GMAIL TABS: IMPACT ON EMAIL MARKETING AND STRATEGIES TO RESPOND

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Introduction ..............................................................................................3

What We Know (and Don’t Know) So Far About Gmail Tabs ........................3User Numbers Are Likely Still Relatively Low ...........................................................3

Gmail Engagement Numbers Are Mixed ................................................................ 4

Your 3-Stage Marketing Game Plan for Gmail Tabs .................................... 6Analyze .................................................................................................................... 6

Act ............................................................................................................................7

Evolve .....................................................................................................................10

Beyond Gmail Tabs: 6 Tips for Getting in the Inbox ....................................11

Conclusion ..............................................................................................12Related Resources ..................................................................................................12

Checklist for Gmail Tabs Inbox Strategy ....................................................13

CONTENTS

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GMAIL TABS: IMPACT ON EMAIL MARKETING AND STRATEGIES TO RESPOND

Since Google launched its new Gmail inbox featuring the Tabs functionality in May 2013, the email marketing world has been in a dither unlike any since the CAN-SPAM Act passed in late 2003.

Many email marketers are grabbing at quick-fix tactics, such as one-off emails with instructions for moving messages from the Promotions tab to the default Primary tab, in hopes that these will keep their messages in front of their Gmail subscribers’ eyes.

However, panicked responses like these seldom pay off. For better results, take a multi-tiered strategic approach that combines analysis of how your customers are interacting with Gmail Tabs, specific actions geared toward Gmail Tabs users, and broader steps aimed at engaging customers more strongly in the long run.

In this white paper, we’ll provide data from industry studies and Silverpop research that will give you a feel for how people are using Gmail Tabs so far and the impact it’s having on marketers. We’ll also share a three-stage Gmail Tabs marketing plan you can use to thrive not only in the short term, but also beyond as new email inbox management apps and changes from the major providers arise. And as new data and trends emerge, we’ll continue to update this document to reflect new findings and related tactics.

So, let’s take a look at how you can ensure your email marketing program continues to prosper in the era of Gmail Tabs.

WHAT WE KNOW (AND DON’T KNOW) SO FAR ABOUT GMAIL TABSUser Numbers Are Likely Still Relatively Low

We don’t have hard numbers on how many Gmail users are employing the tabbed inbox so far. Users can read their Gmail messages in dozens of different email clients, but many of those

clients don’t support Tabs and likely never will.

The primary email clients that do support Tabs are the Gmail Web interface and the iOS and Android Gmail apps. Popular email clients such as Apple Mail and desktop/webmail clients that import Gmail messages, such as Outlook and Yahoo, don’t support Tabs.

The Gmail apps were launched in early June 2013. While we can’t verify the exact rollout date, it seems Tabs launched automatically for lots of users in mid- to late July.

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Here are two questions that we haven’t been able to answer yet:

• What percentage of users around the world now have access to Gmail Tabs on either the Web interface or a Gmail mobile app?

• How many Gmail users may have turned off Tabs and gone back to other inbox formats, such as Priority Inbox or an unfiltered inbox?

2. Gmail Engagement Numbers Are Mixed

We’re beginning to see changes in Gmail subscriber engagement, but it’s not clear whether or how much Tabs is driving this.

Return Path and Litmus (both Silverpop partners) found mixed results when studying Tabs’ effect on email engagement.

Return Path’s study from August 2013 said “read rate” in the first week or so after Gmail Tabs went into general rollout went up 2.1 percent among highly engaged readers. Inbox placements rates also went up both for medium- and low-engaged customers. However, the read rate plunged nearly 80 percent among lowest-engaged readers, from 2.2 percent before Tabs to 0.42 percent after.

Litmus’ study found that Gmail opens fell 18 percent from mid-May to mid-August 2013.

However, Litmus also found Gmail opens had declined overall by 13 percent since July 2012. In the approximately six weeks following the Gmail Tabs announcement, Litmus saw a 7.8 percent decrease in Gmail opens as percentage of total opens across all email clients.

Further, its study revealed that Gmail opens accounted for only about 4 percent of total email opens across all email clients. Also, 41 percent of those opens (roughly 1.6 percent of all email opens) occurred in Gmail clients that support Tabs.

