How Email Marketing Will Help Your Business Grow in 2020
Does Email marketing still exist in times of social media, artificial intelligence, chatbots, videos? A thought to ponder.
If you feel email marketing has lost its charm, then you are far away from the truth.
The truth is, email marketing is growing and email campaigns are still the best strategy for brands and businesses.
Here it is, Why?
Image Credit: Oberlo
As per data by Statista(2020), In 2019, the email users were 3.9 billion users and are expected to grow to 4.3 billion users in 2023, which is half of the world’s population. This clearly shows email marketing is an opportunity that should not be missed.
The above infographic on Email Marketing Stats 2020 provides facts and figures about the email market which is still robust and one of the best marketing strategies.
What Is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is more effective than SEO, affiliate marketing, or social media because it has a direct line with the audiences. It helps you connect with your leads, nurture them, and convert them into customers.
Image Credit: BackLinko
However, with the growing fervor of TikTok Facebook, Snapchat, will this old school tactic still work?
Emails have a better reach than social media and converting a prospect into a buyer. This shows email leading social media. Email is 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined. (McKinsey)
A third of customers who have subscribed to the retailer’s newspaper is a direct result of email marketing messages. (E-marketer)
These numbers are nice to know but you are still wondering, how are email marketing campaigns important in 2020?
Well, that’s what the next chapter is all about.
How Is Email Marketing Important In 2020?
With the booming popularity of social media and search, the importance of free emails in email marketing is higher than ever.
Let us comprehend the value of email marketing in 2020.
1. Everyone uses Emails:
Young people use email for several things – social media and personal expenses, mailing lists, and brand promotion or business. So, everyone has a valid email address.
2. Emails are easy to design and create:
An attractive and eye-catching email campaign for a small business budget with a reputed email marketing service provider can create wonders and similar to big brands.
After finishing designing the newsletter or free emails, businesses can quickly start to use email campaigns for promotion.
Image Credit: uCookies
3. Email marketing links all other channels
Email campaigns are a direct line of communication with the audience and a suitable way to promote marketing strategies.
Social Media
Most email service providers have footers with social media icons at the bottom that includes links to LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram. Subscribers can access those links and share the campaigns by clicking on it. Also, brands can share the reviews, posts on the social feed so subscribers can connect with the brands online.
For instance, the example of Urban Outfitters is a visually appealing email that highlights their most-liked Instagram posts. Also, note the share buttons at the bottom of the email.
Image Credit: Really Good Emails
Content Marketing
77% of people prefer to get permission-based promotional messages via email campaigns. To start with, first, a sizable email list is to be prepared. There are several ways to do this like giving something away for free or offering a newsletter update, videos, research report, infographic, or valuable content.
Make good use of content with interesting pictures and custom RSS feeds. For instance, the US outdoors always include interesting content in their email campaigns.
Image Credit: Emma
Webinars:
Brands can promote webinars on emails to their subscribers who are genuinely interested to hear and respond.
Performance Analysis
Email service provides information on how to improve future email campaigns and learn about subscribers. However, this will be a paid service.
Analytics aids in keeping a track of active and engaged subscribers and identifying trends as well as new markets. This data can help in retargeting campaigns and use marketing resources in the right way.
Capitalizing On The Data Collection:
Email marketing is one of the most scrutinized marketing methods in the post GDPR world. 78% of people say they are likely to trust companies with their personal data if they use it to personalize their experience through different channels like emails.
Emails give access to understand subscribers’ behavior and learn about their habits and interests to create customized email campaigns. Personalized email campaigns can be created by conducting surveys to collect quality data from active subscribers.
4. Encourage more subscriber participation:
Marketers gain the trust of the subscribers when they encourage more participation from them and let them control their inbox. Put a preference center link at the bottom of the email campaigns and prompt new subscribers to fill it.
A preference center allows the subscribers to tell the brands on how often they want to be emailed and what type of content they prefer. Below is an example of a preference center by Brooks Running.
