Ensuring that your company’s Email marketing is consistently on target can take up all your marketing team’s time if you let it, and now, our friends at Google have further limited your access to your clients by separating your message, from what lands in someone’s Gmail inbox. It’s been well over a year since Google’s ubiquitous email service relegated the lifeblood of companies’ marketing efforts to a new, tabbed “Promotions” inbox, which may never be opened by its intended recipient. Gmail may be one of the most loved and simple to use email services out there, but small business owners are only beginning to see the impact Google’s move has made on their bottom-lines.
This new “tab” that Google has added to inboxes is most certainly aimed at further cracking down on spam, and, in Google’s words, will "put you back in control so that you can see what's new at a glance and decide which emails you want to read and when." Gmail’s changes to its algorithm have altered the way in which a company’s marketing reaches inboxes, and yes, we said inboxes, because Gmail users now have multiple mailboxes in which their emails are found, neatly categorized as, “Primary,” “Social,” and “Promotions”, the last of these being where a marketer’s emails will most likely be found.
Email Marketing on the Decline
For years email marketing has been on the decline, according to a study by marketing firm Epsilon, which found that 65 percent of those surveyed "strongly agree" that there are too many emails flowing into their inboxes, and 75 percent say they don’t even bother opening much of the email they get.
This further contributes to the challenges companies are facing in getting their message heard, given that your Gmail-using clients are not receiving your marketing. Consumers are now being further separated from the ability to make informed choices about how and by whom they’re marketed to, thanks to Google’s inbox alterations. This would give pause to any business owner, or consumer for that matter, when considering the email provider they’re working with.
Businesses must now choose even more wisely to ensure they’re getting the best result from their marketing, and choosing an email service is an primary contributor to getting that result. And, as a side-note, coming between an informed and free-willed population and their ability to make-up their own minds about the messages they see on a daily basis is never a good idea.
The Problem
The problem is clear: How do businesses develop a personal relationship with consumers if their message is stopped, (or hidden)? Simply by virtue of the fact that marketing messages are segregated outside of a decision reached by consumers infers that there is something lesser about them, something that consumers need to think of as different, and most troubling, unwanted. However, this conclusion by exclusion that has been implemented in Gmail inboxes can be worked around by experienced email marketing professionals. Before resorting to such methods, it's essential to consider the pros and cons of buying email lists. While it can provide a quick way to reach a large number of potential customers, there are also risks such as low-quality leads, spam complaints, and potential damage to your brand's reputation.
The Solution
It’s obvious that asking your Gmail subscribers to change their settings so that you end up in the “Primary” tab is the only sure-fire way to land there every time. It’s as simple as clicking on, and dragging your message from the “Promotions” tab to the “Primary” tab, and making the change “permanent” when prompted to do so by Gmail.
Conclusion
Changing the way your emails are configured graphically, and textually has been proven as overwhelmingly ineffective at landing your messages where they need to be in the “Primary” inbox, but just as Google’s algorithm is constantly changing, so too should be your experimentation with ever-more inventive ways of getting your message to your audience. Partnering with LISTGIANT can provide access to updated and targeted email lists, allowing you to refine your email marketing strategies and improve your chances of reaching the primary inboxes of your recipients.