Are you a Gmail User? If so, you have seen the new switch in your inbox from one folder to three tabs. “In these three table lies the “promotions” tab, which now filters out any messages you get containing promotions such as coupons, discounts, and notifications of sales. While this may seem handy for the average user, for email marketers, the response is not so positive. Companies that use email for marketing fear that their promotions will now be read much less often if they are filtered out of a user’s primary inbox tab.”
The Promotions Tab
Many Marketers view the new promotions tab essentially as a “black hole” from which their advertisement will never return. Marketing companies are seeing a statistically significant drop in the percentage of promotional emails being opened, but that number is less than 1%. Business Weeknotes, states that this new tabbed inbox is great for Gmail in terms of
advertising, because they plan to insert up to two paid ads within the messages in each promotions tab. Though these ads can be deleted similarly to email, more ads will eventually appear.
The Response
Companies such as Seamless, Groupon, and others responded very quickly, sending mass emails to their subscribers with instruction to drag one email from the company into the primary tab. This ensures that all further messages from that company will also be sorted into primary. Advocacy groups such as the New Organizing Institute are also finding similarly. Others have said, the tabbed inbox will actually help email marketing because it “grabs attention for an audience that is more receptive and the action is done with intent.”
What does your business think about the new Gmail’s affect on email marketing?
Click here for the full article from SocialMedia Today: New Gmail