Some “back-of-the-envelope” computation paints a slightly larger potential impact. Let’s say 25 percent of your company’s subscribers use Gmail. Multiplying that by 41 percent gives you about 10 percent of subscribers with the potential to use Tabs. Assuming about half of Gmail

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The good news from all this data? In particular, the Return Path study supports the hypothesis that your engaged subscribers will find your emails no matter where Gmail routes them and will move them to the tab they prefer.

The bigger challenge for email marketers will be getting their emails found and acted upon by the unengaged and slightly engaged subscribers. However, that has always been a huge challenge.

Now that we have a sense of the potential reach and impact of Gmail Tabs, we can look at strategic approaches that will enhance your overall email engagement instead of spending time on potentially wasteful tactics.

subscribers use Tabs, that’s roughly 5 percent of your database.

Five percent is nothing to sneeze at, especially because Gmail subscribers often are more engaged and valued. But it also doesn’t signal the end of the world.

Silverpop’s informal client survey found that 13 percent said Gmail open and click rates were down, while 10 percent said Gmail conversions were down. Most said, however, that they either weren’t monitoring for change yet or thought it was too early to tell.

TWEET THIS!Reading Silverpop’s “Gmail Tabs: Impact on Email Marketing and Strategies to Respond”

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YOUR 3-STAGE MARKETING GAME PLAN FOR GMAIL TABS Use Gmail Tabs as a catalyst to create stronger messages that your subscribers will seek out no matter which tab they land under.

In other words, don’t stop at telling subscribers to move your emails to their Primary tabs. Instead, incorporate your Gmail Tabs tactics into a broader engagement program across email clients and communication channels using this three-phase framework:

The best strategy is to incorporate Gmail’s special concerns into your ongoing programs, starting at opt-in and then continuing through a broader onboarding process and into your regular email programs.

I. ANALYZEUnderstand what’s really going on.

Run reports across your database by domain and analyze engagement (opens, clicks, clicks-to-open, etc.). Then, analyze conversions, revenue or whatever metrics you use to measure success.

Run your reports and analysis across these time frames:

• Two to three months before July 1, 2013

• Two to three months after July 1, 2013

• The same periods as above in 2012

(We picked July 1 as a likely date by which substantial numbers of Gmail users would have had Tabs turned on in their inboxes. Tabs launched on May 29 but only to a select group of users.)

Compare results from Gmail subscribers for these time frames against other domains.

If you can, use email analytics tools to understand the difference in email engagement and conversions across desktop and mobile Gmail users.

What trends do you see? If revenue, conversions or other engagement measures nosedive starting in July, then Tabs might be affecting your numbers. But, if these numbers were trending down before then, something else is going on.

Reminder: Lower opens and clicks don’t always correlate with a lower conversion rate and revenue.

Learn what Gmail is doing with your different types of messages.

Check your own Gmail inbox (get coworkers and friends in on the fun, too) to see how Gmail is handling your emails. Determine where Gmail is routing all the email streams you send: newsletters, promotional, daily deals, surveys, notifications, transactional messages and other service emails. Do newsletters and promotions go to one tab while transactional and other service messages go elsewhere?

If your order-confirmation emails contain cross-sell offers, they might be routed to the Promotions tab, not the Primary or Updates tab. Monitor engagement on these emails as well.

First, do a deep data dive (Analyze) to understand what’s really going on with your Gmail subscribers. Then, deploy various Tabs-related tactics (Act) and make fundamental long-term changes to your program (Evolve).

EVOLVE

ACT

ANALYZE

I

II

III

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Note: Because content varies across your promotional and other messages, emails might be routed to different tabs at different times.

While you might be tempted to try to trick the Gmail algorithm, remember to focus first and foremost on what your users want.

II. ACTAdd Tabs information to the opt-in process.

Instead of crossing your fingers and hoping your Gmail subscribers see your messages, post a note on your sign-up thank-you/confirmation page, preference page and pop-over forms, explaining how Tabs works and where to find your emails.

Incorporate Tabs content into your welcome/onboarding strategy.

As part of a multi-email onboarding program, include a link to either Gmail’s Tabs explanation or your own landing page in the first email and follow-up messages, including potentially a standalone email explaining Gmail Tabs.

