Email Marketing Dead for GMAIL Users?

Yeah, I've just noticed that a new series I subscribed to has been going there this week. Not sure how it works yet and what Gmail uses to categorize these as promotional. Can I tell you, though... the reason I went looking for these emails is because I really wanted to read them. I think that if there's one more step for people to take - to just find your emails before even deciding whether to open them - it's more important than ever to start building a relationship of trust right from the get go with new subscribers and giving potential subscribers plenty of reasons to want to hear from you, even before they subscribe.

There are multiple threads already on the forum on this topic. Use the search function first.

And watch out for those chunks of falling sky! :rolleyes:

True, of course this will have some kind of negative effect for list builders. Yes, build up "trust" with your subs, but in the end, your gmail emails will end up in the promotions tab. Yes, people will click those tabs to clear up their email inboxes, but now your emails will be labeled as "promotions" and most people will simply do a a mass delete on those types of tabs.

All you can do is to continue to build your list, and yes of course, trust with your subs, and just hope that most people aren't gonna be using Gmail.

If your subs doesn't know you, You're going home safely. If they already have great connections with you, Nothings gonna change.

I believe if you have good connections with your subs, it will not pose an issue.
If you don't , then it's time to do something.

You'd still make money with Gmail users. Some folks will want your information, and some won't. If you provide your subscribers with access to a plethora of great information, they'll check you out, click on your links, and stay on your webpages for a long time every week.

Many in this industry will actually seek out promotions. The promotions tab is definitely not a big problem. Just keep on doing what you are doing.

P.S. What's with all the 'dead' threads? Is it the only way people feel they can get some attention to their thread nowadays?

How about a thread called...

"The death of 'dead' threads..."

Now that would be good.

Yeah, it's been here for a while now

Email marketing is an act that needs continuous improvement. It is not a set once venture. just think of creative ways to capture your subscribers and they will look for you even in the promotions tab. Nothing is "dead" here.

This forum is filled with marketers as you know, so many people like to draw attention using "copywriting" words that converts the viewer to a click on the thread.

Anyway, we're all marketers in here, but if most other people (the consumers) won't really look through the promotions tab all that much and will mass delete. It's just what it is. Email rates with GMAIL will, of course, go down, its just a fact so we need to deal with it.

Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things if you're doing "things right" with email marketing, but still something to think about with these changes.

Yes it is game over.
Watch now as the other email providers do the same.

the game is not over yet.. it all comes back to give valuable things on the spot when you have the chance to your audience, customers, or readers.

Gmail is still great even with tab features and you can still do email marketing so it is not dead.

just tell all your subs not to use gmail ever.

Changes will keep coming in email marketing, you have to learn to take these changes and 'adapt' your marketing towards them, rather than panic and start feeling (for months).

Things online will keep changing in the future, you can use them to your advantage, but you might have to tweak your marketing methods.

actually i disabled that option so it's back to normal from my gmail (all emails in 1 place now).

Sorry, this "breaking news" people are relating to "the death of e-mail marketing" is about a decade old....

You can filter in most e-mail programs... Outlook has had this for years...

All you do is create a "junk" or as Google is calling it a "Promotion" folder once....

When you get the first e-mail, click on it... Tell Outlook to send all messages from this sender to the "Promotion" folder...

You are done....

All of their subsequent e-mails go directly to "Promotions" not to your Inbox....

All The Best,

Rich Beck BCIP, MCSD, MCIS

Pretty scary for ALL list builders.

Even if we do give our subscribers kick ass content we have to hope that they'll actually go and check the promotions tab.

I think it is not end of email marketing at all.

I looked it closely and think it is a plus. It is true people will not click on the social and promotion tab quite frequently but they will do do it when they are really in a mood to have a look on those. And I think the chance of going top spam box will be reduced. It is much better if your promotional email goes to the promotion tab rather than to spam box.

I dunno, I think most people will disable the tabs and go back to the original single tab again?

I know I did, as I have no desire to keep flipping through tabs to see all my emails.

I've always wondered, maybe some one can provide some insight, if you encouraged subscribers to add your email address to their contacts?

Would be much easier for subscribers, compared to whitelisting.

Seems this "should" help keep you in the inbox.

I guess the biggest impact will be felt by people doing solo ads.

When you send a message to someone you are not friends with on Facebook it automatically goes to their 'Other' box. Who bothers to ever check this box for messages? I doubt people will bother to look in the promotions tab when they have in front of them their long email message list. Even the word 'promotions' is enough to put most people off. As for telling them to configure and turn things off.....isn't' that just a little silly?

Any small drop in open rate people are experiencing will just be the same as when anything changes. There's always a little spike or drop and then after people get used to the changes things start to go back to normal.

I see no reason why the same will not happen here.

When I first saw the tabs on my GMail inbox I was mortified! I would much rather see all my emails in one screen than across various tabs.

It turns out you can delete the tabs and have them all in one inbox like it was before, just click on the + sign next to the tabs and unselect everything but "Primary".

