“These Gmail changes are part of a larger trend that’s been in motion for years and will continue.”

Chad White Principal, Marketing Research

ExactTarget

In late May 2013, Google announced a new inbox that “puts

users back in control.” As a marketer reading this, you may

be concerned that:

• Your messages will be relegated to somewhere other than

the primary inbox.

• Your email subscribers will no longer notice your

marketing messages.

• You’ll see an overall lower return on investment (ROI)

through email, as measured by clicks, opens, and sales.

While these worries are common among marketers,

there’s nothing to fear. In this paper, we provide the

tactics and tips you need to stay top-of-mind among your

subscribers who use Gmail. We’ll explain what has actually

changed, the impact that the new inbox will and won’t have

on your marketing, and how to tailor this inbox change to your

brand’s benefit.

New Inbox RolloutBy the end of July 2013, it appears that all Gmail users will

be switched over to the tabbed inbox interface. By default,

Gmail gives users a tabbed inbox experience with three initial

tabs: Primary, Social, and Promotions. If a user clicks on the

plus button (+), they can edit which tabs are displayed. Two

additional tabs are available: Updates and Forums. These

two additional tabs are not enabled by default.

There’s also an option to change how “starred messages”

will be handled. By default, starring a message will ensure

it is included in the primary inbox. The user can disable this

if desired.

Improve your marketing alongside the new changes with these steps.

Email

Gmail gives users a tabbed inbox experience with three initial tabs: Primary, Social, and Promotions.

Gmail’s New Inbox

exacttarget.com

Subscribers Can Still Find Your MessagesBecause we at ExactTarget have yet to observe a negative

impact against open rates or click rates, we believe that

Gmail-using recipients are still easily able to find, read, and

interact with your email messages. If you’re sending mail

that is truly desirable, subscribers will continue to find you—

even if your emails are located in a different tab.

Any negative impact from this change is more likely with

messages that subscribers find less desirable. It is very

important to continue to focus on subscriber engagement—

“edge case” senders that already struggle with inbox

placement are more likely to find open rates and click

rates decline, as they’re more likely sending messages that

subscribers find less interesting.

The Ever-Evolving InboxChad White, ExactTarget’s Principal of Marketing Research,

remarks, “It’s important to put the new changes at Gmail in

context with previous changes at Hotmail, Yahoo, and other

inbox providers. These Gmail changes are part of a larger

trend that’s been in motion for years and will continue.

The inbox is bifurcating because email is so highly used that

better organization is needed. My opinion is that marketers

should applaud changes that make the email experience

more positive and more efficient.”

Has this change made the email experience more efficient for

users? It’s too soon to tell, but it’s also too soon to deduce

whether or not email ROI will be significantly impacted by

the Gmail update. Certainly, email ROI was not destroyed by

previous, similar changes made at various Internet service

providers (ISPs) and webmail platforms.

So far, open rates and click rates do not appear to have

significantly declined. At this time, available data does not

indicate lower open and click-through rates due to the new

Gmail tabbed inbox. In short, we are not seeing a significant

impact to subscriber email message interactivity. This could

change over time—we will monitor closely and update

our guidance as necessary—but so far, the new inbox

has not severely impacted subscriber engagement with

marketing messages.

exacttarget.com

Email

Gmail’s New Inbox

A Percentage of a PercentageAccording to Google, there were over 425 million active

Gmail users as of June 20121. According to email testing and

tracking service Litmus, approximately four percent of all

email opens can be attributed to Gmail webmail users, as of

June 20132. Litmus data suggests that this ranks Gmail just

behind the Outlook.com and Yahoo! Mail webmail platforms.

Thus, it is important to remember that any potential decline

in Gmail user email interactions will impact only some subset

of that four percent of users reading mail in Google’s webmail

user interface.

Controlling Message Placement: What You Can’t DoBefore focusing on recommendations for improving email

open rate and placement in the inbox, let’s go over what isn’t

currently possible.

