Lately, I feel like I'm living in 2013 again. But that's not because it was such a memorable year.
No, I'm stuck in 2013 because many of the small, medium and large enterprise marketers I've talked to over the past month have told me that the big issue of the year was Gmail.[プライマリ]Because I'm worried about tabs.
Suddenly, I was 11 years younger and my hairline was half an inch lower. For marketers who want advice from me or who attended her recent two-day SMX Masterclass, please email her campaign under the “Promotions” tab.
2013: When Gmail tabs didn't destroy emails
Gmail introduced tabs in 2013, and the world of email marketing exploded.
Tabs were a fundamental concept. Gmail has started categorizing incoming emails into five tabs: “Primary,” “Social,” “Promotions,” “Updates,” and “Forums.” I spend an insane amount of time reassuring retailers that just because a message appears in the Promotions tab, the sky isn't falling and the email world isn't coming to an end. spent.
But what did I hear? “Please don’t put me in the promotions tab! I want my message to stand out, so[プライマリ]Please put it in the tab. ”
So now I'm hearing the same anomaly and my answer is the same as in 2013.
“Why would you want to beat an algorithm and force a message to a place where people don’t want to see it?”
Everyone has their own email[プライマリ]I want it to appear on the tab. why? My girlfriend's Gmail has my mother's emails saved there, along with other emails from my personal life.
[プライマリ]Tabs are the first place users look for the emails that are most important to them.The sender sends his or her email[プライマリ]We're assuming that when you put it on a tab, it will appear as important as an email from your mom.
That didn't happen in 2013. And now, even emails from my favorite brands don't.
Learn more: Email marketing strategy: A guide for marketers
Let me make one thing clear. probably,[プロモーション]The tab is where you want your commercial emails to appear.the customer[プロモーション]Consciously or subconsciously, tabs make us want to shop and connect with brands we care about and support.
You may not be in shopping mode in your primary inbox. You might even resent having to comb through your marketing emails to find the message you want.
[プライマリ]I don't know why questions about tabs are increasing again.Perhaps someone will see the email[プライマリ]Maybe you published a LinkedIn post or a Slack note that said it needed to be on your tab.
This is how marketers try to justify their fears when you ask them why they worry so much about which tab their emails are sent to.
Or someone might say, “My engagement rate is going down, and 65% of my list is Gmail addresses, so I need to change where my emails appear.”
I have to restrain myself from answering, “You’re full of shit.” (Of course they don't. They just don't understand how Gmail works.)
A better version is: Engagement rates drop because your message doesn't resonate with your customers. We finally see the consequences of relying solely on “one-to-many” campaigns.
Ultimately, mass email senders will need to employ more sophisticated tactics such as segmentation and personalization to be able to send messages that appeal to each customer's interests and activities, regardless of the tab they land on. When will you realize that?
that's it. Full stop.
Companies don't want us to do the hard work of increasing our sophistication. They want to focus on the easy path. Successful email marketers tell their list they missed the mark by sending a ton of “one-to-many” emails.
3 sustainable ways to get your emails seen in Gmail
Using tricks or shortcuts to access your primary inbox is a hack, not an email strategy.
So let's take a look at how you can further refine and make your email messages more relevant. That’s what will get them to see your email and take action.
1. Add, update, or modify segmentation plans
Is this a surprise? That can't be true. We talked about it in 2013, but even before that. And since then. Segmentation has a proven track record. Two applications are shown below.
Modified engagement: In 2013, I was flying about 120,000 miles a year. I spent 50% of the year on planes or in hotels. I wanted to accumulate as many air miles as possible on my credit card. So I opened all my emails from American Airlines and United Airlines and looked at all the mileage awards.
Although I don't travel much anymore, I'm still interested in frequent flyer rewards and regularly open airline emails.
Consistent efforts: Open the email from Woot! I read it every day while drinking my morning coffee. I regularly buy from a huge inventory of bargains and closeouts that are gone today and tomorrow. This makes me a very devoted loyalist.
Use customer activity data for segmentation: According to American Airlines and Woot! Data, I'm a big fan. They don't need any tricks to woo me to move the email from promotional to primary.
But not everyone cares about these brands as much as I do. My wife cares more about Nordstrom emails than I do. This is fine because these brands likely have a segment for these customers. Responsible marketers develop segments for these different types of customers.
Segmentation should be the foundation of your email program. You may already have a basic segmentation plan in place. But will engagement be recognized? Does this include economic indicators such as what people buy, how often they buy it, and whether they buy at full price or wait for a discount?
If you don't do some segmentation, or update that segmentation every six months, you're likely to see lower engagement and your emails won't stand out in your inbox.
You may need to change the frequency (how often you send emails) and the frequency (how often you send emails). You can overestimate customer engagement or miss clues that key segments are burning out.
Ask yourself, “How accurate is my segmentation?” Check how long it has been since you updated or added a new segment.
Segmentation is meaningless if you don't use it. Do your messages reflect your segmentation? When was the last time you changed the content of your messages to reflect new or changed segments?
Dig deeper: From campaigns to conversations: The future of email marketing
2. Allow customers to opt-down
If you're unsure about engagement (because open and click rates don't tell the whole story), offer your customers an opt-down instead of unsubscribing.
The opt-down on the unsubscribe page lists options to change the frequency or switch to a different topic or product category. Use this to assess how well your emails resonate with your audience, apart from counting opens, clicks, and conversions. Look for patterns, such as which messages generate more opt-down link clicks or requests.
Opt-down also introduces a new engagement metric: save rate. This is the number of people who clicked on the unsubscribe link but chose to opt-down instead.
3. Make a strong case for investing in email
As I was preparing for my SMX Master Class, I pulled out some slides from 14 years ago. All I had to do was update the slide with the new creative. My instructions and strategy recommendations were still fresh.
And that's sad! That means we're still talking about issues that were hot in 2010 and 2013, when people thought it was a cheap and easy channel.
Email isn't cheap or easy when used correctly. And yes, marketers continue to struggle with a lack of time, money, and respect within their organizations. Sophistication takes a back seat as marketers are just trying to get their campaigns out there.
I argued then and I still advocate now. He argues that email still has the highest ROI of all marketing channels, so you should show success and market email based on its benefits.
Through incremental innovation (which we've been talking about since before 2013), you can take advantage of slow times to work on new segmentation plans, add automation, or find tweaks that make small gains. , and creating something even bigger on top of that. .
This year we will also face new challenges. We've already seen what Google and Yahoo! do. Mail (also known as GooHoo) had stricter sender authentication requirements.
These efforts prove that we deserve to be in your inbox. You can also expect new definitions of spam and engagement on these platforms.
We also hope that AI will give ISPs new ways to determine subscriber engagement and provide an entry point for delivering more relevant messages.
As the 21st century enters its third decade, email will not survive if it continues to cling to 20th century strategies that do not reflect the reality of email.
A sustainable path for email
Wow. It turned into a rant, but you know what? It felt good, even cathartic. I might take the rest of the day off. Realistically, though, I end up rehearsing this advice throughout the year in my conversations with marketers.
As I said earlier, being an email marketer is a tough job. However, I also look at his ROI graphs for every company he has worked with over the past 25 years. Email is still at the top.
Otherwise, no one will support your email. Please send this article to your boss. Post to Teams, Slack, and LinkedIn. Do what it takes to make your executives, executives, and teams aware that email requires further investment.
Without that investment, engagement rates will continue to decline. Getting your email into your primary inbox is something you rarely need to worry about.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.