Image Credit: Emma
5. Stay updated with automation and technology
Email service providers always give access to the latest automated features to give an enriching experience to the audience in the following areas:
-Segmentation
-Post-sales communication
-Re-engagement
-A/B Testings
Best Email Marketing Campaigns
With in-depth details on the importance of Email marketing, in the next chapter, we will see the best email marketing campaign examples.
1. BuzzFeed
Email Marketing Campaign: “Buzzfeed Today” Newsletter
Newsletters are Buzzfeed’s top sources of traffic. Buzzfeed has amazing, punchy, and short subject lines. They have awesome preview text that compels the reader to open the email.
If their subject line is a command, the preview text is the logical elaboration of the subject line.
Image Credit: Mail Floss
Their newsletters are from politics and daily news to DIY and cooking. They cover different audiences as they know exactly what to recommend to whom because of their email segmentation.
2. Amarso
Email marketing- another way to approach the cart abandonment.
If your product is enticing then put it at the center of your email marketing campaign directed at the customers who shopped but didn’t purchase. In this two-step email marketing campaign, Amarso is doing the same thing.
The 1st image is sent to the shoppers after an hour of shopping for those products whereas the 2nd image is a reminder of Amarso’s amazing products seen a few days back.
Image Credit: MailFloss
3. Airbnb
Short, Crisp and Communicative Feedback Survey in their Email Campaign
Their email campaign is short, crisp, fresh, and minimalist with a clear objective. Their emails are straight to the point and with a clear CTA. The email campaign looks good and engaging. In every email, you will get guides to different cities.
Image Credit: Mail Bakery
Email Marketing Platforms or Email Service Providers (ESPs)
There are many email marketing platforms but obviously, there is no single ‘best email service provider’. The best option depends on the objectives, goals, features, and list size of the marketers.
In this chapter, I am reviewing five of the top Email Service Providers. The features, pricing, pros, and cons of each email marketing platform are highlighted to help the marketer choose the best option for you.
1. Mail Chimp
Image Credit: Formget
Features
-It is the most popular and leading email marketing platform.
-It has an excellent dashboard with prebuilt templates, reports, lists, and more.
-There is email automation, better integration, optimization, and analytics.
Pricing
-A forever free plan allows 12,000 mails every month to 2000 subscribers.
-There are 3 packages based on features and the number of subscribers.
-Essentials for $9.99, standard for%14.99, and Premium for $299 are email marketing plans.
Know more about pricing
Pros
-It is best for small and medium-sized businesses at an affordable cost.
– It can handle large volumes of emails.
-The messages can be sent to email clients as well as for promotion on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms.
-It has easy to use WYSIWYG editors and can access reports on the open rates clicks, spammed, unsubscription.
-It has friendly customer service and excellent email analytics.
-It helps you to customize the tools for your business with over 300 integrations.
Cons
-The regular updates and reconfiguration disrupt the entire working system as users have to understand and adapt to the new changes.
-Apart from the chat function, phone support is not provided.
-The individual addition of email contacts is cumbersome and has limited segmentation features.
-Emails sent via Mailchimp often goes to the promotion tab of Gmail or spam at times.
2. Mailjet
Image Credit: Formget
Features
-It has the best real-time dashboard and is preloaded with free responsive email templates and newsletters
-There are advanced reporting features like to track deliveries and know user actions.
Pricing
It has a free email marketing trial for 30 days for 6000 emails a month and 200 emails a day. There are 3 Packages like Basic, Premium, and Enterprise plans for each month.
Free email marketing trial for 30 days for 6000 emails a month and 200 emails a day.
Know more about pricing here!
Pros
– The dashboard is incredibly innate and the drag and drop editor option allows users to create different email templates.
– It provides a report that shows usual data including bounces, clicks, and so on.
-It is Reasonable and economical pricing compared to the competitors.
-It’s an all in one platform to send, track, and deliver marketing and transactional emails without any additional cost.
Cons:
-There are limited designs for email templates and cannot store images.
-Unsubscribing inactive users from the list is tiresome using Mailjet’s removal interface.
