It’s never been the easiest task to get your mailing list subscribers to actually open and read your emails, but recent changes to Gmail mean that it’s now even harder.
A few weeks ago, Gmail updated its inbox layout to filter emails into three main categories:
- primary (for all your work and personal emails)
- social (for emails sent by social networking sites), and
- promotions (for marketing emails sent by companies).
The update has also rolled out onto the Gmail mobile and tablet apps.
Gmail updated all its users’ accounts to the new version without really giving them an option. So, unless all your subscribers are savvy users who’ve learnt to switch off the feature, chances are they will have all promotional material hidden away in another tab. This could mean both good and bad things for email marketers.
The good: if you produce interesting, engaging and informative marketing newsletters, users can drag your email from the promotions tab into their primary inbox, and that’s where all your future campaigns will stay.
The bad: if you don’t, your email sits untouched in their inbox without ever seeing the light of day.
So what can you do to entice users to drag your emails to the coveted primary inbox?
Here are some of our top tips:
- Avoid spammy subject lines (e.g. gimmicky words like BONUS, FREE, WIN, GUARANTEE, etc. For a full list click here)
- Provide value to your subscribers and give them a reason to want to read your emails. Give them interesting content and offers to help your business stand out from the crowd. Remember, 44% of email recipients made purchases based on promotional emails within the last year.
- Give instructions to your Gmail-using subscribers when they sign up to your mailing list or at the bottom of your email so you can ensure they hear from you
Of course, the easiest and best way is to create engaging emails that your subscribers will look forward to reading. If you need a little help getting started, don’t hesitate to contact us today.
Infographic created by Infodec Communications