Email Marketing In A Google Tabs World
A Battle For Their Inbox – How Gmail Tabs, Subscriber Apathy & Clueless Marketing Can Destroy Email Marketing… And What You Can Do About It
For ages, marketers have faced the challenge of winning and retaining the attention of their prospects.
In an earlier era of advertising, it was possible to shout loudly enough to attract everybody’s attention – at least for a brief moment. TV and radio were pervasive in their reach. Audiences were captive, forced to watch or listen to advertisements in between programs.
That age has passed.
Today, our prospective clients and customers are bombarded by ads from all directions, at all hours of the day and night, from every conceivable medium they interact with. Shouting louder is no longer an effective strategy. It’s also costly.
Email marketing came as a welcome breath of fresh air to direct marketers and brand builders alike.
- Email is less expensive than direct mail or billboard ads or TV infomercials.
- It is personal and delivered right into email inboxes.
- It can be tailored and targeted at specific segments of the market with unique interests and desires.
And so, for a while, email marketing was very effective.
Until spam took over.
Buried under a deluge of unsolicited commercial email messages, hapless recipients – including your newsletter readers and email list subscribers, and mine – started tuning out email ads.
- They filtered out our messages.
- Filed them away in folders.
- Used software to nuke spam.
- Asked ISPs to block some senders.
And when all of this didn’t work, Google stepped in with Gmail Tabs.
It’s being called the “email marketing KILLER”.
Here’s what happens. Email that’s sent out using any bulk mailer, including email autoresponder service providers, will be AUTOMATICALLY rated as “promotional” messages – and filed under a tab of that label.
Your email will NOT get into your opt-in subscriber’s email inbox.
Read that sentence once again.
Got it?
Even if your subscriber opted-in, and confirmed that he or she wants to read your email messages, Gmail will shove it into the “Promotional” tab… where recipients can access it (or not!)
That’s bad news – if you consider that almost 40% of subscribers on many email lists use Gmail as their provider. And if Yahoo and Microsoft follow the same lead (as they likely will), this situation will get worse.
No wonder, then, that many email marketers are crying foul – or proclaiming the “Death of Email Marketing” from their digital rooftops.
But those of us who have been using email marketing since the 1990’s know, the “Battle of the Inbox” has always been fought on a non-level playing field.
And it is always won using unconventional tactics and strategies.
If all were fair in this war, the soldiers with more powerful tools and software would win – and get their email messages through defense lines into audiences’ email inboxes.
It’s tough, however, to win that way against a technological behemoth like Google – or even Yahoo! and Microsoft.
History has also proven that tool- and software-based solutions are only short-lived. To create breakthrough effects that transform your email marketing results, you need to adopt a totally unique approach.
How To Win The Battle For Their Minds
Let clueless marketers fight over how to sneak their email messages into subscriber inboxes. We’ll sidestep that tussle – and achieve our goal more easily.
Think about this scenario for a moment.
You have a problem. Seek out a solution. Find it on a website.
The site publishes an email newsletter. It delivers valuable information which can help you with related problems. You sign up to receive it.
The first issue hits your email inbox – and is filtered to the “Promotions” tab by Google Mail.
What will YOU do?
It’s obvious. You’ll go to Gmail’s Promotions tab, open the newsletter, and glance through it.
That’s the point at which the ‘Battle For Your Mind’ begins.
You see, from the email marketer’s perspective, they have ONE shot at catching and retaining your attention – and ONE MORE chance to win your loyalty and trust.
When they deliver overwhelming VALUE in their newsletter, you will WANT to receive more of it.
And so you’ll click on the message, drag it to your ‘Primary’ tab, drop it there… and then click on the Gmail option that says, “Do this for all future emails from XXX@abcdef.com”
But when the email communication itself is worthless… well, it’ll just stay in the “Promotions” tab – which, for practical purposes, is the equivalent of an email blackhole.
And, frankly, it deserves to remain there – because it is NOT of value to the recipient.
How You Can Differentiate… And Win
By becoming the kind of email marketer that DELIGHTS prospects and subscribers with the value you share in your communication, you can set yourself apart from all other competitors – and secure an unbeatable position in your readers’ mind.
A great guide to learning about this is “POSITIONING – The Battle For Your Mind” by Al Ries and Jack Trout.
Once you have become the kind of email marketer who consistently provides great value to subscribers, THEY will figure out ways to receive, read, and respond to your messages.
An extra-ordinary amount of time and effort is spent on trying to wriggle through email filters into the inbox. But ridiculously little is spent on deserving to be there in the first place.
Flip things around.
Focus on quality and value-addition in your email marketing. Then sit back and watch as your loyal, eager and responsive audience figures out how to avoid missing out on it!
Of course, having the right tools matters a lot. No point in making it easier for your email to get lost in transit. Using a reputed, high quality email distribution service like Aweber to manage your opt-in email list can help eliminate most of the technical problems of email marketing.
But beyond that, it’s all in your hands!
EMAILNAIRE is our brand new email marketing course in which you’ll learn some amazing ways to delight your audience – so that they’ll want to hear from you, and take care to filter your emails right into their inbox!
Try it out risk-free today – click here.
JOIN NOW : Next 12-week eClass Begins Soon! CLICK HERE |
