Justine Jordan from Litmus answers our questions about Gmail, giving some great, deep advice for email marketers
Gmail is a growing and popular email client which is the second most important email client by market share. Since it has such great reach and it has its own set of pros and cons email marketers need to be clued up on the way Gmail feature affect their email open rates and how they display. We interviewed Justine Jordan from email experts Litmus to delve into the detail of how Gmail should be taken into account when email marketing.
Gmail on Mobile
Question 1. How is the trend towards mobile affecting opens in Gmail?
In November 2013, Gmail began to cache images for emails opened in a web browser or a Gmail mobile app. Cached images are stored on Gmail’s servers, and loads the same images from the same servers for everyone. As a result, emails opened in Gmail with a web browser will be indistinguishable from an email opened in a Gmail mobile app. All opens in Gmail look like they’re coming from the same place—even though some are coming from web browsers and others are coming from mobile apps. This image caching behavior—and the resultant lack of insight into mobile Gmail stats—occurs for all Gmail opens (those that occur in web browser as well as in the Gmail Android or iPhone/iPad app).
This means that, since November 2013, marketers have no longer been able to tell how many of their Gmail opens are coming from mobile devices. This is kind of technical—but the essence here is that the trend toward mobile opens in Gmail is ambiguous at best; making it difficult for marketers to understand their audience and optimize emails accordingly.
Another major factor affecting Gmail is the lack of media query and responsive support on this platform. This includes mobile apps for Android and iOS, including Inbox by Gmail. This can cause a huge problem for marketers, especially if it is suspected that many Gmail opens may be mobile users. A lack of support for responsive design in email may decrease the chances of subscribers opening emails in the future due to a poor subscriber experience.
Gmail Open Rate Trends
Question 2. Gmail opens are up nearly 20% on last year, but have dropped 4.7% over the course of this year. These two trends appear contradictory. Do you think Gmail opens will continue to increase on average or do you see this as the start of a decline?
In January 2014, Gmail began automatically downloading images for emails viewed in a web browser and Gmail mobile apps. Since opens in email are tied to an image loading, this change led to an increase for Gmail opens over the last year. It’s hard to say whether the 20% rise in opens was indicative of Gmail opens correcting after a long period of image blocking, a growth in user numbers, or both. As businesses small and large invest in cloud-based email solutions, they are moving away from installing Outlook on employee machines and using services like Google Apps instead. I think we’ll see some turbulence in Gmail opens over the next year as this transition plays out.
Despite the challenges that Gmail renders, it continues to provide high subscriber engagement even with a decrease in Gmail opens. Although iPhone opens lead email open market share at 28%, Gmail leads second at 16% of market share.
Some changes Gmail has made, such as the introduction of the promotions tab, made marketers afraid their emails would be ignored. However, this change turned out to be beneficial to marketers—giving users more control of their inbox allowed them to look at promotional emails when they had time instead of when the marketer decided it was time. Rather than promotion emails getting buried in the primary inbox, the promotions tab became a destination for when subscribers were ready to engage. The success of the Gmail change proved that people want to have an email relationship with the brands they subscribe to.
Gmail Media Query Support
Question 3. Media queries are not supported in Gmail - this presents a problem for responsive design. How can email marketers get around this?
Lack of responsive design support can cause a huge problem for marketers, especially if it is suspected that a significant number of Gmail opens may be from mobile users.
The best solution for marketers is the “hybrid” coding approach. This approach mimics responsive design by utilizing fluid layouts (layouts that grow and shrink in response to the screen they are viewed on) and fluid images (images that scale along with their layout) but does not use media queries. This approach can be used in conjunction with media queries (hence the term “hybrid”) and traditional responsive design for devices that support it, but will gracefully “fall back” to an acceptable layout for Gmail users. Hybrid coding also requires a few hacks to ensure that emails continue to work in clients like Outlook.
A lack of support for responsive design may ultimately decrease the chances of subscribers opening emails in the future. However, there is evidence that Gmail may begin to support media queries, based on a response during a Reddit AMA earlier this year. As email marketers, that was a moment to celebrate, as it would make marketers’ lives easier and subscribers’ experience better. We’ve yet to see any action on this from Gmail, but we’re optimistic it’s a change we’ll see in the future.
Unique features of Gmail
Question 4. Does Gmail offer any unique opportunities for email marketers to exploit that are not present in other email clients?
Marketers can tailor the email experience specifically for Gmail users using “quick actions.” Quick actions summarize the main call-to-action the user would find in the body of the email and are visible in the inbox, directly after the sender name and subject line. These CTAs allow users to click through without opening the email.
Some examples of Gmail quick actions include:
- Offering airline check-in
- Responding to a calendar invitation
- Tracking a package
- Viewing a trip itinerary
Gmail also specifies that quick actions "should be used for transactional mail where a high interaction rate is expected. They should not be used on promotional bulk mail." To prevent abuse, Google requires marketers to register with Google, authenticate their messages with DKIM or SPF, and adhere to common best practices.
