May 19th, 2010

Why Hotmail’s Upgrade Could Benefit E-Mail Marketers

I remember transferring from a Telnet.edu e-mail account in college to a profoundly new and exciting product called Hotmail. Hotmail was web-based, so I could log in anywhere. It was new enough that my address was myname@hotmail.com . There were no numbers, no dots, no underscores—there was just my name. Nice and easy. But after a while, my inbox slowly began collecting unsolicited e-mail. When 2004 rolled around, it was hard to find the real e-mail among the ever-growing sea of unsolicited email. So when Gmail came out, I jumped ship immediately. Gmail had a lot of bells and whistles that Hotmail didn’t. Like labels and mail filters. It was a fresh start.

And although Hotmail apparently boasts 360 million users worldwide, I honestly don’t know a single person who actually uses it. Which may make sense out of why Microsoft is making some big changes which could reinvent the way people experience Hotmail.

Many of those changes include:

    - Added security to make Hotmail less vulnerable to hackers

    - Increased storage space–up to 10 GB of content per email

    - Message preview functionality

    - Thumb-nailed image and video attachments

    - Previews of links from sites like YouTube, Flickr, and Photobucket

And in this attempt to make Hotmail “cool” again, an upgraded Hotmail platform may attract a younger audience and disenfranchised, self-loathing Gmail users (I know a few of these) while making more committed users out of people who currently use Hotmail as their spam/junk host. But Hotmail’s reinvention may have an unintended new user base: E-mail marketers.

Increased functionality will allow e-mail marketers who deliver interest-based campaigns to increase their odds of click-throughs and sign-ups. This broad appeal to new users and those who don’t currently use Hotmail as a primary email address, combined with the ability to preview images and other materials without actually opening a message could prove to be a lucrative one for email marketers. Not only are more consumers likely to use Hotmail now, but being able to preview the content of an email is likely to increase open rates, as people will have a better idea of what they’re opening. In the same vein, those who open an advertisement are more likely to click through and to complete an action, having used the preview as a qualifier.

And while the changes aren’t due for a few months and getting great results by taking advantages of these new features may take some trial and error, Hotmail’s overhaul looks to be mutually beneficial, providing a new means of connecting to customers for e-mail marketers and bringing a new customer base

Last 5 posts by Jake

Posted in Internet in the world, Social Media, Technology Tags: , , , ,
«
»
Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Comments are closed.