Digital Marketing and Gmail's Promotional Tab

Though social media has certainly risen in popularity in terms of digital marketing, email still seems to be the victor when it comes to usage and effectiveness. But when Google announced that Gmail would have a new user interface in its web-based client last year, many in the digital marketing field were understandably upset.

Other social media options for digital marketing usually involve a small blurb with a link intermingled with status updates from friends and family, and email has been a mostly reliable means of marketing.

New tabs indicated that mail would be sorted into groups named “Primary,” “Social,” and “Promotions.” If Gmail deemed that an email looked like a marketing campaign from a company, those emails would be sorted directly into “Promotions.” The obvious worry was that consumers would either completely ignore the tab with the assumption that every email in it was “spam”-worthy, or that they would delete every email listed without a second glance.

But studies have shown that Gmail’s sudden segregation of marketing emails may not have been quite the downfall that digital marketers expected it to be. In fact, in some instances, it may have even helped.

Return Path, an email intelligence firm, found that the rates for people who opened marketing emails in the “Promotional” tab compared to those who opened marketing emails before the tab surfaced was almost unchanged. For many consumers, segregating emails is an effective tool for those who are deliberately seeking deals or promotions. And if the digital marketing corresponds to appropriately timed and relevant offers, tips, or promotions, the tab could become a great boon to both deal-seekers and companies.

It was also determined that the number of those who opened emails increased when the recipients were considered “highly engaged.” The more value in each email sent boosts the recipients desire to actively search out a company’s email when a number pops up in that “Promotional” tab.

Source: The Guardian, 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/20/email-marketing-and-google-mails-promotions-tab-it-is-not-that-bad