Marketers interested in using quick actions should expect open and click rates reported by their ESP to drop. Quick actions offer marketers direct access to conversion opportunities in the inbox—bypassing the need for users to take action in the email body. It’s also a win for Gmail users, offering less friction and a quicker path to a clean inbox.
Gmail on iOS
5. Gmail for iOS automatically enlarges fonts in some emails- What can Email Marketers do to make sure this won’t adversely affect the design of their emails.
Gmail for iOS will automatically enlarge fonts within some emails. This happens, albeit a bit arbitrarily, when Google deems the text in emails to be too small. While an HTML and CSS-based “fix” exists to prevent Gmail on iOS from modifying fonts, marketers should tread with caution when deciding when and where to implement. Consider whether it’s possible that your font truly is too small—it may be unreadable or not actionable, which can adversely affect your click or conversion rates. Plan designs carefully to allow for flexibility with changing font sizes.
Difference between different Gmail operating system apps
Question 6. In terms of Google’s (or should I say Alphabets?) email clients, there is Gmail and there is Google Android. Put together they are responsible for 22% of all email opens. What differences between these two platforms do Email marketers need to be aware of?
Gmail and Google Android are two very different platforms. For example, many marketers may think that an Android is an Android, and that all emails opened on any Android device will look the same. This is not the case. Email does not look the same on every device.
The app or program used to open an email is what will determine how that message is displayed—and multiple types of apps are available for each device and platform. It’s important to remember that all of these apps have different quirks in how they render email. Since rendering is not tied to devices, but to the apps users view email on, marketers should consider the most common mobile email apps their subscribers use.
Mobile email applications will vary widely in their support media queries (which means responsive designs will not work), preview text, or ability to scale a message to fit the user’s screen. For example, a user may have to scroll left and right horizontally in order to see the entire message in the Email app for Android, but not in the Gmail app.
To further complicate matters, some smartphone manufacturers make modifications to the built-in email client, creating a whole host of additional problems.
Gmail image caching
Question 7. Gmail caches images – How does this affect reporting on email effectiveness and general gathering of data for analytics?
Mobile Gmail apps for both Android and iOS download images automatically and serve them via Google’s caching service. When Gmail automatically downloads and caches images, those cached images, including open tracker pixels, are stored on Gmail’s servers. Gmail then loads the same images from the same servers for everyone, regardless of whether they open using Gmail in a web browser or a Gmail Android or iPhone app.
As a result, Gmail opens made in a browser and on mobile Gmail apps (for iOS and Android) look the same—there’s no way to distinguish webmail from mobile. While automatic image downloads mean more accurate open rates and a better subscriber experience, image caching eliminates the ability to determine the user’s device. To be clear, this only affects opens that occur in Gmail, either in a web browser or in a Gmail mobile app. Emails sent to Gmail accounts but opened in other mail apps are not affected.
Business vs consumer Gmail use
Question 8. Outlook and to a lesser extent Apple mail are frequently used by businesses for work emails. Is Gmail used heavily for work emails or does it remain primarily a platform for personal email? – Related to this, how does this affect the ROI expectations of emails to Gmail accounts? Do you think work or personal emails offer better prospects for email marketers? How does this vary between industries?
Gmail also has an enterprise/business email product (Google Apps for Work) which can be used with a custom domain. This gives businesses the ability to utilize Gmail’s suite of productivity tools such as Hangouts, Calendar, Drive, and of course—Gmail. Businesses can use their own domain and give users access to the Gmail features they’re familiar with, and external recipients have no idea that the business may be using Gmail. In fact, Litmus and Salesforce.com use Gmail for employee email.
Google claims that Gmail has 900 million users worldwide (more than double the 425 million reported three years ago), but do not disclose how those accounts break down between consumers and businesses.
Businesses using Google Apps for Work have lots of options—they can use a custom domain, and anyone using web-based email can also choose to open their email in any number of desktop or mobile apps. For example, Litmus uses Gmail with a custom domain, and I can choose to route my messages to Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, my iPhone (or all of the above). Marketers will see opens based on the email client or program used to open the message, rather than the service used to manage and distribute communications.
As for ROI expectations, it’s important for marketers to put subscriber experience first and meet users where they prefer to receive email. In this case, it doesn’t matter if personal email or work email offers better prospects. An email to the wrong inbox can result in lost customers, decreased brand loyalty, and lost revenue. For example, if a user prefers a certain email address for personal use, they’ll only expect personal content in that inbox rather than business or brand inquiries. It’s important for marketers to realize that not every inbox is an appropriate channel for brands to reach users. This is one of the reasons it is essential for marketers to obtain explicit opt-in and permission before mailing users
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