Over time, we have seen more people channeling their marketing messages into Gmail’s Primary Tab instead of the newer Promotions Tab. Why this preference? Let’s find out together.
In May 2013, Gmail announced the introduction of “tabs” and “new inbox” features. What the New Inbox does is to redirect incoming emails into different categories (or tabs). These tabs include Forums, Updates, Social, Promotions, and Primary. This means users can only select their preferred groups and organize their inbox to see new arrivals easily.
While users consider this a useful feature, marketers do not feel the same way. Marketers believed that recipients might not get to see or read their marketing emails if they are directed to the Promotions Tab. The implication of this is a drop in the open rates, and ultimately, revenue.
To fix this, some brands advised their subscribers to create plugins that overwrite these tabs. Others simply used special scripts to do the work. However, these are only short-term solutions that became ineffective after a while. And this is because marketers had some misconceptions about the whole arrangement.
Misconceptions About the Promotions Tab
It is the Same as Spam Folder
The “Inbox” comprises all the tabs – forums, updates, social, promotions, and primary. Conversely, the Spam Folder is entirely different. Having messages in the Spam Folder indicates that many users have marked such mails as spam.
It is a Part of the Inbox Folder
There are many tabs in the “Inbox” folder, and Promotions is one of them. The Promotions Tab is just there to curate all marketing emails to allow the end-user accesses them easily.
The tabs feature has been around for a couple of years. But it seems marketers just understand that they can boost their open rates if they redirect their marketing messages to the Promotions tab. Most users get several emails daily from different senders – colleagues, friends, social media sites, banking sites, and e-commerce sites. This makes prioritization more difficult. So, if your marketing emails come up in the Primary Tab of a user, they may, out of annoyance, flag them as spam. Let’s not forget that when it comes to redirecting marketing messages into the Primary tab, there is no universal rule. Rather than fighting the tabs, accept them as part of the setup and find ways to maximize them.
Gmail has added this feature to improve user experience and boost the chances of marketing emails getting read by recipients.
