agenda what is outlook.com? outlook.com marketing strategy
TRANSCRIPT
Outlook.com case study
Matt O’DayGabriel Valdez Malpartida
AgendaWhat is Outlook.com?Outlook.com/Windows marketing strategyMarketing executions: launch -> now
So… What’s our challenge?
What is Outlook.com?
What is Outlook.com?Outlook.com is the best email service for personal productivity.Outlook.com marks the beginning of Microsoft’s move toward one email brand: Outlook. Whether you’re part of a large organization, small business, school, or just want the best personal email service, there will be an Outlook solution for you.
Outlook.com: personal productivityOutlook on Office 365: small businesses / schoolsOutlook client with Office 2013: enterprise / large organizations
Microsoft’s other email service – Hotmail – will continue to operate separately, though users will be able to upgrade into Outlook.com while keeping all of their information (including address.)
What is Outlook.com?Outlook.com is built with four pillars in mind
Modern user interfaceBuilt with more space dedicated to email – less to other services + advertising.Options appear when you need them – not cluttered.Similar to Windows 8 style applications.
Smart tools for emailExclusive filter capabilities – including automatic inbox cleanup and unsubscribe.Videos, photos and shipping updates automatically appear above messages.SkyDrive and Office Web Apps – send GBs worth of attachments and collaborate on Office docs.Connected to networks you useSync your contact list with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, and Skype.
Prioritizes your privacyWe don’t serve ads based on your messages – and don’t serve any ads in personal conversations.
Outlook.com Marketing Strategy
Outlook.com Marketing StrategyIndustry (online services) landscape
Cloud services beyond communications are growing rapidlyDropbox, SkyDrive, and iCloud usage up exponentially – online file storage / access becoming more mainstream.
Communications space is getting much more crowdedBeyond the three major email providers (Google / MSFT / Yahoo), people can send more messages in more different ways.• Social networks (Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Tumblr / Pinterest / Path /
Foursquare … G+?)• Video calling (Skype / Google Hangouts)• Mobile (All of the above + text messaging / iMessage)Mobile usage growing like crazyAlmost 50% of time spent on smartphones is email25% of email is opened on smartphones
Outlook.com Marketing StrategyWhy email?
Email is the gateway to cloud servicesTightly integrated services – like Google Docs or SkyDrive – derive most of their userbase from people who are heavy webmail users.
Email is top-of-mindMore than 50% of U.S. online consumers check email before visiting any other websites when they start the day.Almost 50% of smartphone use is devoted to email.
Outlook.com Marketing StrategyCompetitive landscape
?
Outlook.com Marketing StrategyWhy do people get email addresses?
Most new email addresses are secondary (or tertiary)The overall US population using email will grow by less than 1% - but number of accounts per person will increase.
Creating a new primary address is rareThe costs of switching are perceived to be high.Any new account created is 8x more likely to still be secondary (at best) than primary after 3 months.
Outlook.com Marketing StrategyThe five drivers of email address acquisition
Outlook.com Marketing StrategySo, Gmail’s pretty popular… Why is that?
Perception is king – and users don’t compare servicesPeople rely on perception (or perception of their influencers) to tell them what’s best. There isn’t much taste-testing. In a 2011 survey, Gmail beat Hotmail in “Who is the market leader?” by 13 pts.Strong 1st party attach25%+ Gmail signups come from other Google services (increasing with Android)
Gmail users have multiple accounts70% of new Gmail signups come from people with Gmail accounts
Converting secondary to primary25% of people who use non-Gmail as primary and sign up for Gmail account convert in 4 months
Outlook.com Marketing StrategyPrimary email signup drivers
Outlook.com Marketing StrategyWho we target
“Tech Trendsetters”20% of the market – most likely to share tech advice with others.Big digital / TV / out-of-home executionsNot necessarily super geeky – but aware of trends.Examples: Oprah, probably most of you.“Tech Enthusiasts”1% of the market – a subset of Tech Trendsetters.Leading edge of adoption.Digital / one-on-one executions. High $$/person.Examples: people who swap smartphones > once/yr
Past marketing executions
Outlook.com Marketing ExecutionsLaunch – July 31, 2012
Laser focus on Tech Enthusiasts50 pre-briefs with press and tech influentials – let respected journalists tell our story without bias. Engagement on enthusiast forums / reddit as the Outlook.com team.
Hotmail users specifically not targetedWhile Hotmail users have a relatively easy upgrade path to Outlook.com, we wanted our story to be Gmail compete first.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDI6Itn7soQ&t=38s
Outlook.com Marketing ExecutionsLaunch – July 31, 2012
Outlook.com Marketing Executions“People are Saying” – October-Present
Goal: Increase perception of Outlook.com among Tech EnthusiastsTEs want to be the first to know about new products / services.A small group of people influence them – certain journalists from credible tech sites such as The Verge, Engadget, & Techcrunch.Insight: Pull quotes from TE-respected journalists and let them tell our storyBe straightforward, simple, and most importantly, use credible sources to share our point.Target TEs smartly – sites like Gizmodo, BBC America Tech, and Cnet index high.
Outlook.com Marketing Executions“People are Saying” – October-Present
Outlook.com Marketing ExecutionsSocial? (or: “Do you guys do Pinterest!?”)
“Social” is an incredible challenge for a free service of 300+ millionWe’ve got great customer support channels on the web – we don’t want to make Twitter / Facebook alternative support channels.We do want to get our fans information that they’d want – without fragmenting our best content.
How do we do social media at the moment?In order of importance:1. Our blog – the best source of up-to-date information on the product2. Twitter – share links to the blog, event details, and interaction with the team – we
don’t use an agency. Our target audience is very active on Twitter.….….N. Facebook – similar to Twitter, but not as popular with our target audience.
Our challenge
Our challengeBuild the Outlook.com General Availability CampaignWe want to introduce Outlook.com to the USTo this point, only the 1% of the market – Tech Enthusiasts – has seen much Outlook.com coverage.In March, we’ll unveil the email service with a large campaign consisting of TV, digital, and out-of-home.Our goal: Get on the consideration list of our targetAt the end of our campaign we’d like to increase awareness of Outlook.com with our target market to answer the question: “If you needed a new email address, which service would you use?”
This will mark the end of our “Preview” stageWe’ll have all the features currently available plus Skype integration and Windows 8 styled calendar
Our challengeImportant related moments in 2013
Windows 8 picks up steamWin8 will have a gigantic marketing budget and momentum through the holidays.Requires a Microsoft Account – any email (similar to iOS), but @outlook will sync email / contacts / cal.
Office 2013 launchesOffice 2013 will include the new version of Outlook client – featuring many similarities to Outlook.com.The Outlook calendar (both client and web) will be similar and sync effortlessly.
Skype available in Outlook.comUsers will be able to link their Skype accounts and video call from directly inside the inbox.
Our challengeThere are two unique difficulties
We’re not going to target Hotmail usersThere is a separate team dedicated to Hotmail user marketing through different channels.
We have no ability to change our productsEngineering cycles are 4-6 months long – we’d love to add features into Outlook.com / Skype / Windows 8 / Office 2013 – but we can’t.
Additional info
Additional infoLearn more about Outlook.comOur merchandising sitehttp://www.outlookpreview.comComparison to Gmail & Hotmail: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/outlook-compareHow to try as a Gmail user: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/outlook-compare-gmail Our blogOur launch blog post: http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-outlook/archive/2012/07/31/introducing-outlook-com-modern-email-for-the-next-billion-mailboxes.aspx SocialYouTube – includes short product walkthroughTwitterFacebook
Email [email protected]