Did Gmail just kill email marketing?
Short answer: No.
Longer answer: It's way too early to tell.
Even longer answer: Keep reading.
Longer answer: It's way too early to tell.
Even longer answer: Keep reading.
There's been a lot of chatter online ever since Google unveiled it's new "social," "promotions" and updates tabs for Gmail earlier this summer. Especially about the promotions tab. Emails that people often receive from businesses -- like promotions and special offers -- are now being filtered into the tab, which is separate from a user's primary email stream.
Since then, the web has errupted with marketers crying foul. In an amount of several hours, for instance, I've received about a half dozen emails -- from newsletters that I've subscribed to -- providing instructions on how to ensure their emails land in my "primary" tab. Some of those emails are referencing this "How to Disable Gmail Tabs" video from Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner. Others are just providing some steps to "deal" with Gmail's new tabbed inbox.
Of the change, Derek Halpern of Social Triggers wrote: "In a lot of cases, Gmail labels content-filled emails as 'Promotions.' That means, if you send content to your list (like I do), your content will be featured alongside spammy Promotional emails. Not only does this negatively affect your brand, but it also puts people are at risk of NOT getting your emails. The emails they signed up for. The emails they WANT."
While I agree that having your emails land next to "spammy Promotional emails" is not a good thing, I'd argue that if you have "spammy Promotional emails" in your inbox, you need to start unsubscribing or marking them as spam. There is no reason to be getting unwanted emails anymore.
To be clear, I think it's smart to alert your loyal email subscribers about Gmail's changes. I've even considered doing the same for my audience. However, I think it's way too early to panic. No one yet understands the impact of Gmail's new tabbed inbox on their marketing campaigns.
And before you get all fired up and lash out at Gmail, remember that its focus has always been and most likely always will be on the user experience. It's not about you, the email marketer. It's about you -- and your audience -- the consumer.
If you are legitimately worried about the recent Gmail changes, here is what I recommend:
1. Don't panic. Take a deep breath. Chug some water. Walk around the block.
2. Create a segment of your email list showing only subscribers with a Gmail address.
3. Run some reports to see what the historic open, click, and (most importantly) conversion rate is of your Gmail subscribers.
4. Run that same report but change the start date to May 29th, when Gmail first announced these changes. Keep in mind that the May 29th date was when it was announced. Gmail has slowly been rolling it out ever since. It would seem quite a few folks are getting it this week.
5. Finally, compare your historic metrics for Gmail subscribers (No. 3) to the new report (No. 4).
My bet is that your open rates may be down. And that's okay. The open rate has always been a proxy for engagement, but for most marketers, clicks and conversions are the metrics that matter more.
My other bet is that your click to open rates are up. And that's good. Click to open is the number of subscribers who click on at least one link after opening your email. Click to open tells you how compelling you email actually is, assuming you have calls to action that make people want to click.
I predict this metric will increase as those people who have taken the time to "find" your email in the "promotions" or "updates" tab in Gmail or have proactively moved your email to the "primary" tab will now be more engaged with your emails and more likely to click.
My final bet is that if you send timely, targeted, valuable, human emails to people who want them, the Gmail changes will have little impact.
If you notice your conversions (webinar registrations, eBook or whitepaper downloads, sales and so on) for Gmail subscribers have decreased, then you can get upset. I'd be willing to bet this will not be the case.
If I'm wrong, let me know in the comments section below.
Below,You can read comments of some users and see their exp.
No, I sure hope not! E-mail marketing is one of the few tools small business has that doesn't cost a lot. I totally agree the e-mails need to get better. These should all be valid and meet CAN-SPAM requirements such as stating it is an advertisement, generally at the bottom, so this is one way to direct them to a new folder. If you have your e-mail somewhere on your web site, you will get some traffic, many web sites have no e-mails posted so they will get less. We recommend having an e-mail on your site to allow small business advertisements. Each e-mail should have a opt-out link at bottom and they should work for the most part, so just opt-out if you really don't want anymore e-mails. If it doesn't have an opt-out, it is out of compliance with CAN-SPAM requirements thus making it spam. ~ Eric Monti
These e-mails at some extent are boring, and if Gmail has to provide an outstanding online mail service to its users, then that is what every entrepreneur looks forward to do. The cost of clicking the promotion tab is less the benefit of seeing those boring ads when one does not wish to. This came at the good time.
I think Nabaneet means the Gmail Tab feature won't affect Power Users, as they are the type of users that utilize their apps to their full potential, including Gmail. They know what's spam and what's not and they manually filter things they do not like. Therefore, they will still check your promotions on the Promotional tab.
(In fact I think this new feature will have a positive effect on the power users' point of view, because clicking on the Tab means they're looking forward to reading their subscribed emails).
As a marketer, I agree with not panicking prematurely as it is all so brand new. For now, using tools to monitor email opens from Gmail users will be the tell all to whether or not Gmails filtering system will have a negative impact on us...so I agree with you there as well. As a consumer, I got excited with the feature because I quickly realized how easy it would be for me to take time out to declutter my inbox. I've already reported the spammers and unsubscribed to others I no longer had interest in. So on that note, it's genius and I welcome and appreciate the change. As a marketer, it compells me to ensure our messages are compelling, relevant, and keeps our audience engaged by holding their interests. We wouldn't want to be unsubscribed to since Gmail's new features makes it easy for consumers to do so.
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