New Gmail Inbox Has It All, But Can It Separate Naughty From Nice?
December 1st, 2014 by
Always on a mission to improve user experience, Google recently released a fresh new look to “Inbox by Gmail.” This update provided additional labels for better organization of your inbox, reminders, snooze options, attachment previews, and more.
Invite Only
Recent buzz about Inbox by Gmail has circulated, especially during the first phase of the invite-only system. People are curious about Inbox by Gmail because they want to be part of this exclusive group. If you have yet to receive an invite, send an email to inbox@google.com, and ask politely. Maybe Google will invite you in their next circulation.
Organize With Labels
Google announced Inbox by Gmail “is a better way to get back to what matters.” For this reason, Google created more categories of labels to keep emails organized. Gmail currently bundles emails under tabs “Primary,” “Social,” and “Promotions.” Inbox by Gmail will have many more label tabs available, like “Updates,” “Finance,” “Purchases,” “Travel,” and “Forums.” You also will have the option to create your own labels. This exciting feature organizes emails for you before they arrive in your general inbox.
Timeline
Warning, your general inbox will look different. When an email belongs to a label, it will be automatically placed within its designated tab. In your general inbox, you will only see who sent the email. This way, you will have less emails showing in your general inbox.
Mark Your Mail
Other features: you can mark emails as “important,” as a “to do,” you can add reminders to emails (with extra information like phone numbers), and you can snooze an email to get it out of your inbox until you’re ready to view it.
More Features
You can see the highlights of your email without opening the message. The new inbox previews reservation information, online orders, and pictures. You can also get real-time flight updates and speed dial a friend – all from your Gmail account.
Promotional Email
There are two reasons why I’m not excited as a professional, serving my clients who send the occasional promotional emails:
- Promotional emails are now one click further away from the target audience. These types of emails are thrown under a tab and may never be seen.
- In their general inbox people will only see a preview of all of your promotional emails. This will include the name of the person or business that sent the promotional email, but not the subject. This update will have a huge impact on the open rate of promotional emails.
Three tips for promotional email to pass the new application:
- Address the email to the name of a person rather than a business so the email looks more personal.
- People will scan the “Promotions” or “Social” inbox very fast, so you need to be unique and engaging to be noticed. Your subject line is extremely important. Perform some A/B testing to find out which type of subjects score best.
- Be relevant – send people emails they would want to read.
Inbox By Gmail: Yes Or No?
For personal-use and some business purposes, this new update deserves a big resounding YES! For people or businesses who send promotional emails, this demographic echoes a big fat NO!
Get an invite and let us know by email what you think of Inbox by Gmail. Your email will end up in our label “VIM” – Very Important Mail.