Caution: If you use one IP address or system for welcome or transactional emails and another for your regular emails, moving these emails to the

Primary tab is probably not going to carry over for promotional emails. Be careful how you handle this process because you might confuse subscribers who aren’t aware that you use multiple email systems.

Using dynamic content, put a Gmail note and link at the top of emails.

Only a small percentage of your Gmail subscribers will likely see your one-time-only email about Gmail Tabs. So, consider putting a short note near the top of your email template, being careful not to clutter the preheader.

Place the text after your core preheader text, however. Include a link to your own landing page with Gmail instructions or to Gmail’s explanatory page.

Survey Gmail subscribers.

Send a survey message to Gmail users asking how they manage their inboxes, with some specific questions about whether and how they use Tabs. Add a note and link in all of your messages: transactional, triggered emails and broadcast newsletters.

Test this message first among co-workers, friends and family members to see where it lands in their Gmail accounts. If it’s routed to the Primary tab it might provide an additional way to reach subscribers who are missing your marketing messages under the Promotions tab.

In this example, Fabric.com provides Gmail information in the preheader below the primary call to action.

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Avoid being presumptuous: Many Gmail subscribers say they like having all marketing messages segregated in the Promotions tab because they can find them easily when they are in shopping mode. Your narrow-focus email could just annoy them.

Follow up: Resend the email to non- openers. Also, schedule it to go out every few months over the next year, both to non-responders and to new subscribers down the road.

Be consistent: Your “Tabs” email should be consistent with your brand. The Moosejaw email on p. 9, for example, supports the company’s humorous brand personality.

Create and send that “Gmail Tabs instructions” email. But, follow these tips first.

Before you jump to create and schedule this message, take a deep breath and a step back.

Think about it: You’re worried that your Gmail subscribers won’t see your emails if they don’t check the Promotions tab. So, you’re going to send instructions about moving your emails from the Promotions to the Primary tab … to Gmail users who might not see that email because it will end up under the Promotions tab that they aren’t checking.

See the problem? Plus, marketers who have dashed off these email alerts are seeing mostly

average results so far, according to Return Path (see chart below).

Once you’ve tempered your expectations, send a dedicated email if you’re still convinced it needs to be done, but follow these tips to maximize its effectiveness:

Focus on customer service: Instead of directing subscribers to take a specific step, write it from a customer service viewpoint.

Explain how Gmail Tabs works, how it benefits users and how users can find and redirect messages. Use your own email in an illustration. Consider adding tips on how to update email addresses and change preferences, too. Your database will thank you.

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The Moosejaw Gmail Tabs instructions email (above) is consistent with the brand’s humorous personality, while the Loft email (right) focuses on customer service.

See more Gmail Tabs instruction email examples >>>

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Get the word out through your social media channels.

Create messages that take advantage of each social channel’s unique benefits to help spread the word. A few suggestions:

• Tweet out a link to your Gmail landing page or to Gmail’s own page.

• Post an explanation on your Facebook page.

• Create a slide with instructions and post on your Instagram or Pinterest pages.

• Create a short video using stop-motion or a recording of an employee walking through an explanation.

III. EVOLVEThink long-term: Use Gmail Tabs as your springboard to deeper engagement.

While Gmail Tabs is a very real challenge for email marketers, it won’t be the last hurdle from ISPs, inbox tools and email clients. In the coming years we’re likely to see a plethora of new email inbox management apps and changes from the major providers that will put more control of where and how subscribers see your messages into customers’ hands.

Instead of focusing just on a tactical response to Tabs, use the Gmail issue to get management’s attention about the need to upgrade your email program in order to stay relevant and keep subscribers engaged and converting at a high level.

Rethink and evolve every aspect of your email program, including the following:

• Opt-in process: Are you acquiring the right kind of customers? Managing their expectations from the start? Capturing the type of data you need to send targeted and relevant emails?

• Onboarding: Move beyond a simple generic welcome email to an onboarding series that leverages both profile and pre-opt-in Web behavior to present a true one-to-one experience out of the gate – moving new subscribers into customers more quickly.

• Leveraging behavioral data: Are you focusing on what your subscribers and customers are doing, rather than what they are saying?

• Data structure: Do you have a centralized marketing database where demographic

and profile data is housed along with behavior across multiple channels that are actionable in real or near real time?

