|
In 2013, Google
rolled out one of its biggest updates to Gmail by adding the Social and
Promotions Tabs. This update was intended to offer Gmail users a better
emailing experience by automatically segmenting emails based on their
content and sender address. However, email marketers everywhere
were worried that this would negatively affect their opens and clicks.
(Rightfully so).
¡¡
Are you finding
that your emails are hitting the Gmail 'Promotions Tab'? If so, check out an
outstanding article from PACEDM which gives solid advice on what you need to
do to ensure that your emails hit the 'Primary' tab and not the 'Promotions'
tab. (To likely never get read or acted upon).
Below is an excerpt from the
PACEDM article.
¡¡
How to Avoid the Gmail 'Promotions Tab'
¡¡

¡¡
Last year when Google implemented their tabbed email system many marketers
thought it would mean the end of email marketing as we know it. Having the
vast majority of marketing emails land in a promotions tab meant fewer
people would actually see the messages, and a higher percentage of them
would simply get deleted without ever being read. Over time, marketers found
that the fallout wasn¡¯t quite as bad as they had expected. The fact is,
however, that if you can get your emails to land in the primary inbox, your
open rates will go up significantly.
Many people have been experimenting with different strategies to try to
avoid the promotions tab and get their messages to get back into the main
inbox. Some people simply ask their readers to manually tell Gmail to put
their messages into the primary tab, but that is not very helpful. The only
people who this will benefit are the ones who are already opening the
messages anyway.
Some marketers have managed to figure out a way to get the messages into the
primary box though, and here is how they are doing it:
One Link Per Email
The
first thing you have to remember is that Gmail is filtering these messages
as promotional based on their content. Promotional emails almost always have
two or more links in them, and personal emails (that go to the primary box)
almost never have more than one. With this in mind, drop the number of links
in every email you send down to one.
Skip the Pics
While personal emails do sometimes have images, they aren¡¯t the same as the
marketing pictures most people use. Having an image as a header or a picture
in the signature, for example, might look good, but it also flags it as a
promotional email by Google. It is better to have your message just look
nice and simple, more like a personal email than a professional one.
Address the Recipient by Name
Virtually
all email marketing programs allow you to automatically include the person¡¯s
name in every message. This is something most people do when sending a
personal note, so do it with your marketing messages as well. Starting an
email with, "Hey, Mike" can help to get it to go into the primary inbox.
Depending on your market, it can also set the tone for a more trusting read
by your subscribers.
¡¡
To continue reading the article,
please
click here.
¡¡
If you have any questions/comments on the above, please email
us.
|