-The segmentation options are limited. Eg. One can run a campaign but cannot set conditions like whether a recipient has/unopened/bought the product.
3. Active Campaign
Features
– It has an intuitive email template builder and advanced marketing automation
-It has features like segmentation, machine learning, CRM and sales
-It has the best campaign tracking, free image hosting, email funnels, and autoresponders.
Pricing:
There are no free plans available but an email marketing test run can be done for 14 days. Active’s pricing packages are affected by two factors: contacts and features. It has 4 packages available – Lite for $9, Plus for $49, Professional for $129, and Enterprise for $229.
Know more about pricing
Pros:
-The dashboard shows the full history of your contacts and gives access to real-time reports that features display tracking of essentials like geolocation, clicks, opened rates, unsubscription details.
-It has great integrations with other tools like Facebook Ads, Gmail suite, websites, and more.
-The Lead scoring helps to prioritize accounts for the sales team and has dynamic content.
-It offers a free migration service. Unlike other tools, Active Campaign doesn’t charge you to move data from one email marketing tool to another.
Cons:
– The pricing isn’t the lowest but it is worth the value.
– The layout is not user friendly and many good features cannot be accessed seamlessly by the users.
– It becomes difficult to handle large volumes of emails.
4. Klaviyo
Features
–It helps e-commerce marketers to build, measure, and optimize email campaigns.
-It has a hassle-free dashboard that showcases all the recent campaigns based on revenue, days, and more.
-The segmentation of the platform is excellent based on the behavior and transactional data.
-Start your campaigns with pre-built email templates that can be customized.
– Use an autoresponder to send automatic emails to the audience.
Pricing
It offers a free trial of up to 250 contacts and can send 500 emails. The plans are devised based on the number of contacts. Pricing increases with the number of contacts- the maximum pricing option is up to $1700 per month for up to 146,00 contacts and a minimum of $25 for 500 contacts.
Know more about pricing
Pros
-It is easy to set up and user friendly.
-Enhance the eCommerce business on integration with Shopify.
-Create Personalized product recommendations for post-sale engagement.
-Visually transform email workflows and sign up forms to collect leads.
-Access to marketing automation to follow up with customers after they abandon a purchase.
-Integrate with the Facebook custom audience and create a comprehensive marketing campaign.
Cons
– The pricing is aggressive and high for smaller businesses.
– For beginners, the interface can be challenging initially.
– Limited customer chat support and no phone support.
-It can be difficult to use while integrating with Magneto and checking analytical information.
5. Gmail
Features:
-Everyone’s favorite Email marketing tool.
-A free, advertising-supported email service offered by Google.
-It’s a part of Google G Suite with 15 GB storage, color-coded inbox, and filters.
-Appropriate for all types of businesses.
-GMass extension can be used to send personalized and mass emails to every email address in the Gmail account.
Pricing:
It is a free service.
Pros:
-It is free, stable and fast
-It provides 99.9% spam and virus protection.
-It has Integration with the whole Google suite.
-Secured web platform and can be customized to an extent keeping it clean and simple.
-Integrated with Hangout that helps to directly reach the customers via call or chat.
-Excellent handling of large attachments and volumes of emails.
-A business email address can be used by logging into a Gmail account.
Cons:
-It might not work easily with a few desktop software or enterprise applications.
– There is no backup of emails in the inbox.
-It is connected to Google Drive storage, therefore, if it is full then it creates problems in receiving emails.
-Many client emails get sent to spams.
-It collects mail from the hosting server and will not collect email quickly.
Why do many use Gmail for email marketing?
- It has spam filters that reduce the risk of domain spoofing, phishing, and other malevolent practices.
- It has great features and saves time in searching for mails and referencing old mails.
- Gmail users are highly engaged which is the key point in email marketing.
How to use Gmail to send a newsletter?
GMass turns your regular Gmail account into a powerful email marketing platform. Without GMass, Google’s platform allows you to send email marketing campaigns to limited people in your G-suite.
