Google Gmail Unsubscribe Feature…
Attention email marketers… Google hates you! Or… do they really love you and try to make your life easier?
I subscribe to the ‘Google loves you’ theory. Really though, it’s all how you look at it.
In Google’s latest Gmail update, an unsubscribe button will now appear in the header of promotional emails.
Normally, you’d have to find the unsubscribe method in an email, click on the unsubscribe link, and perhaps edit your mailing options. Google now makes the unsubscribe process a one-click step.
Simpler for the user… and at the same time valuable to the sender.
Email marketers often feel like any change that touches the email process is aimed at restricting their email marketing abilities.
Not so.
Keep in mind there are two types of email marketers out there. Nasty spammers (not you) and legitimate email marketers (likely you).
Let’s talk about legit email for a second.
Step back for a second and think about how a Gmail change can impact you.
1. The impact is based in part on the size of your list made up of Gmail addresses. If you have 5% of your list with Gmail addresses, your impact is small. If you have 30% of your list made up of Gmail addresses, you impact is larger. It’s likely you don’t have 100% of your list made up of Gmail addresses so don’t react as if your whole universe has been targeted by Google. It hasn’t
2. Google is NOT trying to make your life a living hell, they are trying to make their user’s lives better. And by making it easier to deal with email they are doing just that.
3. You only really, really know by testing what the impact really is in your situation. I recall when the Promotions Tab was introduced in Gmail the perception was that open rates would get hammered. Only one ESP that I know of, measured open rates for billions of emails sent to Gmail accounts before and after the change and they reported a marginal impact on open rates. A small effect, but not the end of email marketing as we know it.
Change is gonna happen.
Here’s how I look at it.
Before you let the tail wag the dog and try to outguess Google (which you can’t do by the way) make sure you are doing these three BIG things first. These three emailing practices mean you are using the channel effectively and won’t be knocked off track by any one change.
1. Send relevant info.
It should go without saying that the most important thing you can do is send information that is DESIRED by your readers. Give them something they want and they will find it, read it, and not unsubscribe. Leave the path and it doesn’t matter where the unsubscribe button is, they will find it and use it.
2. Segment like crazy.
This is part two of relevance. Tell me 10 identical messages you would send to brand new green prospects, past clients, current clients, and your blue chip clients. Hard to think of one message that suits them all. Now tell me one thing you would say uniquely to each of these segments. Once you split them up, you can make each message more targeted… more relevant.
3. Split test everything.
The reality is that the numbers don’t lie. You can tell by comparing open rates, click rates, or unsubscribe rates how your readers are reacting to your campaigns. If you’re worried about the Gmail promotions tab (and trying to sneak around it) and you’re not doing split testing, you’re focused on the wrong thing.
The great news about all of these changes is that while your competitors are zoned in on the wrong thing, you can focus on the right thing and get continually better results.