In late May 2013, Google announced a new inbox that “puts users back in control.” As a marketer reading this, you may be concerned that: Your messages will be relegated to somewhere other than the primary inbox. Your email subscribers will no longer notice your marketing messages. You’ll see an overall lower return on investment (ROI) through email, as measured by clicks, opens, and sales.

1. “These Gmail changes are part of a larger
trend that’s been in motion for years and
will continue.”
Chad White
Principal, Marketing Research
ExactTarget
In late May 2013, Google announced a new inbox that “puts
users back in control.” As a marketer reading this, you may
be concerned that:
• Your messages will be relegated to somewhere other than
the primary inbox.
• Your email subscribers will no longer notice your
marketing messages.
• You’ll see an overall lower return on investment (ROI)
through email, as measured by clicks, opens, and sales.
While these worries are common among marketers,
there’s nothing to fear. In this paper, we provide the
tactics and tips you need to stay top-of-mind among your
subscribers who use Gmail. We’ll explain what has actually
changed, the impact that the new inbox will and won’t have
on your marketing, and how to tailor this inbox change to your
brand’s benefit.
New Inbox Rollout
By the end of July 2013, it appears that all Gmail users will
be switched over to the tabbed inbox interface. By default,
Gmail gives users a tabbed inbox experience with three initial
tabs: Primary, Social, and Promotions. If a user clicks on the
plus button (+), they can edit which tabs are displayed. Two
additional tabs are available: Updates and Forums. These
two additional tabs are not enabled by default.
There’s also an option to change how “starred messages”
will be handled. By default, starring a message will ensure
it is included in the primary inbox. The user can disable this
if desired.
Improve your marketing alongside the new changes with these steps.
Email
Gmail gives users a tabbed inbox experience with three
initial tabs: Primary, Social, and Promotions.
Gmail’s New Inbox
exacttarget.com

2. Subscribers Can Still Find Your Messages
Because we at ExactTarget have yet to observe a negative
impact against open rates or click rates, we believe that
Gmail-using recipients are still easily able to find, read, and
interact with your email messages. If you’re sending mail
that is truly desirable, subscribers will continue to find you—
even if your emails are located in a different tab.
Any negative impact from this change is more likely with
messages that subscribers find less desirable. It is very
important to continue to focus on subscriber engagement—
“edge case” senders that already struggle with inbox
placement are more likely to find open rates and click
rates decline, as they’re more likely sending messages that
subscribers find less interesting.
The Ever-Evolving Inbox
Chad White, ExactTarget’s Principal of Marketing Research,
remarks, “It’s important to put the new changes at Gmail in
context with previous changes at Hotmail, Yahoo, and other
inbox providers. These Gmail changes are part of a larger
trend that’s been in motion for years and will continue.
The inbox is bifurcating because email is so highly used that
better organization is needed. My opinion is that marketers
should applaud changes that make the email experience
more positive and more efficient.”
Has this change made the email experience more efficient for
users? It’s too soon to tell, but it’s also too soon to deduce
whether or not email ROI will be significantly impacted by
the Gmail update. Certainly, email ROI was not destroyed by
previous, similar changes made at various Internet service
providers (ISPs) and webmail platforms.
So far, open rates and click rates do not appear to have
significantly declined. At this time, available data does not
indicate lower open and click-through rates due to the new
Gmail tabbed inbox. In short, we are not seeing a significant
impact to subscriber email message interactivity. This could
change over time—we will monitor closely and update
our guidance as necessary—but so far, the new inbox
has not severely impacted subscriber engagement with
marketing messages.
exacttarget.com
Email
Gmail’s New Inbox