Using GMass helps you send emails through the world’s highest delivering servers and gives the highest open rates. It also includes features like
GMass provides access to following email marketing features to your Google or Gmail account:
-Open tracking,
-Click tracking,
-Mail merge
-Message Personalization,
– Mass emails or bulk email service
-Scheduling.
-Create a mailing list
Best Practices To Follow For Email Marketing
Wrapping Up
The importance of email marketing has grown over the years. With all the insights provided in the article, here are a few takeaway points:
-Email is easy to integrate digital marketing campaigns.
-Email marketing gives a scope to build personal relationships with users.
-Email marketing is constantly evolving implies that email marketing strategies should also change with time.
-Technological innovation continues to improve email marketing and the way subscribers are engaging with emails is also changing,
-This proves that email marketing is here to stay and email marketing automation is the new trend that is catching up. Time to up the game and think about the new techniques and strategies for your next campaign.
Learn more: Facebook Is All Set To Launch Its Toolkit For “Email Marketing”.
Snapchat’s Automated Advertising ‘Dynamic Ads’ Is What Global Brands Need Today!
- Snapchat announced a new advertising product called Dynamic Ads. It brings automated customization to ads and is designed to make it easy for brands to set up their e-commerce business on Snapchat.
- Snap first introduced Dynamic Ads in 2019 to e-commerce retailers in the U.S and began testing the ad unit last October.
- The stock was down 1% after the company launched Dynamic Ads in the U.K, Europe, Australia, and the Middle East after being offered only in the U.S.
- Google and Facebook both offer brands Dynamic Ads.
Snapchat Dynamic Ads or Dynamic Product Ads (DPAs) allow a brand to automatically create ads in real-time based on their own product catalogs which may contain hundreds of items. This means if a price or availability changes, ads will be updated automatically with less human intervention. Dynamic ads will make selling products easier for retailers and brands and can serve Snapchat’s 229 million daily active users based on their interests. Snap offers five templates to advertisers to showcase their products in a way that they look native.
Image Credit: Search Engine Journal
Here is the example of the template after a product is populated:
Image Credit: Search Engine Journal
Brands like Adidas, FarFetch, and Topshop were amongst the first brands to test Snapchat Dynamic Product Ads and all reported positive sales results from showcasing their products and services through customized ad formats.
Image Credit: CNBC
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Adidas has further accelerated its digital business and eCommerce is their key focus in 2020. Adidas test in Europe elicited positive feedback:
“We’re excited to beta test Snapchat’s Dynamic Ads in the U.K., Germany, France, and the Netherlands. Within weeks we saw a 52% growth in ROAS (return on advertising spend) and we have subsequently grown our investment.”
“The launch of DPAs allows us a route to reach our target Gen Z and Millennial audiences with relevant product creative throughout the consumer journey.”
– Rob Seidu, Sr. Director of Media Activation, Europe
Image Credit: MediaTel
FarFetch chief marketing officer Gareth Jones said that there is a shift in consumer interaction with eCommerce as consumers are increasingly shopping on their mobile phones during the COVID-19 lockdown which is expected to continue. Jones added that Snapchat Dynamic Ads have transformed the brand’s activity across the entire sales funnel.
“We lent heavily into DPAs during the testing period and we have seen significant success that has translated into high-quality customers and ultimately transactions. We plan to continue to build on our relationship with Snapchat and we see them as an always-on partner.”
Topshop was the first brand to do a beta test and it achieved four times the UK benchmarks for ROAS within two weeks. According to Topshop,
“DPAs have allowed Topshop to reach Snapchatters with high-quality, and relevant ads throughout the consumer journey, and based on such strong results, the activity will be scaled and launched into further markets over the coming weeks.”
Implications on Business
Lockdown has forced many businesses to shift their focus to eCommerce and keep up with consumer demands. According to Interactive Media in Retail Group, online sales reached a 10-year high in April, marking a year-over-year increase of 23.8%.
Snap reported revenue of $462 million in the first quarter, up more than 44% over the first quarter of 2019 and ad revenue grew as they relied on big-spending large advertisers.
