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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

#161

Post by dornab »

kbenson wrote: post #72
tobtoh wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Just because it comes from Mailchimp and/or includes an obvious unsubscribe link doesn't mean it's not spam. No, but it's VASTLY more likely not to be (if the unsubscribe link is real and working). > 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 s…

Yes, I will definitely use the paid version of Facebook and Twitter next time! Unfortunately consumers don't have a choice here. Go to a paid social network that no one uses, or put up with getting spammed by pushy marketers? Somehow everyone decided that because their business model is based on advertising they should forget about good customer experience.

It's certainly not OK. Why not just have pop-ups all over your page, like the more old-school "advertising-based" websites did?

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

#162

Post by aet »

MisterBastahrd wrote: post #63
aet wrote: post #9

This is off-topic, but if people don't like ads, why don't they just use Gmail with POP3 or IMAP?

You seriously don't understand the difference between an ad popping up somewhere on the page and an ad you have to delete when it enters your inbox?

Do the ads actually get shipped to you if you use a desktop client?

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

#163

Post by adrr »

jmduke wrote: post #17

I really liked the idea of the new inbox at first but right now its overzealousness with the Promotions tab is tempting me to merge everything back into Primary. Daily VC news emails are not promotions; digests of roguelike updates are not promotions; emails from my grandmother to try a brownie recipe aren't promotions (well, I guess they sorta are.) (Yes, you can train it to send emails from X@Y.Z to primary by defa…

Overzealous is an understatement. Looks like its categorizing everything from ESPs as promotions. Things like my Newrelic alerts to our servers alerts are being improperly put into promotions. Its an easy fix but there's always possibility i'll miss an important email that gets sent rarely.

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

#165

Post by cheshire137 »

na85 wrote: post #51

I'm glad that Open Rates are going down. I don't want your sales-funnel emails full of doublespeak and marketing buzzwords. You think your email is full of helpful info about your product but it's not. It's just spam.

Or maybe their email is full of helpful info about their product... But I don't give a damn about their product.

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

#167

Post by clicks »

antirez wrote: post #166

Gmail new tabs is an incredibly cool feature for people receiving tons of mails. The Gmail team realized that there is spam that's not spam, and is the promotions email, it is awesome to see them away from my inbox...

> The Gmail team realized that there is spam that's not spam

That is a very good way to put it, and is just how I feel. It's too bad they were criticized that the tab move was just all about more effective advertising (it may be a little bit true, but doesn't negate the fact that this is a really good innovation on the email management front).

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

#168

Post by psbp »

clicks wrote: post #167
antirez wrote: post #166

Gmail new tabs is an incredibly cool feature for people receiving tons of mails. The Gmail team realized that there is spam that's not spam, and is the promotions email, it is awesome to see them away from my inbox...

> The Gmail team realized that there is spam that's not spam That is a very good way to put it, and is just how I feel. It's too bad they were criticized that the tab move was just all about more effective advertising (it may be a little bit true, but doesn't negate the fact that this is a really good innovation on the email management front).

I hope the backlash isn't enough to force them to change it. I think people misrepresented the (mostly positive) changes to get some google hate blog views.

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

#169

Post by sp332 »

eli wrote: post #159
sp332 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Forcing" is a bit much. When it is rolled out to a user, there is a popup asking which tabs the user wants to enable. It's technically opt-out, but it's literally one click (no digging through menus) to say "I don't want this."

Now I wish I took a screenshot, but I do not recall any "I don't want this" button when it hit my inbox.

I think you can get the same box by clicking the + next to your tabs now, right?

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

#170

Post by Silhouette »

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.

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.

If you gave them your e-mail address obviously for another purpose (for example, as an account ID, or to receive a confirmation message when your order is dispatched or your card is charged) and they then use it for general marketing then that's so clearly an abuse of trust that IMHO they deserve and should expect to be treated as a spammer.

As far as what the law says, here in Europe, you might get away with sending marketing to such addresses under PECR if you still collected the address at the time of a sale or in connection with a genuine sales enquiry. However, it's a fine line, and one mis-step in any of several conditions will put you the wrong side of the law. Also, the preceding comments relate to the specific EU anti-spamming regulations, but there are more general laws regarding harassment etc. in most jurisdictions as well.

There's a pretty simple test for your situation, really: if you want to send people marketing messages but aren't willing to ask their permission explicitly because you think they'll say no, your messages are probably spam and you're probably a spammer.

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