Although I’m in possession of a smartphone and sometimes even in obsession with it, I occasionally leave my phone at home when I go away for the weekend and spend a couple of days without constantly checking socialnetworks or my emails. Although a „weekend off“ can be relaxing, the first time back in „real life“ isn’t so much – 53 new emails to be looked through on a Monday morning is not exactly how I like to start a week.
Gmail and Hotmail presented a new tool called Priority Inbox. This feature automatically identifies important emails and separates them from other received emails in order to help users to focus on the content that matters to them most. This feature operates on a complex set of algorithms that can analyse a user’s email behaviour. In addition, you can also mark certain senders as priority by teaching Google to interpret your mail properly by clicking either the “mark as important” or “mark as not important” buttons.To get a first insight into this advanced email delivery, check out this video!
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But what does this mean for emarketers? How will the future of email marketing be affected by the Priority inbox?
Just like the Spamfilters, the Priority inbox does not ultimately represent a danger to email marketing but – correctly addressed- can also represent a challenge and opportunity for companies using email marketing. Mailers that might suffer from this new development are those that send generic mails en masse and do not emphasize on personalized content. But in my opinion, this is just another advantage about the Priority Inbox! Just as any other form of communication, emails to your subscribers should be relevant, welcome and of interest for your companies customer. I personally only engage with emails if they are part of an ongoing conversation or interaction. One way of starting a – in the best case scenario – long lasting customer relationship is to implement a double opt-in sign-up form. This process requires the potential customer to sign up via an opt-in form and then confirm via e-mail and ensures that marketers only address „engaged“ users in the future. To open the first e-mail and click the confirmation link is probably the biggest barrier to overcome and best way of making sure to land into the „right“ inbox.
Although I think that spamfilters are the best invention after the email itself, I’m sometimes happy to receive marketing campaigns and discover offers that I didn’t even know I was interested in – so, I guess Steve jobs was definately right, when he said that „ A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.“
Therefore having personalized, tailored marketing emails be allowed in my priority box (so I can make sure not to miss a great but only temporary offer on Groupon or SocialLiving) is a smart tool for me!