Salesforce Buys Rebel, Says Goodbye to Old-School Email Marketing

Hardly had the Dreamforce 2018 ended when the news of another Salesforce acquisition broke out.

On 5th October, the company signed an agreement to buy Rebelmail, a venture-backed marketing technology startup that develops interactive email solutions for businesses to enhance their direct marketing services.

The acquisition is a step towards beefing up Salesforce’s Marketing and Community Cloud capabilities and bringing them on par with its more successful Sales and Service clouds.

Rebelmail allows consumers to shop and write reviews through email. Although that might not sound like much of an advantage, it actually is. Recently, one of the Rebelmail customers reported a 55 percent increase in customer reviews.
Other benefits of Rebelmail include:

1. Less Friction

Letting recipients shop in their inbox reduces the friction involved in the buying experience. Send a promotional email and wait for your profits to crawl upwards.

2. Advanced Email Capabilities

Rebelmail can process payments, conduct surveys, allow recipients to book appointments, and leave reviews.

Rebelmail is the “first chapter of what’s next for email,” which will evolve beyond “coupons and promotions,” according to Shar VanBoskirk, a principal analyst and VP at Forrester.

Companies have a lot of options these days in targeting their own customers with rich email services.

Microsoft and Google have both started to add in a lot more features into their own email products. Outlook and Gmail already support email payments.

Right now, it is being speculated that Rebelmail will be integrated with Marketing Cloud, allowing Salesforce users to create powerful, promotional campaigns.

What exactly will happen remains to be seen.

“The idea of email being a direct communication channel is very tired,” adds VanBoskirk. “We are at the beginning of improving email as a medium so it can have immersive experiences that’s designed just for you and the brand.”

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