Email Marketing Industry: Gmail’s Priority Inbox Isn’t a Threat, But An Opportunity
It’s kinda cool when the email marketing industry has something to chatter about other than subject lines, boosting open rates or some other topic that’s been opined upon way too many times.
The buzz this week in our corner of the interwebs has revolved around Gmail’s Priority Inbox, a new method of sorting email so that over time, the more “important” messages take precedent in your inbox.
What the heck is it?
Of course, the first question that comes up is, “Who determines the importance?” Well, the user does. There are essentially three classifications: Important, Starred (Gmail’s star system is now used for emails you want to get to later) and Everything Else.
Gmail’s push is that over time, they can predict what’s important to you by what you read and what you reply to. (Here’s the first flaw, but we’ll get to that in a few paragraphs.) And if they make a mistake in directing email to the wrong spot, you can correct them by tagging an email as ‘Important’ and ‘Less Important’.
Over time, it works like an old school mail room, using your past preferences to determine where future emails should go…just with less cigarette smoke and less stress.
So what’s right with it?
I’ve been a Gmail user for a few years and my biggest frustration is the existing sorting system. I like the Outlook experience of sorting by sender, date, etc. and Gmail doesn’t do that. You can label things and direct email from certain users directly into one of your labels, but it’s still not great.
Priority Inbox would seem simply to be a convenient way of sorting. I’m excited to see how it works (Gmail is doing a staggered rollout this week), but there are some in the industry that are always concerned when something new is introduced that can help guide their email in a way they can’t control.
However, doesn’t this just place a spotlight on what email marketers should be doing better than anyone? Providing value so the minute an email comes in from a sender, it’s received with positive thoughts in mind? If you’re doing things the right way, you shouldn’t worry but be confident you’ll be tagged as important.
Popularity in the inbox…feels like high school all over again.
Think of the possibilities if Gmail was to provide numbers of senders that were rated ‘Important’ and what wasn’t. We love Sender Score in this business, but imagine an added metric of Gmail Sender Rating? That would be awesome!
That’s enough positivity, Josh. What’s wrong with it?
Without actually using it, it’s hard to say. The only thing that struck me as faulty is determining priority or value by people replying to an email. When marketers send out an email, the goal is to click through — not reply back — which is more of a traditional one-to-one function.
We’ll see how it turns out, but I think adding some sort of click metric as a value of importance would be a great addition. Gauging by just an open or a reply doesn’t tell the whole story.
Also, I wonder how the experience will translate over to devices like the iPhone. Can it? I’m not sure.
What can we learn?
Gmail’s new setup will take some time to get used to, but I think it’s a major benefit. For those of us designing and developing campaigns, it’s up to us to provide that instant “This is important!” feeling for the end users. Otherwise, the numbers will speak for themselves and the messages for ourselves and those that hire us to do work will be stuck below the line of importance.
Here’s Gmail’s nifty preview video. Got some additional thoughts, fears or bouquets of roses to throw my way? Comment below!
Josh Nason is the Inbound Marketing Director for SendLabs, a New England-based email marketing software company with great customers across the street and around the globe. Follow him at @joshnason and @sendlabs.
