No doubt you’ve heard or seen the uproar about Google’s new change to Gmail. Using their infinite wisdom they’ve arrived at the conclusion that they could manage your inbox better than you can, and have “helped” you do this by separating your incoming mail into several “tabs”. The first one is your Primary tab, where most of your important mail (again, in their eyes) comes to roost. Next is the Social tab, the place your social media mail is deposited, and finally, a Promotions tab, where anything deemed commercial or promotional is pitched. You do, (for the time being) are able to create custom tabs or revert to the old inbox. But just how long will that last?
So just what are your choices?
If it’s your own Gmail account, you can simply go with it, custom adjust your tabs, or for now, switch back to the old Inbox. But if your aim is the open rates of the emails you’re sending to your lists, you’ll need to be a little more hands-on that that. Only your most engaged subscribers will take the effort to move your emails, and that means that most of your messages go unopened and unread. Already there is evidence that open rates are falling as a result of this, and to make things worse, now Google is placing email subject line-like ads on top of the promotional box, making it even harder to compete for attention. While no other email providers have followed suit yet, it’s likely just a matter of time. The key now is understanding what we can do to avoid having our emails end up in “promotional hell”.
Several tips to make sure your emails get read in Gmail
Use social media to alert your regular readers. They probably follow you socially, so let them know of important emails.
Make sure you aren’t using spammy words in your subject lines that Google will view as promotional.
Train (gently) your readers that if they aren’t seeing your emails, they should in their promotional tab and move them for regular access.
Creating awesome content is the easiest way to make sure they find your emails, wherever they are!
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