Gmail\u2019s new tabs layout seems to be popular among consumers, but could be a major headache for email marketers, the Inc.com article \u201cGmail’s New Inbox: Is It Screwing Up Your E-mail Marketing?\u201d explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one group of people legitimately terrified of the new Gmail is email marketers,\u201d Slate\u2019s Will Oremus wrote about the new format.<\/p>\n
For those that don\u2019t use Gmail personally, it now features a series of tabbed inboxes for different types of messages like \u201cPromotions,\u201d \u201cSocial,\u201d \u201cUpdates,\u201d and \u201cPrimary.\u201d The \u201cPrimary\u201d tab, for person-to-person conversations and messages that don\u2019t fall into the other categories, is the priority inbox with more pronounced alerts. The concern for email marketers is that their messages will be increasingly overlooked as they\u2019re dropped into the subtler \u201cPromotions\u201d tab.<\/p>\n
One email marketing service provider has already noticed a \u201csmall but definite drop,\u201d with weekday Gmail open rates dropping from about 13% to about 12%. Another expert says open rates have declined by .5% for desktop users.<\/p>\n
But the jury is still out on the overall impact. Gail Goodman, CEO of web marketing company\u00a0Constant Contact,\u00a0suggests that the change could be beneficial because it will allow consumers to look for promotions at a time that\u2019s more convenient for them.<\/p>\n
So, for now, it\u2019s probably best to hold off on any significant adjustments to your email campaigns and keep a close eye on your analytics to see what, if any, impact occurs.<\/p>\n