Google is on a continuous drive to make their email platform easy to use and clutter free. As a result more and more Gmail users can simply choose to ignore your messages if you haven’t done your homework and presented your email marketing campaign correctly. Take the new Gmail Unsubscribe button for instance, which has been now placed to feature prominently on all incoming commercial emails, giving readers the additional benefit to unsubscribe from marketing messages they don’t want to be receiving or consider as SPAM. While this new feature makes life simpler for Gmail users, it could have adverse effects on the readership of your valuable content.
While this concept is not entirely new, i.e. Outlook and Hotmail have been doing this for a while now, there are more and more users opting to use Gmail for their personal use. In fact even Gmail has been offering this service for a while, but it hasn’t been prominently featured in email until now. If you have a Gmail account, go to your inbox and open a commercial email you have received. You will notice the word ‘Unsubscribe’ placed right next to the recipients email address.
For marketers, this means more and more recipients could simply opt out of your incoming content. This however could actually be a good thing – if you know how to present your content, then you are looking at being one of the few senders who don’t end up as SPAM. It’s a good way to clear out the competition and have your message become a priority read. If you look at this new unsubscribe feature as an opportunity instead of a set-back, you could be on your way to sure-fire success with your content because all this new feature has done is further enhance the need for marketers to be on their toes, being more relevant and targeted with their approach in future.
If you are sending generic messages out to large audiences, then it’s probably time to stop and re- think your email marketing campaign, finding ways in which to convert your content into a presentation that people want to read. It’s also time to start looking at segmenting your existing list and creating groups based on information you already have in hand so that your next message is sent out to a group of people who are most likely to buy.
Change the way you approach your next email marketing campaign and this new Gmail Unsubscribe option is nothing but a powerful opportunity to keep you on top of your game and top-of-mind with your readers.