B2C marketers are faced with yet another challenge: Gmail’s new Manage Subscriptions tool.
Announced in July, this will lead to “a critical shift in how email marketing
performance will be measured, and how quickly disengaged subscribers can cut ties,” according to a paper by Moengage.
The new tool allows users to:
- Track how frequently brands email them
- See when they last opened a message
- Tap a one-click unsubscribe button—without opening the
email
Now look at the marketer's side of this:
- Consumers can unsubscribe without opening your emails
- Consumers can see
in Gmail how often you email them
- Consumers can see how long it has been since they engaged with your brand
All this could cut into
your email list and your overall volume.
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To hear Moengage tell it, these changes will most impact the following high-risk sectors:
- Retail and Ecommerce—Retailers often send several emails a week to each subscriber., but shoppers can now track this volume and act accordingly—not a good thing for brands that
focus on batch-and-blast campaigns.
- Health, beauty, and personal care—Companies in this vertical leverage email to drive repeat purchases and loyalty, but fatigue
can take hold when every customer receives the same message and unopened emails pile up. The solution is lifecycle-based messaging that reflects the customer’s stage in the buying
journey.
- Quick-service restaurants and food delivery—This industry is known for its high-frequency messaging for daily deals, time-sensitive offers and rewards; this
volume, however, will be extremely visible in the new Gmail dashboard. Brands should use location-based personalization to send relevant hyper-local emails.
- Media and
entertainment—This industry sends bulk emails that are vulnerable to the so-called “unsubscribe sweep.” The answer is to make content feel personal, even at scale.
- Financial services and fintech—Consumers are not likely to receive the same volume of email as in other sectors, but these generic messages can be seen as noise. Marketers should
segment more thoughtfully.
In general, Moengage recommends that email marketers:
- Prioritize relevance over volume
- Make personalization feel
effortless
- Respect frequency and preferences
- Use lifestyle segmentation
- Optimize for mobile and Gmail’s experience
What is
the upside of this change? Moengage quotes Omar Merlo, an associate professor of marketing strategy at Imperial College London: “This isn’t the end of
email marketing,” Merlo says. “It is perhaps the end of sloppy email marketing.”