COMMENTS
It all means getting rid of the noreply email address and encouraging engagement via email. And it means sending each message individually.
I think this post is in reference to gmail's "Smart Label" feature, and not "Smart Folder". While this might seem like a trivial typo, it has a huge impact on the context of the feature. "Smart Labels" pose no real immediate threat to email marketers because it merely add a label to mailings as they come in. The message is, indeed, added to the a folder that corresponds with its new label. However, the message remains in your inbox as well. Thus, the only way to have the message moved out of one's inbox is to run a filter on all messages labeled with a particular value and let's face it, if you're setting up filters to control your inbox, chances are you are already using labels. Correct me if I'm missing something here.
You might not want to post a print screen that has an SMS contact and their phone number showing in it....
"Annonymous" (sic) -
It's a print screen of the Google Labs page. That's the sample picture Google uses.
I don't get it. I sign up for newsletters, so obviously I want to read them. Why filter them? I can do that myself.
While this will affect email marketing for sure, your advice is very wise. Creating great content and engaging with your community is key.
Same as if you had 20 people shouting at you, you'd certainly recognize your friends or associates fist...
thanks for the tip hubspot!!
Actually, I don't mind sorting through my junk mail. I think most people do this once and a while to check if they missed things, no? And sometimes, a good e-mail in there is worth more than a good e-mail in my inbox with my other newsletters.
As an email marketer, I'm in favor of it. I'd love for my subscribers to have fewer messages in their inbox. They'll be able to get to mine that much more quickly :-)
I think it's going to effect ESP's the most. Why use a bulk delivery serives if it's going to be sent directly to junk.
The smart ones will develop their own email system delivery system to get around this.
Thanks Tony for your observation.
If you are correct; is very important to know the difference between smart label and smart folder.
@Tony @Juan
I engaged this feature on my Gmail account yesterday and activated the "Bulk" Smart Label.
While it does work as a label, similar to ones you can create on your own, it does also filter out messages into the Bulk label out of my inbox. When I logged in this morning, I thought I was missing a bunch of messages I usually receive daily, but they had in fact been flagged as Bulk and quasi-moved. I had to click on the Bulk label, which did show the number of unread messages, to see them. So while they aren't placed in a folder, they are filtered out of the general Inbox, as well as the Priority Inbox feature.
RS
Smart email marketers have know tools like this will be coming out. Most consumers have been using something to weed out the spam. The message create permission based marketing then create quality content.
In regards to the "trivial typo" or "semantics" of smart folder vs Smart label comment by Tony.
The smart label feature does more than apply the "bulk" label, it removes it from the inbox too, so whilst the terminology Google uses is "label" in reality it is more of a folder.
Hi Kip and everyone else,
I'm a member of the Gmail team. Great tips on how to improve your newsletters! I love what you have said about engagement and setting expectations with your customers.
I want to note that this feature makes a distinction between newsletters and spam. The Spam folder in Gmail is where we put messages that we think that users don't want to see. I rarely check my Spam folder. The Smart Labels lab, on the other hand, allows users to specify how they want to receive mail that they want, but not necessarily right now. Personally, I prefer to browse my newsletters at once in one place, rather than as they come in. Other people may have different preferences, which is why Smart Labels is opt-in and configurable by the user.
One more quick note for you all -- if you're having trouble with your Gmail deliverability, check out our Bulk Senders Guidelines. Lots of tips in there to make sure your messages don't get incorrectly flagged by our system, and to make sure that users don't mark your mail as spam.
https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=81126
Best,
Sarah
I think it will be dooms day for email marketer if smart folder is wild adapted.
Regarding this service. I am going to activate it right now from the google labs and see how it works.
This is so frustrating. Adding more hoops for the user. Even if it's currently opt-in, I imagine it won't stay that way for long. My emails to my customers and new job applicants sent from my *dedicated server* STILL hit the spam folder with Gmail (and not others). And the spam folder is much more hidden on Gmail for the user to find and review periodically. This will be just one more reason people who want or already have my services will think I'm ignoring them. Maybe it would be nice for Google to wait to implement changes that harm service providers until after the economy sees some improvement. I imagine there is incentive for them to drive more traffic to PPC by harming email marketers. Unfortunately, I won't be able to buy PPC if I'm out of business.
In some respects this is already been happening for sometime with the general "filter" option. In fact, I already do this with my Hubspot email.
But, I ck it once a day because I really want to read what's being sent.
I teach organization and information management in the context of time maangement - this functions enables one less decision in the sorting emails.
It all goes back to what we're all about - genuine interest, quality content, and relationship building...both on and off line.