3. A Percentage of a Percentage
According to Google, there were over 425 million active
Gmail users as of June 20121
. According to email testing and
tracking service Litmus, approximately four percent of all
email opens can be attributed to Gmail webmail users, as of
June 20132
. Litmus data suggests that this ranks Gmail just
behind the Outlook.com and Yahoo! Mail webmail platforms.
Thus, it is important to remember that any potential decline
in Gmail user email interactions will impact only some subset
of that four percent of users reading mail in Google’s webmail
user interface.
Controlling Message Placement:
What You Can’t Do
Before focusing on recommendations for improving email
open rate and placement in the inbox, let’s go over what isn’t
currently possible.
You can’t tell Google to move your messages to a
different folder. Gmail has not published a list of criteria
governing whether or not a message goes to the promotions
folder. It’s likely that Google is using a combination of criteria
and that these criteria will evolve over time. It wouldn’t be
surprising if Gmail were including user feedback in this
equation; they are encouraging users to drag email messages
to different tabs as appropriate, so please your customers
and you’ll continue to be rewarded by Google.
There is not a switch or flag you can add to email
messages to prevent placement in the promotions
tab. At this time, there is nothing a sender can do to
ensure that their email messages are routed to one
tab versus another. We recommend that you keep
calm, keep close watch, and be prepared to make
changes to marketing programs or content in the future,
if warranted.
There is no “Google hotline” you can call to coerce
somebody into re-allowing messages back into the
primary inbox. For now, we strongly recommend against
attempting to modify email headers or body content to try
to get the Gmail system to route messages to a different tab.
Google is very likely to consider this practice as gaming the
system, and ISPs react highly negatively to these attempts.
Bulk foldering or blocking could result, so maintain your
typical email best practices and don’t try to find a sneaky
way out of your inbox placement.
The Rewards of Recognizable,
Consistent Branding: What You Can Do
Your email strategy isn’t doomed. In fact, this change within
the Gmail web interface may help you edge above your
competition if you play to your brand’s strengths.
ExactTarget Senior Policy Compliance Specialist Mickey
Chandler points out that with this change, Google displays
the friendly “from” name of various senders in the various
tabs. A consistent, appropriately branded “from” name
means that your brand or company name will show up in the
tab heading, making it even easier for a subscriber to know
that an email message from your brand awaits them. Mickey
notes, “I think this will reward companies who have a policy
of using recognizable and consistent branding strategies in
their emails and who pay attention to the details—whether
that’s the branding of their ‘from’ lines, their preheaders, or
their sending reputations.”
Use this opportunity to improve your marketing. Regardless
of updates and interfaces, marketers will always be
rewarded by paying close attention to user interactivity and
engagement.
Email
Gmail’s New Inbox
1
theverge.com/2012/6/28/3123643/gmail-425-million-total-users
2
emailclientmarketshare.com

4. ExactTarget Senior Marketing Consultant Jeremy Bromwell
explains, “This change highlights the increasing importance
of first-send interaction. A practice like double opt-in would
require interactivity from a subscriber before allowing for
future emails, strongly protecting your sending reputation. A
series of well-done welcome marketing messages are another
way to appropriately set the subscriber’s expectation with
regard to content and frequency of messaging. And finally,
remember the importance of truly personalized, behavior-
driven messages to maximize the opportunity for action.”
Another piece of good news for marketers: This change has
a limited impact on mobile rendering, so your mobile strategy
can remain business-as-usual for the time being. The Gmail
app for Android and Apple’s iOS (iPhone) platforms does
include the new tab functionality. However, Apple’s default
mail reading application on iOS does not support this
functionality. For recipients reading your email messages on
Apple’s default iOS email application, all messages will be
found in the old-fashioned inbox, not within tabs.
According to recent data from Return Path, the vast majority
of mobile email activity takes place from the default iOS email
application. So, what’s the point? The new Gmail inbox’s
current impact to mobile Gmail subscribers is very small.
The Takeaway: Continue Building
Your Brand and Helping Your Subscribers
Regardless of changes to the inbox and new user interfaces,
the principles of consistent branding, respecting your
subscribers’ preferences, and offering valuable and helpful
content remain the same.
As always, we at ExactTarget will continue to monitor Gmail
subscriber activity trends and will report any significant
developments. Stay tuned to the email deliverability section
on the ExactTarget blog for the latest in deliverability news
and trends.
Email
“This change highlights the increasing
importance of first-send interaction.
A practice like double opt-in would
require interactivity from a subscriber
before allowing for future emails,
strongly protecting your sending
reputation. A series of well-done welcome
marketing messages are another way
to appropriately set the subscriber’s
expectation with regard to content and
frequency of messaging. And finally,
remember the importance of truly
personalized, behavior-driven messages
to maximize the opportunity for
action.”
Jeremy Bromwell
Senior Marketing Consultant
ExactTarget
Gmail’s New Inbox