Google's new Priority Inbox

I'm already a huge user of Gmail, and a huge user of Gmail's filters and labels. So, I was very curious to learn how this new Priority Inbox functionality would impact my Gmail experience., as well as (obviously) wondering exactly how this will impact email senders.

Here's what a few other folks have had to say about it.

• Forrester's Augie Ray: The new Priority Inbox feature in Gmail hints at Social Media’s next great battleground:  Relevance!
• Google: Email Overload? Try Priority Inbox
• PC Mag: Hands on with Priority Inbox
• TechCrunch: Priority Inbox is "Fantastic"
• My ExactTarget colleague Karen Balle on the topic.

Gmail says: "Gmail's servers look at several types of information to identify the email that's important to you, including who you email and chat with most, how often you email with these people, and which keywords appear frequently in the emails you read."

Chatting about this with Chip House and the rest of the fine folks within our email deliverability services team, we think that this means that emails are likely to be given priority disposition if they come from people you chat with, people who you email the most or reply to and/or people who send messages that the system has deemed to be relevant. We theorize that this last category could be based by content (keywords, perhaps) that appear in messages either commonly received or commonly interacted with.

So what does that mean for you? In the long term, this advice is subject to change. But here's what I think is a good starting point.

Transactional messages -- information that is truly valuable to the recipient, relating specifically to their interactions with you -- could be helpful with regard to maximizing the chances that your commercial messages will receive the priority treatment. Since the user is very likely to open and read messages with their monthly statement info, confirming orders, etc., it seems likely that transactional messages provide benefit here.

Un-engaged subscribers are a waste of your time. If they're not opening your messages, you're not going to get priority treatment in their mailbox. It's going to be even harder to get signs of life, and the lack of that sign of life is likely to be even more detrimental to your overall deliverability. This suggests to me that it is time to take one last re-engagement run at those non-interacting users, then let them go.

Consider allowing subscribers to reply to your email messages. Active email interaction -- two-way email exchanges -- are likely to help boost your chances at receiving priority treatment. Our RMM (Reply Mail Management) functionality can handle the unsubscribes and out-of-office responses. What about the rest of it? Perhaps you could encourage your subscribers to reply with feedback on your products or services. That could be valuable information for you to utilize for website testimonials, recommendations on guiding future development, etc. The key here is two way communication, so your ability to shine here is likely going to be driven by your ability to engage with your customers via an email dialog. Are you able to respond to a customer's reply? If not, it might be time to consider how you can change that.

And of course, relevance remains key. Email with information people want. Email they signed up for and are expecting. All of this suggests that relevance has an even greater impact on your deliverability than it did last month. For tips on crating relevant and targeted email campaigns download the 1 to 1 Marketing Field Guide.