• Personality and content: Do your emails have personality and engage subscribers with great content beyond today’s offer?

• Automation: Are you leveraging marketing automation tools and triggered emails to enable real-time messaging via dozens of programs that are triggered for each individual at the decisive moment?

With the appropriate resources and management support, you can start incorporating behavioral data and automation, deploying real-time messages that make your email program so compelling that subscribers will do whatever they have to do – whitelisting, setting up special filters or moving them from one tab to another – just so they don’t miss them.

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BEYOND GMAIL TABS: 6 TIPS FOR GETTING IN THE INBOXdesigned to try to re-engage them. Better

yet, move inactive subscribers into an

“activation” track automatically after two

to three months of inactivity. If you’re still

having Gmail deliverability challenges, then

you should remove these inactives.

6 Implement behavioral marketing best

practices. Sending emails triggered

by a person’s behaviors, preferences or

demographics is one of the best ways to

ensure a positive customer experience and

increase recipient interaction with your

messages.

2 Ask your recipients to mark your

messages as “not spam.” This will alert

Gmail that your recipients want to receive

your messages, help your overall engagement

with Gmail and improve delivery to the inbox.

3 Remind recipients to click on the “Always

display images from this address”

button. This enables your recipients to see

your HTML emails as they were intended

and also goes toward positive recipient

engagement.

4 Invite contacts to add your sending

“From” address to their Gmail address

books.

5 Monitor recipient activity and consider

removing inactives. As a general rule,

contacts with no activity of any kind for

more than six months should be moved into

a special “reactivation” messaging track

At Silverpop, we receive a lot of questions

about mailings being delivered to the spam

folder at Gmail or, even worse, Gmail blocking

an IP. Gmail has maintained its stance in regard

to penalizing senders for having inactive

recipients, as other ISPs are doing more and

more every day.

So when mailings are sent to the spam folder

or blocked at Gmail, it’s usually because Gmail

feels that an IP is sending in ways that are

spam-like. This could be due to too many abuse

complaints and/or too many inactive recipients

in your databases.

With that in mind, here are six recommendations

for improving Gmail delivery issues:

1 Authenticate your sending domain with

SPF and 1024 DKIM authentication. Gmail

will no longer authenticate DKIM that’s less

than a 1024-bit key.

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CONCLUSIONAddress the near-term and real challenges that Gmail Tabs may present to your program, but do so in the context of a larger and longer-term strategic approach. By employing a few specific Tabs-related tactics in conjunction with shifting to an automated, behavior-driven messaging approach, you’ll be well-positioned to meet the challenges of today’s inbox and continue engaging customers as new email tools and trends emerge.

Related Resources from Silverpop:

• White Paper: “20 Ways to Personalize Content and Enhance the Customer Experience”

• Ebook: “Print Money Today: 7 Emails Marketers Should Automate to Drive Massive ROI”

• Blog Post: “New Gmail Tabs: Big Yawn or Zombie Apocalypse for Email Marketing?”

• Blog Post: “Understanding Gmail Deliverability: 7 Tips for Getting in the Inbox”

• Advertising Age: “Gmail’s Redesign Not the End of Email Marketing”

• Email Insider: “Gmail Tabs: Time to Act But Not Panic”

• SlideShare presentation: “Gmail Tabs: Sample Promotions to Primary Tab ‘Instruction’ Emails”

Additional Resources by Source:

Gmail

• Blog Post: “A new inbox that puts you back in control”

• Video: “Meet Gmail’s New Inbox”

• Customer support post: “Inbox tabs and category labels”

Return Path

• Report: “Analysis: Gmail Tabs Don’t Stop Shoppers”

• Blog Post: “Gmail Tabs Analysis: Don’t Panic Just Yet”

• Blog Post: “Dealing With Gmail Tabs: Just How Effective Are Dedicated Gmail Campaigns?”

Litmus

• Report: “Gmail Opens Drop 18 percent: Are Tabs to Blame?”

Media

• Ken Magill: “Some Clarification on Gmail Tabs and Mobile”

• Wall Street Journal: “With Gmail Overhaul, Not All Email is Equal”

Silverpop’s digital marketing automation platform was designed to make it simple to build

super-personalized campaigns, creating individualized experiences for every relationship.

