Email marketing has been the most popular online marketing technique since the advent of internet marketing way back in the mid 1990s. However, when Google introduced the Gmail “promotions tab” during early summer 2013, many concerns were raised by retailer that had made email marketing services a priority within their advertising initiatives. Their biggest fear was the possibility that millions of Gmail users could simply delete all promotions without having to wade through the morass of irrelevant advertisements and spammish trash to get to their important emails.
Although many web users do not even bother to read, open, or even look acknowledge most of the email advertisements that pollute their inboxes each day, there is always that chance that some luck ad might tickle their fancy or warm their heart. Of course, since that rarely occurs, more than 90% of email marketing ads are destined for the trash bin before they are even created.
Since Google supposedly strives to create a more pleasant online experience for their tens of millions of users, they apparently thought it would be a good idea to create a promotions tab that would do the sorting for them. As such, anything that Gmail “senses” might be an advertisement is automatically forwarded to its brand new “promotions” tab. In a worst case scenario, advertisers worry that many Gmail users will consider the promotions tab an extension of the “trash” folders.
In reality, recent surveys have shown that an unspecified majority of Gmail users do not automatically delete the contents of their promotions folders. To the contrary, most Gmail users will spend at least a few seconds browsing the promotions they receive, which means that advertisers are increasingly concerned over nothing.
Despite recent anxiety among retailer regarding the potential adverse effects of the Gmail promotions tab on their email marketing campaigns, they can rest assured that their email advertisement will not go unchecked. This is especially true when they enlist the services of leading email marketing providers.