While the amount of published information available to the general public continues to grow, the demand for more efficient systems to digest and manage personal information is also on the rise. Business and consumer worlds are converging. “Information systems” and “operations management” are terms that should no longer be linked almost exclusively to businesses. After all, who doesn’t want to save time and be efficient?
And Google knows this.
A Smarter Inbox Experience
Google recently introduced a new application, called “Inbox,” which will likely reduce your need to scour your already-swamped inbox for a boarding pass, a show ticket, or a receipt when you want it. The new app is designed to make it easier for Gmail users to organize and visualize messages in the form of “bundles,” with options including pins (for bookmarking), reminders, snooze, and other productivity features. It integrates with your Gmail account in a way that groups your email into categories like Travel, Promotions, Social, Finance, and more, and gives you control over what you want to see and when you want to see it.
Sound familiar? It should, because for the most part it is really an app version – customized for both desktop and mobile devices – of the current Gmail with a new look and some improved features. (Right now Inbox is invitation-only…go here to ask for an invitation.)
So, what’s the big deal here – besides Google making a big deal out of it?
Mobile Dominates Email Marketing
And vice versa. According to a LiveIntent report which analyzed over 4 billion ad impressions in Q1 2014, email is the most popular activity on mobile.
The trend is clear: people are moving away from desktops and laptops in favor of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. The latest statistics on email client market share tracked by Litmus Email Analytics show that Apple’s iPhone tops the leaderboard as the most popular email client, outperforming Gmail, Outlook, Windows Live Mail and many other well-known clients. As mobile email usage continues to skyrocket, Google responds to this inevitable trend by aiming to increase your productivity with a smarter email solution.
Deliverability or Visibility?
Nobody likes being swamped. The introduction of Google Inbox reaffirms both at the marketer and buyer levels that users are constantly looking for, and adapting to, a more user-friendly and effective platform that allows them to easily find and view the messages they want to see. When all is said and done, we live in a world of information explosions.
Yes, it will take time for people to get used to Inbox, but eventually it will be worth it – provided we all agree with Google’s intention to help us manage communications and get things done.
You may ask, “What about marketers and their concerns about deliverability”? Well, research and its statistics have yet to come to a conclusion as to whether the Gmail tabs, released in May 2013, have actually helped or hurt marketers since various studies have produced varied results. So let’s put some faith in ISPs – they certainly did not start mailbox services to block marketers’ email. Rather, they want to ensure their users are receiving the right message from the right person at the right time. After all, ISPs did invent filters and spam traps to catch spammers, to prevent the wrong messages from cluttering the inbox.
So, what implications can we draw? The answer is simple: recipient visibility always comes before marketer deliverability. Before you ask the question about deliverability, think twice about your overall content marketing and lead generation strategies:
– Are you building your lists organically, to ensure that you reach the people who want to receive your email – and decrease your chances of being marked as spam?
– Is the content designed in a way that resonates with your target audience?
– Is the layout optimized for mobile viewing?
– Is the message going to stand out from all the other messages categorized in the same bundle?
If ISPs and email recipients are continuously innovating and adapting to advancing technology … so should email marketers.
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