Watch our demo to see our product in action, and contact Silverpop to see how we can

help you accomplish your marketing goals for 2013.

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Below is a checklist you can use to track progress on building a Gmail Tabs strategy. For background information about each task, find the corresponding numbered item in the main white paper.

1. Run reports comparing metrics prior to and subsequent to Gmail Tabs:

April 1-June 30, 2013:

Open rate ____ Click-through rate ____

Click-to-Open rate ____ Conversion rate ____

July 1-Sept. 30, 2013:

Open rate ____ Click-through rate ____

Click-to-Open rate ____ Conversion rate ____

April 1-June 30, 2012:

Open rate ____ Click-through rate ____

Click-to-Open rate ____ Conversion rate ____

July 1-Sept. 30, 2012:

Open rate ____ Click-through rate ____

Click-to-Open rate ____ Conversion rate ____

2. Track tab placement for various email types:Gmail Test 1, Email 1 (broadcast)

• Date: ______________ Tab ______________

___ Add link to other opt-in sources (popovers, page banners or sliders, co-registration pages, etc.)

4. Incorporate into your welcome/onboarding strategy:

___ Add link/explanation to welcome email

___ Create Gmail-only welcome message with instructions/images and slot it in among the other messages in your onboarding program

5. Incorporate into regular email templates:

___ Add a note and/or link to explanatory page to each email preheader.

6. Survey Gmail users on Tabs use:

___ Create a segment of active Gmail users

__________ Current number of Gmail users

___ Create a brief survey at a landing page on your site, asking about Tabs use (Do they use it? Do they route promo emails to the Primary tab? How do they use the Promotions tab?)

___ Test on coworkers/friends/family for usability

CHECKLIST FOR GMAIL TABS INBOX STRATEGYGmail Test 1, Email 2 (opt-in confirmation)

• Date: ______________ Tab ______________

Gmail Test 1, Email 3 (cart abandonment/other triggered email)

• Date: ______________ Tab ______________

Gmail Test 2, Email 1 (broadcast)

• Date: ______________ Tab ______________

Gmail Test 2, Email 2 (opt-in confirmation)

• Date: ______________ Tab ______________

Gmail Test 2, Email 3 (cart abandonment/other triggered email)

• Date: ______________ Tab ______________

3. Add Tabs information to opt-in:

___ Create Gmail Tabs landing page with information and pictures showing how to move emails to the Primary Inbox tab.

___ Add link to subscription thank-you/confirmation page

___ Add link to subscription preference page/account registration page

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___ Make corrections/adjustments and test a sub-segment of Gmail users

___ Send final survey invitation

___ Tally results

7. If warranted, deploy “Gmail Tabs Instructions” email. (Note: Read explanatory section carefully on p. 8 of this white paper before proceeding.)

___ Create, test and send email using your company’s standard best practices and workflow. See white paper for examples and advice. Invite readers to visit your Gmail Tabs instructions page and add the corresponding link.

___ Track results and compare with similar messages such as broadcast newsletters:

____ Open rate

____ Click rate

____ Delivery rate

____ Unsubscribes/unsubscribe rate

____ Spam complaints/complaint rate

8. Use social media channels to post Gmail Tabs info/instructions.

___ Twitter post with link to landing page. Date: _______ Repost? ___ Yes ___ No

___ Facebook post with link to landing page. Date: _______ Repost? ___ Yes ___ No

___ Slide with image/instructions/ link to landing page (Pinterest/Instagram/etc.)

Location: __________ Date: __________ Repost? ___ Yes ___ No

Location: __________ Date: __________ Repost? ___ Yes ___ No

Location: __________ Date: __________ Repost? ___ Yes ___ No

___ Video, posted on sites and/or embedded

on your landing page/preference page:

Location: __________ Date: __________ Repost? ___ Yes ___ No

Location: __________ Date: __________ Repost? ___ Yes ___ No

Location: __________ Date: __________ Repost? ___ Yes ___ No

___ Other social channels:

Location: __________ Date: __________ Repost? ___ Yes ___ No

Location: __________ Date: __________ Repost? ___ Yes ___ No

Location: __________ Date: __________ Repost? ___ Yes ___ No