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How Gmail’s New Inbox Is Affecting Open Rates

blog.mailchimp.com

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Re: How Gmail’s New Inbox Is Affecting Open Rates

#121

Post by astral303 »

This is yet another reason why you need to look past e-mail for personalized communication with your customers. Personalized messaging inside your web site or app is much more effective for certain use cases.

Are you e-mailing your users to tell them about a new feature? Why not show them an in-app message instead, when they are logged on and engaged? Are you e-mailing a custom offer to a certain segment of your user base? Show them the offer when they're on your site.

Obviously, if you are contacting users that are not visiting your site at all, then e-mail is still king.

Personally, I am glad to see Gmail implement this kind of separation so well.

Full disclosure/plug: I work for Evergage (http://evergage.com) and we provide this behavioral-driven in-app messaging.

Re: How Gmail’s New Inbox Is Affecting Open Rates

#123

Post by thrownaway2424 »

kbenson wrote: post #110
scott_s wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I call unrequested "offers" spam, even if they have a valid unsubscribe link, and even if I gave the company my email address for other purposes.

Then you are most likely using the term incorrectly. When you have a business relationship with a company and you have not told them to not email you, the email is not entirely unsolicited, and thus not spam. It may be unwanted though, which is why Google is routing it to the "promotions" section. It's not necessarily spam though, which is why they don't immediately route it to the spam section.

No, YOU are using the term as corrupted by email marketing people, and the post to which you replied is using it as sensible people use it. If I give a company my email address so I can get my receipts from them, and then I get "valuable offers" and "service announcements" from them, that's spam, plain and simple. Sure, it's legal in the USA, but that doesn't make it not spam.

Similarly, attaching promotional materials to my receipts and other transactional mail is an abuse of the relationship.

Re: How Gmail’s New Inbox Is Affecting Open Rates

#124

Post by gertef »

tobtoh wrote: post #61
matthewmacleod wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this attitude; every email sent through services like MailChimp contains an explicit and obvious unsubscribe link, and their policies regarding unsolicited email are pretty strict. If you don't want to receive these emails, then unsubscribe - or, better yet, don't subscribe in the first place. This new feature seems excruciatingly pointless anyway. I want all of my emails to arrive into my inbox, w…

Just because it comes from Mailchimp and/or includes an obvious unsubscribe link doesn't mean it's not spam. There are countless sites whose default behaviour goes like this: * require an email address to create an account to use their service * without stating this, automatically assume that they now have permission to send you whatever email they want - admin emails, special offers, partner promotions etc * assume…

You should not sign up for services that do not provide an appropriate email-send policy before signup.

Re: How Gmail’s New Inbox Is Affecting Open Rates

#125

Post by gertef »

dbarlett wrote: post #100
pepve wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do I find out more about this? A quick web search didn't yield anything.

It's called a feedback loop. http://www.dirigodev.com/content/email-feedback-loops/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abuse_Reporting_Format https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6650

WTF? There is an IETF standard for certifying that an spam victim's email address is valid and therefore should be exploited by sending more spam?

Re: How Gmail’s New Inbox Is Affecting Open Rates

#126

Post by gertef »

thrownaway2424 wrote: post #123
kbenson wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you are most likely using the term incorrectly. When you have a business relationship with a company and you have not told them to not email you, the email is not entirely unsolicited, and thus not spam. It may be unwanted though, which is why Google is routing it to the "promotions" section. It's not necessarily spam though, which is why they don't immediately route it to the spam section.

No, YOU are using the term as corrupted by email marketing people, and the post to which you replied is using it as sensible people use it. If I give a company my email address so I can get my receipts from them, and then I get "valuable offers" and "service announcements" from them, that's spam, plain and simple. Sure, it's legal in the USA, but that doesn't make it not spam. Similarly, attaching promotional materia…

Are you a spammer everytime you browse a website or visit a store but don't make a purchase?

Re: How Gmail’s New Inbox Is Affecting Open Rates

#127

Post by eddieplan9 »

Ricapar wrote: post #16

For some reason, this paragraph irked me more than it should have: If the subscriber has tabs but they didn’t opt to include the Promotions tab, Gmail will deliver to Primary instead. That’s good news. Other than that, we’re definitely testing the new inbox and trying to figure out how it works. My sense is that Gmail wants all marketing email to go to the Promotions tab. Even if we did find a tricky way into the Pri…

Dear Google, can I have an ads tab in my browser so all ads get collected there? I will skim this tab when I want to, but stay out of my primary content tab.

Re: How Gmail’s New Inbox Is Affecting Open Rates

#128

Post by gertef »

heyitsnick wrote: post #74
thrownaway2424 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Subscribing in the first place" almost always consists of forgetting to uncheck the "default opt-in" -- also known as opt-out, to normal people. There are also services (including Google) who unilaterally change your preferences from opted-out to opted-in. Personally, I consider any promotional mail that was not double-opted-in (that is I had to take some affirmative action to receive a confirmation link, and then I…

>"Subscribing in the first place" almost always consists of forgetting to uncheck the "default opt-in" Citation needed. Mail Chimp strongly recommends double-opt in, I think it's the default. I very much doubt its "almost always" single opt-in.

So, opt-in is the "default opt-in" for MailChimp users...

Re: How Gmail’s New Inbox Is Affecting Open Rates

#129

Post by bmelton »

glesica wrote: post #52

"For marketers who are trying to establish a personal relationship with their customers..." Isn't that kind of an oxymoron? How can the relationship be "personal" when one side of it (the marketer's side) is really just algorithmically-generated (and by that I do not necessarily mean "computer-generated") and the conversation is one-way?

While I would generally agere with you completely, there are marketers with whom I have a very personal relationship.

What sticks out to me (because they sent me an email today discussing gmail's new layout and how to ensure I kept getting their emails) is my comic shop. They go through effort to know what I like, what to recommend to me, etc., etc., and are super friendly to boot (not affiliated plug, Third Eye Comics in Annapolis are AWESOME).

I genuinely want the emails they send me, even their most basic one-way emails provide me active value, and the relationship does transcend a more traditional marketing relationship, like the one I have with Amazon.

In short, it would not surprise me to know that there are other businesses that share more personal relationships with their customers than the merchant-customer model.

Re: How Gmail’s New Inbox Is Affecting Open Rates

#130

Post by snowwrestler »

astral303 wrote: post #121

This is yet another reason why you need to look past e-mail for personalized communication with your customers. Personalized messaging inside your web site or app is much more effective for certain use cases. Are you e-mailing your users to tell them about a new feature? Why not show them an in-app message instead, when they are logged on and engaged? Are you e-mailing a custom offer to a certain segment of your user…

The use case and purpose of email marketing is totally different from in-app messaging. Email drives return visits; in-app messaging drives conversions.

Edit to add analogy: it's like saying JCrew does not need to send catalogs because they have great signage in their stores.

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