Going Through Changes: Gmail

August 22, 2013 Jaclyn Bickerton

Google’s Going Through Changes

Ever since having my Hotmail account hacked and locked I have been a loyal Gmail user. I find Gmail to be very user-friendly and for its purpose, I have no complaints. When I recently logged into my account from my smartphone I noticed that my inbox was less eventful than normal. Instead of having the usual 15 unread emails, I surprisingly only had 4. I then realized that there were two new tabs at the top of my screen. My 10-minute routine to shift through emails had turned into a 2-hour search online. I am almost on the fence about the changes, and I would love to hear any of your own input on the topic about Google going through changes.

During my search, I came across an article posted on entrepreneur.com titled “No, Gmail’s Promotions Tab Didn’t Just Kill Email Marketing”. DJ Waldow lays out the facts and directly addresses the controversy. He has many external links within his post and even a few videos that I say are worth a watch.

Gmail’s recent changes to its inbox, now filtering social media emails and promotional email marketing into separate tabs, have caused quite the controversy.

The web has erupted with marketers crying foul and some have been quick to link audiences with an instructional video providing instruction on how to ensure their emails land in the “primary” tab. If a user doesn’t change any settings, promotional emails such as deals, offers, and most any mass email sent from an email service provider are destined to the Promotions tab; let’s address the immediate concerns with that.

Having all promotional emails in a separate tab makes it easier for users to select all and delete.
A promotions tab may have a negative connotation to some users, and unofficially labeled as the “spam mail” or “junk mail” folder.
Having all of the promotional mail in one folder may be overwhelming for a consumer to take the time to shift through.

Dj says, “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”.

Now, let’s consider some of the possible upsides.

If the user is simply going to select all and delete, chances are they were never opening the email in the first place, and if they had opened it, there was probably no real interaction – therefore open rates may have been misleading.
If someone receives so many emails a day they may get annoyed when their inbox is overflowing and just start sporadically deleting, therefore having promo mail in a separate box may encourage them to take a look at them at a later time. Perhaps this may train users to be in “shopping” mode when using the promotions tab.
If users seek out your email in a separate tab, this is actually more engaging and would help make open rates more legitimate.

Here’s where I am on the fence. I think both the positive and negative concerns are valid. It is too soon to really evaluate the effect on open rates. In the meantime, DJ has 5 recommendations for those of you who are legitimately worried about the recent changes.

Follow these 5 steps:

Don’t panic. Take a deep breath. Chug some water. Walk around the block.
Create a segment of your email list showing only subscribers with a Gmail address.
Run some reports to see what the historic open, click, and (most importantly) conversion rate is of your Gmail subscribers.
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.
Finally, compare your historic metrics for Gmail subscribers (No. 3) to the new report (No. 4).

So, what are your thoughts on Gmail’s recent changes? Good or bad for marketers?

Jaclyn Bickerton, Social Media, Raven5 Ltd, Oakville & Toronto Ontario, August 2013

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