According to Ed Couchman, general manager of Snapchat U.K,
“The coronavirus has accelerated the need for businesses to look at their digital sales channels and encouraged them to be more innovative in how they do that.”
“Since we opened up the beta testing I was impressed at the number of businesses who wanted to get involved – far above what we expected – which really shows the appetite for brands to get on board with e-commerce.”
“We are seeing strong results from advertisers in multiple sectors from high street clothing stores to food delivery who have been testing the product.”
Spotify Adds $1.7B To Market Cap In 23 Min Post A Deal With Joe Rogan, World’s Leading Podcaster.
The streaming giant Spotify gave 100 million reasons to Joe Rogan to make a move. Though the details of the deals are not disclosed, The Wall Street Journal reported that Spotify is entering in an exclusive licensing deal with Joe Rogan, owner of the world’s leading podcast worth more than $100 million, a move directly aimed at podcast market leader Apple.
Spotify stock shot up on the announcement of the deal and the founder Daniel Ek is now worth $2.8 billion.
Image Credit: Twitter
Why it matters
This is a landmark move for the medium. According to Neilsen, most Americans subscribe to only one audio subscription service but this trend can certainly change if more podcasts prefer to offer exclusively on certain platforms.
- “The Joe Rogan Experience” features long talks between Rogan and celebrities, subject area experts, comedians, and more. It is the second most popular podcast on Apple’s platform.
- Launched in 2009, the podcast was labelled independent and video versions are streamed on Rogan’s YouTube channel which has a loyal fanbase of more than 8.4 million subscribers and witnessed more than 100 million streams in March alone.
- According to MIDiA Research, the difference between Spotify and Apple as the leading podcast platform is so small that it can be considered within margin error.
Details:
The host Joe Rogan announced that the podcast will be available globally on Spotify starting September 1 and will become exclusive by end of the year.
What did he say:
“It will remain FREE, and it will be the exact same show. It’s just a licensing deal, so Spotify won’t have any creative control over the show. They want me to just continue doing it the way I’m doing it right now … I’m excited to have the support of the largest audio platform in the world and I hope you folks are there when we make the switch!” -Rogan on Instagram
- Spotify plans to incorporate video elements of the show that will be available as in-app vodcasts.
- Spotify will start selling ads in September through a partnership with PMM who is representing Rogan’s ad inventory over time.
- The popular comedy talk series will be available for free to all Spotify users like all podcasts on Spotify.
Image Credit: Axios
The bigger picture
Inking exclusive deals with leading podcast players is the latest strategy to woo more listeners. This could compel users to subscribe to multiple audio streaming services to access all favourite content.
- Spotify paid $196 million for Bill Simmons owned sports media company ‘The Ringer’ in February,
- Apple plans to fund and make podcasts for its own platform to promote its TV shows reported by Bloomberg earlier this year.
- Luminary expanded its services globally, bringing many exclusive podcasts to new regions.
Yes, this marks a significant moment for Spotify as it has invested over $500 million on acquiring podcast companies in the past one and a half years and has over one million podcasts on its platform. It also debuted ‘Streaming Ad Insertion’ which provides marketers access to insert host-read ads.
After Instagram, TikTok Targets Snapchat With Its New Augmented Reality Ad Format
After attempting to take over Instagram with its new “Shop Now” button, TikTok is getting prepared to launch its new augmented reality ad format which is similar to popular app Snapchat and Instagram.
The upcoming ad format will allow users to place dynamic visual effects that interact with their physical surroundings to TikTok videos. For instance, a car could zoom the length of the kitchen table or the user can interact with the advertiser’s mascot as it jumps around the room.
The product is expected to launch later this year with unknown pricing. The AR ads will be clickable and will have music while the user shoots video. As reported by DigiDay, a TikTok spokesperson said,
“We’re always exploring new ways to bring creativity and joy to our community. Creative effects are a fun way for our users to express themselves and for brands to bring an interactive element to their campaigns with branded creative effects.”
He further added that they will share details soon and are still experimenting with various ways to make it a valuable experience for brands. This new ad product will be in direct competition with Sponsored Lens and Word Lenses augmented reality formats and Instagram’s AR filters, though the latter is not an ad product but a filter.
