Yahoo has announced a new social infusion offered in its most recent version of Yahoo Mail, and marketers might consider how social conversations about their brands can enhance email marketing efforts.
The company explains that users will now be able to respond to messages from Yahoo Mail, Facebook and other webmail providers within their email reply bars. The new version of Yahoo Mail also allows users to share and view updates from Facebook, Twitter and Zynga under a new Updates tab without leaving their inboxes.
For email marketers with strong social campaigns, this kind of integrated email and social media experience may help boost brand credibility among marketing message recipients. Multichannel marketing can offer Yahoo Mail users a full brand experience.
Plus, users will be notified if and when social connections share branded content, and they can also directly ask their friends about businesses. Yahoo is allowing users to chat with Facebook friends alongside Yahoo Mail contacts.
These updates might be Yahoo's response to new developments such as Facebook Messages or the increasingly social elements of Google and Gmail. While internet marketers can't ignore the reach offered by Facebook and SEO for Google, this development should be of interest because it impacts Yahoo Mail's 284 million users (compared to an estimated 220 million Gmail users).
As Brafton has reported, nearly half of marketers say email marketing produces leads, and Yahoo's platform that combines social marketing opportunities with email marketing messages might be good for business.
