Is Gmail About to Torpedo Email List Marketing?

I guess it's just too early to tell if that's going to affect email marketing.

-Gabriel

This is something.

I set up gmail to filter many messages I receive into folders. It has given more clarity to my main gmail inbox. If you are subscribed to many lists, I don't think you really have the choice. The majority of the people I have subscribed to would have their emails sent in folders (as long as they don't delete me from their lists due to inactivity). So, I don't see them unless I open the folder or search for them.

On the other hand I can see that a marketer who sends me an email may prefer that such a feature not be enabled.

As a person who also use autoresponders, I think that the new feature you have mentioned may make it even more important for marketers to have subscribers/fans who want/need to see their emails.

I think it's only a matter of time before Gmail completely wipes out crappy spam marketing emails.

If you write good emails, have double opt-in and the leads actually want to read your email, then the chances are you will benefit due to all the other crap hitting a users inbox is being filtered.

If you have good emails which are beneficial to the user then I see no reason why this should effect anything too majorly.

On the flipside, it's also possible that it might increase response rates as long as you don't send out crap.

The reason being the same one that "buying keywords" tend to convert better than "information keywords", i.e. if you talk to someone when they're in shopping mode they're much more likely to shop.

So if you bear this in mind when constructing email messages, it could actually be advantageous.

Does anyone know what Gmail's market share is?

I already filter my email based upon a number of factors, and use
automation a lot.

A while back, I logged into Gmail and noticed that I had over 163,000
emails in my inbox... I had sort of been using the inbox to store too
many things. So, I took a course (11-lessons) on email management,
and took my inbox from over 163,000 down to only 18 emails
without mass deleting anything. It took me about 6 hours to go
completely through the course, actually implementing what was
taught but I considered it totally worth the time invested since now
I spend less than an hour most days checking email when I use
to spend as much as 4 hours some days working through it all.

Mind you, I do a LOT of project coordination via email :p

I also publish several newsletters and several email courses. So,
I spend a lot of time testing and tracking how to get emails
delivered... and opened, and responded to

I sort of understand WHY Gmail would do this... they sorta know
that many users want it. They aren't deleting ezines and marketing
emails, they are just putting them in a separate place. I already
do this, and read which emails I want when I want to read them
since I know exactly where everything is.

Only time will tell though.

Willie

Not surprising when you understand that Gmail doesn't cater to Internet marketers, their services are for the average Internet user.

I like the update from a personal standpoint. I get this type of filtering better. If they may this type of inbox mandatory then there may be some changes coming. As of right now I had to go into the settings to make the change.

A power user has already made these type of filters. But you somewhat average gmail user still don't get what those tags mean. It is either delete,keep, or archive. This new filtering should be called Filtering For Dummies. It is so simple. Just pray you make it to a subscribers primary or promotions inbox.

I aint gon lie. I created a new autoresponder in Aweber, filled out everything including 2 emails. Then i joined my own list just to make sure everything was the way i wanted it to be. My email address from a Gmail account. Well... the email didn't arrive in my inbox... it landed in my spam folder. And the Aweber Spam Assassin rating was "0". This new approach by Gmail/Google must already be in effect.

My Gmail filter already filters out thousands of marketing emails for me. I check my spam folder every now and then to see if it accidentally flagged an important email and surprisingly it manages to catch all the marketing emails I have no interest in reading. It's like it can read my mind.

You can still tell your subscribers to check their spam folder and add your email address to their "white list".

You should always develop the relationship between you and your subscribers to a level where they always anticipate for your mail. This makes it so compelling to read your mail to such an extend that they can look for it even in the spam folder and unspam your mails. Relationship is the key.