TikTok already offers a product ‘Branded Effect’ which allows users to add 2 D animated lenses to their videos through their hand and face movements. These effects were produced by an in-house team costing $100,000 whereas Snapchat helped pioneer augmented reality advertising but launched Sponsored Lens costing $500,000 minimum for brands. However, over time, Snapchat introduced its lenses to ad auction, bringing the price down and billed on a CPM basis. In its Q1,2020 result, Snapchat reported that 85% more over the last year are playing with the lenses and self serve ad platform is a predominant way to buy AR products.
Meanwhile, the popularity and growth of the video app are soaring. The measurement firm Sensor tower s reveals, TikTok app and its Chinese version, Douyin, crosses 2 billion downloads on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in March.
TikTok is quick in following the roadmap laid out by competitor social media platforms in rolling new ad products and the pace at which they are moving forward is frightening. As quoted by Digiday, Paul Kasamias, managing partner of performance at media agency Starcom said,
” If they get it right they’re going to be a huge player in the next six months to a year.”
News of the AR effect ads follows just in a month after the development of TikTok testing a new ad format call-to-action button ‘Shop Now’ for Influencer videos
Shopify Revenue Surges As Pandemic Brings More Business Online
E-commerce platform and payment provider Shopify reported its first-quarter revenue that surpassed analysts’ estimates as more businesses moved online to survive coronavirus pandemic.
The Ottawa-based company Shopify said in a statement that sales grew by 47% to $470 million from the same quarter a year ago. However, analysts expected revenues to come to around $443 million
The key metric of gross merchandise volume which represents all goods sold on the platform 46% to 17.42 billion compared to the previous year. Again, beating analysts expected volume to $16.68 billion.
While sales were booming, the company still posted a net loss of $31.4 million or 27 cents a share. However, on an adjusted basis, the company posted a profit of $22.3 million or 19 cents per share for the first quarter of 2020 compared with an adjusted profit of $7.1 million or six cents per share for the same period last year.
CEO Tobi Lutke said in the quarterly release,
We are working as fast as we can to support our merchants by re-tooling our products to help them adapt to this new reality. Our goal is that, because Shopify exists, more entrepreneurs and small businesses will get through this.
Moving Online
Shopify reported a fall of 71% in gross merchandise volume through its store point-of-sale as stores shut down due to pandemic between March 31 and April 24. Companies also downgraded from Shopify Plus to lower-priced plans.
Also, it throws light on the drop in point-of-sale purchases from the brick and mortar stores questions the sustainability of online switch. It provides store based point-of-sale systems to merchants to operate from a single platform in order to maintain online store and sales.
It is closely observing consumer spending habits online and the ability of brick-and-mortar retail merchants to shift sales online. According to the company statement, Shopify retailers managed to replace 94% of their store volume with online sales.
Retail merchants are adapting quickly to social-distance selling, as 26% of our brick-and-mortar merchants in our English-speaking geographies are now using some form of local in-store/curbside pickup and delivery solution, compared to 2% at the end of February.
Chief technology officer Jean-Michel Lemieux noted the surging demand and had U.S. Black Friday-type of traffic as businesses have used Shopify to stay afloat as nationwide lockdown forces retail store closure across the world.
Impact of COVID-19
This pandemic has strained small and medium-sized businesses and accelerated the shift of buying habits to eCommerce. Shopify introduced many initiatives to support merchants and help entrepreneurs start a business online during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including, offering tools to businesses to open their own digital store online across channels including social media.
An extended 90 day free trial for new sign-ups, gift card capabilities to merchants, and introduction to in-store or curbside pickup and delivery options for greater flexibility in the movement of inventory between different locations.
The company stated that the new stores created on the platform grew 62% between March 13 and April 24 versus the prior six weeks, driven by both first times and established sellers. But is also added,
It is unclear how many in this cohort will sustainably generate sales, which is the primary determinant of merchant longevity on our platform.
