No doubt you’ve experienced or read about the uproar regarding Google’s new change to the Gmail Inbox. In their infinite wisdom they’ve arrived at the conclusion that they can manage your inbox much better than you can, and have “helped” you make it happen by separating your incoming mail into several “tabs”… 
The first one is your Primary tab, where the majority of your important mail (again, in their eyes) goes to roost. Next is the Social tab, where your social media mail is placed, and finally, a Promotions tab, where things deemed commercial or promotional is pitched. You, for the present time, are able to create custom tabs or revert to the old inbox. But just how long will that last?
So just what are your choices?
If it’s your personal Gmail account, you can simply go with it, custom adjust your tabs, or for now, change back to the old Inbox. But if your aim is the open rates of the emails you’re sending to your lists, you’ll need to be a little more hands-on that that. Only your most engaged subscribers will take the trouble to move your emails, and that means that many of your messages go unopened and unread. Right now there is some evidence that open rates are plunging as a result of this, and to make things worse, now Google is placing email subject line-like ads at the top of the promotional box, making it even harder to compete for attention. While no other email providers have followed suit yet, it’s likely only a matter of time. The important thing now is being aware of what we can do in order to avoid having our emails land in “promotional hell”.
Four tips to help get your emails read in Gmail
- Create Serialized emails – keep them coming back for more, no matter which inbox it ends up in.
- Avoid hypey words in your subject lines. This only helps Google define it as promotional.
- Let people know that if they don’t find your emails, look in their promotional tab and move them for easier access.
- Make them anxious to view your next email by offering terrific content!
About Alan Weeks
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