Alexa. Make it depend! Sadly, you do not need the luxurious of preheader textual content to supply extra context earlier than Alexa asks the subscriber whether or not she or he wish to proceed with the e-mail. Be certain that the topic is related to the content material, gives context, and conjures up the subscriber to take heed to the e-mail.
Use Preheader Textual content
It’s crucial that you simply use preheader textual content to supply sufficient context to interact the subscriber so that they have Alexa learn the complete electronic mail or determine to answer. For those who don’t, they may solely hear a portion of the e-mail and transfer on to the following message.
Keep away from Picture-Solely Designs
Figuring out that Alexa will strip all of the HTML from the e-mail and skim what’s remaining might imply dangerous information for image-only emails. In case your call-to-action is in a picture, the consumer received’t hear it when Alexa reads the e-mail. For those who should use an image-heavy design, you should definitely present sufficient context within the preheader textual content.
Don’t Overlook Punctuation
Alexa will ignore most punctuation marks (like !,%,#,*, and many others.) however durations and commas are essential to an excellent auditory expertise. Take the next HTML for instance:
<h1> <span>Alexa Roundup</span></h1> <br> Greetings! Welcome to E mail on Acid’s Alexa Roundup!<br> <br>
When Alexa strips the HTML from above, will probably be learn the e-mail as:
Alexa Roundup Greetings! Welcome to E mail on Acid’s Alexa Spherical-up!
As a result of there isn’t a punctuation between “Roundup” and “Greetings!” Alexa will interpret that as one sentence, which can be obscure when listening to the e-mail. The one method I used to be capable of get round this difficulty was so as to add a hidden <span> with a interval:
<h1> <span>Alexa Roundup</span><span fashion="show: none; max-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">.</span></h1> <br> Greetings! Welcome to E mail on Acid’s Alexa Roundup!<br> <br>
I used the identical CSS for the extra <span> as I might for preheader textual content. This implies the consumer received’t see the punctuation, however Alexa will acknowledge it when studying the e-mail.
Use Related Emojis
On condition that Alexa reads the identify of the emoji, it’s vital that the emoji is contextually related. They should complement the message and may very well be a distraction in the event that they don’t match the e-mail copy.
Be Cautious with Abbreviations
Alexa doesn’t at all times interpret abbreviations appropriately because it reads textual content in lowercase. For instance, certainly one of my electronic mail checks included:
Solely obtainable within the US
Alexa interpreted the “US” as “us” somewhat than “U.S.” Attempt to use durations in-between every letter of an abbreviation so voice assistants learn it correctly. If that isn’t visually interesting, you should use the punctuation hack above to cover the durations.
Use a Legitimate Reply-To Tackle
E mail needs to be a one-to-one interplay that provides your subscribers a chance to interact together with your model. That is much more vital now {that a} subscriber can reply to emails utilizing his/her voice. When replying to an electronic mail by auditory instructions (Alexa or Siri), subscribers don’t know what handle to which they’re replying. It could be a horrible consumer expertise for a subscriber to obtain a bounced electronic mail notification or by no means get a response.
Closing Ideas
General, I’m impressed with Amazon’s preliminary launch of Alexa’s electronic mail studying perform. The workflow is intuitive and straightforward to grasp, and so they’ve supplied extra safety if in case you have an Alexa gadget in a shared atmosphere.
I additionally like how Alexa reads a portion of an electronic mail after which asks if you need to proceed studying with an estimated time remaining, though Amazon might enhance the consumer expertise with that characteristic.
Whereas we’re nonetheless within the early levels of auditory electronic mail shoppers, I’m enthusiastic about what the long run will maintain for electronic mail on this area as we get one step nearer to having auditory calls-to-action (ACTAs).
Writer: John Thies
John Thies is the CEO and Co-Founding father of E mail on Acid, a pre-deployment E mail QA platform that strives to take away the inherent worry of hitting the “Ship Button”. He’s a passionate and interesting business chief who lives, breathes, and goals in electronic mail (critically). John additionally serves because the CEO of Trigger for Consciousness, a just lately fashioned non-profit that empowers different non-profit organizations with digital advertising and marketing sources. He resides in Denver, Colorado together with his spouse and son.
Writer: John Thies
John Thies is the CEO and Co-Founding father of E mail on Acid, a pre-deployment E mail QA platform that strives to take away the inherent worry of hitting the “Ship Button”. He’s a passionate and interesting business chief who lives, breathes, and goals in electronic mail (critically). John additionally serves because the CEO of Trigger for Consciousness, a just lately fashioned non-profit that empowers different non-profit organizations with digital advertising and marketing sources. He resides in Denver, Colorado together with his spouse and son.