What analysts have to say
Few analysts still don’t see Shopify profitable enough in the future to justify the current stock price. They believe the rally is overdone.
Barry Schwartz, chief investment officer at Baskin Wealth in Toronto notes that as they grow, the company will face fierce competition from rival Amazon. He added,
They’re up against some very heavy hitters and I don’t think those guys are going to let Shopify win everything.
Buying it here at that valuation, you’re essentially saying, ‘I don’t care.’
Canaccord Genuity downgraded the stock, with a warning “we’re not entirely convinced” that gross merchandise volume “is as bulletproof as perceived.”
Facebook Rolls Out Video Chat Messenger Rooms To Beat Zoom And The Likes
- Facebook announced 50-person video chat rooms called Messenger rooms.
- Regardless of whether participants have a Facebook account, they can participate in the calls.
- Messenger Rooms are an answer to Zoom and Houseparty for Pandemic.
- Messenger Rooms will roll out this week in a few countries and the rest of the world next week including the U.S.
Video calling services have seen a sharp rise during the coronavirus crisis and the use of video calling on Facebook Messenger has doubled in the coronavirus affected areas. On Friday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivered a live stream to announce the company’s retooled video products for users to connect while at home under quarantine. The video update perfectly fits Facebook advertising plans that focus on e-commerce.
As many countries issued stay-at-home orders, rival apps Zoom witnessed a drastic growth in the active users to 300 million in April, and Houseparty, owned by Fortnite-maker Epic Games, was downloaded more than 2 million times in the start of March. Facebook has seen the success of Zoom, the video conferencing sites popular among the companies that have sent employees to work-from-home. The biggest product launch ‘Rooms’ will be created via Facebook Messenger which allows 50 people to hang out at a time. The company plans to add the feature to Instagram, Whatsapp and it’s portal-video calling devices soon.
Key features of Messenger Rooms:
- People will be able to keep their room private, block unwanted participants, and invite people who are not on Facebook.
- Participants can use AR filters and change the background real-time
- Discoverable rooms will be listed at the top of the feed.
Image Credit: BBC
However, messenger rooms are not end-to-end encrypted like Group Facetime or WhatsApp call. Stan Chudnovsky, VP of Messenger said on the blog,
Room calls are not end-to-end encrypted, but Facebook says it does not view or listen to calls. The creator of a room can remove participants at any time, and rooms where illicit behavior is taking place can be reported to Facebook. (WhatsApp video calls are end-to-end encrypted, offering an extra layer of protection to users.)
Summary of Other Updates from Facebook
- WhatsApp will accommodate from four to eight participants in the video group calls making it a suitable competitor to Zoom.
- Facebook Live and IGTV: Facebook is creating advertising that fits in this environment especially in the areas that are popular among consumers like home cooking, fitness, and others. It will be open for business and more e-commerce activities will take place. 800 million people watch live streaming on Facebook and Instagram.
- Donate Button on Live videos: This helps musicians, artists, people, and activists can raise funds for causes during the coronavirus outbreak.
- Live via Audio only: with more musicians doing live concerts on Facebook Live, you can listen in case you cannot watch it or want to save on data.
- Instagram Live On Web: You can watch live videos related to any activity or product from the desktop.
- Portal Live: One of Facebook’s hardware projects that have seen a slow adoption but with the COVID-19 crisis the sales increased tenfold. You can go to Live to the pages and Groups devices from Portal devices and can also create interactive content for customers and communities.
- Facebook Dating Video Chat: It is in the nascent dating service. Facebook dating is a virtual meet up and does a video chat with matches on Facebook first.
Facebook is going to report quarterly earnings next week and it has already said that the revenue has been negatively affected due to the coronavirus crisis as advertisers have pulled back on spending and online ad auction prices have been reduced. According to eMarketer Facebook ads and the amount it earns from each unit sold has decreased by nearly 50% in some categories.
Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst at eMarketer, in her note said,
“Those losses will be made up for by gains in categories that increased their use of Facebook advertising at the end of March, either to market products or services aimed at people staying at home, or to take advantage of drastically lower ad costs.”
