Google recently launched a new email app last week called Inbox, which basically sorts your gmail inbox into a newsfeed of highlights and offers all kinds of in-app short cuts such as making appointments, flight check-ins, etc.
See Demo Here
Inbox bundles your emails into genres, such as Travel, Finance, and Social, similar to the way Gmail does on your computer. It then pulls the highlights from each email so that you don't even have to open it to get the information you need. This seems like a time-saving shortcut for on-the-go email checkers but what does it mean for marketers? Much like the "Promotions" tab in Gmail, now all advertisement emails will be categorized as such, and potentially tucked away from attention into a perpetual state of un-openedness. The open rate, a common metric for email marketing effectiveness, will thus be adversely affected in all campaigns moving forward.
However, there also lies opportunity for creative marketing here. The app could prompt a restaurant or hotel reservation as a follow-up action to a calendar invite or booking email. A friend could send an email about a wedding with the retailer link for the registry directly posted. Even though promotional emails with content are bundled, the ease of adding a call-to-action in this type of format could increase conversion, in addition lowering unsubscribe rates. As the Inbox app and similar ones become more popular, email marketers will need to optimize the set-up their ads in order to maximize engagement in this new format.
Source: Ad Age
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