Yeah,i have aslo noticed the changes but i am yet to discover how/what the changes could mean to email marketing.
I just think its a nice update

I like it as a user and as an IM'er it isn't bothering me that much yet.

By the way is there a way to turn this feature off?

Even from a user experience point of view, I prefer to just labels, I don't want to go to 2 more tabs whenever I check my email.

As I can see, many people try to justify Google’s intentions, like supposing that Google is fighting spam, or that Google is helping Gmail users organize their inbox.

No, Google is not acting this way with the intention to ‘protect’ all internet users or with the intention to help anyone.

Google is simply trying to make everything always harder for all internet marketers with the intention to make us conclude that ‘SEO is dead, article marketing is dead, email marketing is dead’… and therefore we have to spend money to get traffic.

This way we will be obliged to use Google Adwords to get traffic, what means that Google will become richer, and those who cannot spend money with ads will gradually disappear.

After a week or so of my GMAIL 'switching' over, I'm really not liking it at all. It's more work for me just to check my email. As an end user (and a marketer) I prefer the other way around, but more power to gmail. The only thing that is constant is change, so we gotta adapt to it if GMAIL plans to keep these changes.

I'm sure in the long run, we'll get used to it, just like when FB changed timelines a whole bunch of people didn't like it, but there was opportunity in them thar hills.

The word ‘Promotions’ gives you the impression that you want to avoid receiving these messages.

Google is helping you get rid of the annoying promotions and open only the messages you like.

There is a notification on the promotional tab, so it is most likely people are going to click on it... at least that is what I do.

I agree, open rates have and will drop, but email marketing is still the best way to go.

I do not think this will effect anyone, who is has a serious business running. This will weed out the people who just spam their links, in hopes to make money.

If you have loyal followers/customers, who look forward to reading your messages -- it does not matter where they show up, they will still read them.

So it is the same as before. Earn your customers trust, then they will more then likely buy what you have to offer, as long as you have their best interest at heart.

All I see here is speculation. Until someone comes here with numbers such as open rates AND revenue dropped by x% everything that is discussed here doesn't really matter. Will it hurt e-mail marketing? Well, it sure won't help.

Of course it's going to hurt. Think about direct mail: A Pile Vs B Pile. If you're in the B pile you're not going to get read. So, if you're building a list with primarily solos or ad swaps...good luck!

I have never really been influenced by email promotions. I regularly get offers in my email inbox from subscribed places and occasionally one would pique interest. However, I then use Google to search for more information. If I am going to buy something for $200 or so, I am going to a price comparison, read reviews through Google search. Maybe others are different but that's how I shop online for anything. I want to read several reviews than just trust the first person that sent me a recommendation. But in the end, I usually buy 70-80% of my stuff on Amazon. I love their Prime membership next day delivery service and the 30 day no hassle refunds policy. Also, occasionally ou get really good deals on used items. So instead of something you went into buy new, you find someone is selling it for 20-25% less but in still excellent condition. I bought my mobile phone recently this way.

So it will depend on how you got people to subscribe in the first place; if they subscribed from your reputable blog then they will likely welcome your recommendations (if its an expensive product I will personally still seek out independent reviews), but if you pulled them in through ads, then no.

Yes I have seen that option and i loved it. Tab systems are actually classifying things more accurately and logically. Google always takes steps that has a future.

Not always my friend, Google has poured millions of dollars into many failed projects

as a solo ad vendor...there are ways around it. this will hurt alot of the cheap vendors that provide crap traffic. for those that provide quality traffic and have quality lists...we will raise our prices as the supply of clicks will start to tighten up. econ 101

I haven't seen the new tabs in my inbox, but I've used my own filters
for a while now. My inbox sees less than 5% of the email that I get,
with the rest being filed exactly where I want it.

That DOES make it less likely that I will see certain ezines and
certain promotions, but that's the way that I want it.

As an email marketer, of course, I want my subscribers to see my
email, but that just means that I have to work harder at giving them
quality.

Over the last few years, as more and more people got into publishing
ezines, and sending promotional emails, it was getting overwhelming
for many people. Now, provided you can get YOUR email into the
inboxes, you'll face far less competition for readership.

So, I personally am focused more on getting subscribers to see
the value I deliver... even before they subscribe... giving them
access to free audios, videos and tutorials for example. I don't
give away what I sell... but I do give away a lot of freebies to
start the relationship off on a stronger footing.

"The Rules" have changed, but they've always been constantly
changing. This is a bigger change than most of us have experienced,
but we just need to adapt!

Willie

I saw other threads on this too but replying to this one since it is the most recent one.

I am still seeing lot of mass mails in my inbox so Google is not filtering mails just because you send it to hundreds of people. I can see similar kind of emails in both inbox and promotion tab (emails send by big companies with usual token replacement like first name, last name etc) so the filtering is also not fully based on custom emails.

I have yet to check what happens if you add the sender say ebay.com to your address book, will the mails come to inbox instead of promotion tab ? since many important mails are going to promotion folder, I don't think people will stop opening emails under that tab. These tabs look to be more like social circles, Family, Office, Friends etc