Dive summary:
- Gmail has released a new inbox user interface aimed at helping users organize their mail; email categorized by Gmail as Promotions, Social, and Updates will be sorted out of the main view into their own tabs.
- The sorting will have some affects on marketing emails; opens and clicks are likely to decrease as the email isn't as visible, but conversions may be better once the users open the emails because users will likely choose to read Promotions emails when they are ready to shop.
- A hidden benefit is that with less clutter in the inbox, Gmail users will be less likely to unsubscribe from a mailing list all together; even if users don't read the emails as often, it's much preferable to lower the reads than lose the address all together.
From the article:
"There isn't really a way to bypass this feature if you send marketing mail, promotions, etc. The primary view is for the user's personal mail, one-to-one communications, etc. I've talked to people in the past week who are experimenting to see what impact certain changes might have on where they're delivered. I won't share those here because (1) it's an attempt to game the system and (2) such changes will ultimately not benefit the sender. Like I said, if marketing mail is now being classified as Promotions, I anticipate that unsubscribes and complaints will drop significantly. If some email marketers manage to bypass the classification and go to the Primary view, guess what will happen? Their complaints and unsubscribes will be higher than other email marketers and the next thing you know, instead of the Promotions tab, it's the Spam folder."
