Priority Inbox and Overcrowding – How Can Your E-mail Stand Out?
Four strategies to ensure your e-mail doesn't get lost with the rest of the marketing messages your customers receive every day.
Four strategies to ensure your e-mail doesn't get lost with the rest of the marketing messages your customers receive every day.
Currently, there is no stopping e-mail as an effective marketing channel. A recent Forrester Research survey, “US Email Marketing Forecast, 2009 To 2014,” indicated that 66 percent of respondents agree that e-mail is the most cost-effective marketing tool at their company. Therefore, more e-mail is going to be sent in 2011, crowding the inbox further.
In addition to this, the inbox could see some significant changes as e-mail clients find ways to combat information overload and provide customers with a better experience. The big names are competing to develop an inbox that a user has more control over. One that prioritizes e-mail messages based on behavior and also provides easier ways to mass-unsubscribe. Not to mention that Facebook’s version of the inbox will most likely be very different.
Gmail launched Priority Inbox last year, and it seems to be doing what it set out to achieve. The latest research from Google shows that “Typical Priority Inbox users spend 43% more time reading important mail compared to unimportant, and 15% less time reading email overall as compared to Gmail users who don’t use Priority Inbox.”
So what does this mean? It means, as marketers, we should have two clear strategic considerations for 2011:
Therefore, a well-developed e-mail marketing program needs to be well-tested, timely, and relevant so it beats the overcrowding, stands out in the inbox, and facilitates engagement.
Here are four easy but effective strategies you can implement today to accomplish this:
Use these tips to stand out from your competitors and ensure your e-mail doesn’t get lost with the rest of the marketing messages your customers receive every day.