You can’t tell Google to move your messages to a

different folder. Gmail has not published a list of criteria

governing whether or not a message goes to the promotions

folder. It’s likely that Google is using a combination of criteria

and that these criteria will evolve over time. It wouldn’t be

surprising if Gmail were including user feedback in this

equation; they are encouraging users to drag email messages

to different tabs as appropriate, so please your customers

and you’ll continue to be rewarded by Google.

There is not a switch or flag you can add to email

messages to prevent placement in the promotions

tab. At this time, there is nothing a sender can do to

ensure that their email messages are routed to one

tab versus another. We recommend that you keep

calm, keep close watch, and be prepared to make

changes to marketing programs or content in the future,

if warranted.

There is no “Google hotline” you can call to coerce

somebody into re-allowing messages back into the

primary inbox. For now, we strongly recommend against

attempting to modify email headers or body content to try

to get the Gmail system to route messages to a different tab.

Google is very likely to consider this practice as gaming the

system, and ISPs react highly negatively to these attempts.

Bulk foldering or blocking could result, so maintain your

typical email best practices and don’t try to find a sneaky

way out of your inbox placement.

The Rewards of Recognizable, Consistent Branding: What You Can DoYour email strategy isn’t doomed. In fact, this change within

the Gmail web interface may help you edge above your

competition if you play to your brand’s strengths.

ExactTarget Senior Policy Compliance Specialist Mickey

Chandler points out that with this change, Google displays

the friendly “from” name of various senders in the various

tabs. A consistent, appropriately branded “from” name

means that your brand or company name will show up in the

tab heading, making it even easier for a subscriber to know

that an email message from your brand awaits them. Mickey

notes, “I think this will reward companies who have a policy

of using recognizable and consistent branding strategies in

their emails and who pay attention to the details—whether

that’s the branding of their ‘from’ lines, their preheaders, or

their sending reputations.”

Use this opportunity to improve your marketing. Regardless

of updates and interfaces, marketers will always be

rewarded by paying close attention to user interactivity and

engagement.

Email

Gmail’s New Inbox

1 theverge.com/2012/6/28/3123643/gmail-425-million-total-users 2 emailclientmarketshare.com

ExactTarget Senior Marketing Consultant Jeremy Bromwell

explains, “This change highlights the increasing importance

of first-send interaction. A practice like double opt-in would

require interactivity from a subscriber before allowing for

future emails, strongly protecting your sending reputation. A

series of well-done welcome marketing messages are another

way to appropriately set the subscriber’s expectation with

regard to content and frequency of messaging. And finally,

remember the importance of truly personalized, behavior-

driven messages to maximize the opportunity for action.”

Another piece of good news for marketers: This change has

a limited impact on mobile rendering, so your mobile strategy

can remain business-as-usual for the time being. The Gmail

app for Android and Apple’s iOS (iPhone) platforms does

include the new tab functionality. However, Apple’s default

mail reading application on iOS does not support this

functionality. For recipients reading your email messages on

Apple’s default iOS email application, all messages will be

found in the old-fashioned inbox, not within tabs.

According to recent data from Return Path, the vast majority

of mobile email activity takes place from the default iOS email

application. So, what’s the point? The new Gmail inbox’s

current impact to mobile Gmail subscribers is very small.

The Takeaway: Continue Building Your Brand and Helping Your SubscribersRegardless of changes to the inbox and new user interfaces,

the principles of consistent branding, respecting your

subscribers’ preferences, and offering valuable and helpful

content remain the same.

As always, we at ExactTarget will continue to monitor Gmail

subscriber activity trends and will report any significant

developments. Stay tuned to the email deliverability section

on the ExactTarget blog for the latest in deliverability news

and trends.

Email

“This change highlights the increasing importance of first-send interaction. A practice like double opt-in would require interactivity from a subscriber before allowing for future emails, strongly protecting your sending reputation. A series of well-done welcome marketing messages are another way to appropriately set the subscriber’s expectation with regard to content and frequency of messaging. And finally, remember the importance of truly personalized, behavior-driven messages to maximize the opportunity for action.”

Jeremy BromwellSenior Marketing Consultant

ExactTarget

Gmail’s New Inbox