What Gmail’s ‘Unsubscribe’ Button Means For Marketers

According to an article from PCWorld, Google is readying the broader rollout of a major change to Gmail, at least in the eyes of marketers:

Starting this week, a new, clearly marked “unsubscribe” link will appear at the top of the header field in marketers’ emails. Previously only appearing for a small percentage of users, the feature will now be made available for most promotional messages with unsubscribe options, Google said on Thursday. Email recipients do not need to take action for the links to appear.

In the article, PCWorld quotes Vijay Eranti, who heads anti-abuse efforts at Gmail – sort of the Matt Cutts of email instead of search – with saying: “We want to empower users with an easy way to control what they want to receive.”

What It Means

While Google claims it will lower the amount of emails being marked as spam, which makes sense, but it may also drastically increase unsubscribe rates of marketing emails. It’s not yet clear what the change in unsubscribe rate will be, and I’m sure we’ll find out soon after it rolls out more broadly.

This could all end up being like Gmail tabs which rolled out last year. There was a lot of stress and speculation and marketers seemed to have adapted quite fine.

It’s not clear if this change will roll out on mobile or how prominently it will be displayed on mobile. With 65% of email being opened on mobile gadgets, according to VentureBeat, smartphones could the saving grace marketers are looking for.

How You Can Prepare

1. Maintain a high quality list. Make sure all are expecting to hear from you.


2. Engaging subject and clear call to action. Create emails that people find valuable.


3. Think mobile. With so many emails being opened on mobile devices, making sure the email looks good on mobile is a must-do.


4. Send at the right frequency. Test different frequencies if you don’t have an established cadence.


5. Include media. Studies have shown that include media, such as images and video in email can greatly improve CTR.

What do you think, email marketers? Are you worried about the upcoming changes?

Source: B2C_Business

What Gmail’s ‘Unsubscribe’ Button Means For Marketers