How Big Brands Are Reacting To Gmail Tabs
Email will never die and neither will email marketing. In fact 77% of consumers told ExactTarget that they prefer to receive permission-based marketing communications through email and email ad revenue reached $156 million in 2012. Mind-blowing statistics and essentially showing marketers email is still a goldmine. So when MailChimp reported a few weeks ago that the new Gmail tabs are causing a decline in open rates, many marketers were up in arms.
MailChimp reported that although the decline was there it wasn’t a huge significant one; however, because the release is so new it is a little hard to tell what the long-term results will be.
How Big Brands Are Reacting To The Gmail Tabs
Besides this post from MailChimp, there are a multitude of posts regarding the tabs function on all sides of the spectrum. Reading the Mailchimp post all the way through though did calm my nerves because there wasn’t that much of a difference in the open rates and my TrackMaven account remains tab free currently. However, this past week I did notice an increase in emails from brands that I normally check responding to the tabs.
First, I received an email from Kate Spade Saturday at the beginning of the week encouraging me to move their emails into the primary tab. It caught me by surprise because it came a few days after I read about the open rates with the Gmail tabs and the subject said “Wait. Where’d you go?” I originally thought I may have left something in my cart and then I opened it reading something totally different. I appreciated how they targeted me as a Gmail user, an easy task for any email marketing client.
The second I received an email was from Piperlime. It followed the same suit as the Kate Spade Saturday Email, except I was a little more mesmerized by the puns they used. I knew they were talking about the Gmail tabs with their subject line of “Don’t Let Tabs Come Between Us…” and the body of the email exclaimed “Stay Tabulous” asking to drag their emails over to the primary tab.
Last, 1-800-Flowers sent me an email talking about the new Gmail tabs as well. 1-800-Flowers gave me a pretty direct subject line telling me not to miss out on deals and then gave me step by step instructions on how to change them over to the primary tab section. .
All three of these emails seems to have a few things in common and provide key takeaway lessons for any type of email marketing.
Common Takeaways
There are varying responses to the Gmail tabs and some may say that these emails are a cry of desperation from marketers, they all have some commonalities that exemplify the basics of successful email marketing.
Direction
Each of these emails presented a clear directive that they want their subscriber to take — moving their emails over to the subscribers’ primary tab. Figuring out the direction of your emails are essential to any campaign. Unfortunately, you can’t email your subscribers for the sake of just emailing them, there has to be a clear goal in mind. A direction gives your reader a reason why they should read your emails.
Call-To-Action
A Call-To-Action flows well out of a direction of an email. All of these emails had the direction and all declared at the end to shop their brand. All of your emails should have some type of CTA in them if you are trying to accomplish or market something specific. Whether it be to click a link, download a whitepaper or to try your product, these CTAs help give a value of your emails to your subscriber.
Subject Lines
The clear subject line of 1-800-Flowers was very informative and got the point across, yet Kate Spade Saturday’s email tempted my curiosity to open the email. Subject lines can be a tricky thing to master as it really depends on your audience; however, testing several out to identify the best on that works is a solid plan.
The Other Side…
As quoted by Buzzfeed and Marketing Land, the CMO of Lyris, Alex Lustberg, states “The promotions tab grabs attention for an audience that is more receptive and the action is done with intent and in a way that is respectful to the customer. As such, the click throughs are more qualified leads, which is ultimately much more helpful for marketers.”
Ultimately, as a marketer you want your email under the first tab to secure the reader’s attention, but as the buyer gets smarter if they were outwardly seeking to shop and looking for a product such as yours wouldn’t they search directly under their promotions tab? So yes, your open rate will increase in the main tab, yet, a qualified prospective buyer could go directly to the source of their want. 7 in 10 people say they made use of a coupon or discount from a marketing email, so maybe that will increase the odds with the promotions tab?
Care to know more? Here are some other articles about these tabs:
1. How To Tackle Gmail Tabs — Real-Life Examples via Lyris
2. 7 Ways to Survive Gmail’s New Promotions Tab via CopyBlogger
3. How Email Marketers Can Survive Gmail’s Tabbed Inbox via HBR
5. Advertisers Reduced To Begging By Gmail’s New Tabbed Inbox via Buzzfeed
