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How will Google's Priority Inbox impact email marketing efforts?
Priority Inbox automatically organizes your incoming mail into three buckets: 1) Important and unread, 2) Starred and 3) Everything else.
Google writes today in the Gmail blog: "...Today, we’re happy to introduce Priority Inbox (in beta)—an experimental new way of taking on information overload in Gmail... (we've) always been pretty good at filtering junk mail into the "spam" folder. But today, in addition to spam, people get a lot of mail that isn't outright junk but isn't very important-bologna, or "bacn." "
How might this product influence email marketing when targeting segments containing high volumes of gmail accounts?
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3 Answers
Its clear by this move, large mail providers are rolling out email features that reduce overload and improve the inbox experience for subscribers. Hopefully their logic highlights messages that users are likely to deem valuable and important.
The answer to your specific question is, it is way too soon to tell what this means for the future of email marketing. What's apparent here is that the LIFO (Last In, First On-top) model of email is breaking and shifting to an individual preference model. This old model was both good and bad for marketers and I don’t think that changes in this new model. Some early commentaries I’ve read actually believe there won’t be one model. Instead each web mail provider will have a slightly unique twist on user inbox management and preferences, meaning segmentation and targeting by ISP may become hugely important.
Another thing that is clear, your email must be interesting and engaging or it will be harder and harder to get a response. I’d like to hear from other Focus members, what types of strategic changes are you contemplating in light of these new features from large webmail providers?
I don't believe it will have any significant effect on current email marketing response rates. If the email is targeted to opt-in users and is meant to be genuinely useful it will continue to be open and clicked on.
Also if your target market is B2B / midsize and large companies than most likely this won't change anything as Gmail/Google Apps are only being used in consumer / small business segments. Ofcourse, chances are that this will become a feature of most email clients so this may be a temporary thing.
While some will dismiss Gmail's Priority Inbox because it only affects one inbox provider, Priority Inbox's importance is that it's part of the growing trend toward more subscriber control over email. Yahoo Mail and Hotmail have already introduced changes that allow users to focus their attention only on the emails they want to see. Priority Inbox is the most sophisticated manifestation of this trend toward user control and email marketers should expect to see future changes at AOL Mail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail that mimic Gmail.
The long-standing "last in, on top" arrangement of emails in the inbox is coming to an end. The new paradigm that's rising is "most important on top." The email game is no longer about sending more email, which “last in, on top” certainly encouraged. It's about sending smarter, more relevant emails. Segmentation, dynamic content, personalized content, preference centers, triggered emails...all are vital tools for being successful in this new inbox order.
Another repercussion of Priority Inbox is that reengaging inactives on Gmail will be even more difficult than it already is.
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