Litmus also noted that Gmail’s May introduction of its new tabbed interface, which uses an algorithm to separate out promotional messages into its own channel, had caused concern among email marketers. The convergence of Gmail tabs and mobile opens will be among the most important trends for email marketers to pay attention to going forward.
The Litmus study found that a significant share of Gmail opens occurred on mobile devices, with 54% of Gmail emails opened on either an iPhone or Android device, and another 9% opened on the iPad. Only 19% of Gmail opens occurred via Gmail on the web.
Notably, given the wide distribution of Gmail opens, Litmus found that less than 50% of opens on the mail service occurred on a client that supported tabs.
Overall, Gmail users seem to have had a largely positive response to the new tabbed inbox. An August survey of US internet users conducted by email marketing solution provider StrongView found that the majority of users of Google’s email service had had a neutral or positive response to tabs. Nearly half said that the change had had no effect on the management of their inboxes. However, younger Gmail users found that tabs made email management easier in greater numbers than the overall group of respondents.
Gmail’s tabbed inbox has also had a more dramatic effect on the way younger users interact with promotional emails, according to StrongView. The company found that one-third of Gmail users ages 18 to 24 said they had interacted with promotional emails less as a result of the tabbed inbox, compared to just under one-fifth among all age groups.
But the increasing importance of Mobile must be as well put in context with the findings of the new Google/Ipsos research: Whether someone is searching on their mobile device for a restaurant, a local service, or a car rental, the presence of a click to call button increases click-through rates and brand perception, according to
A new survey of 3,000 mobile searchers who recently made purchases in seven verticals (Travel, Restaurant, Auto, Local Services, Retail, Finance, Technology) revealed that 70 percent of mobile searchers click to call a business directly from Google’s search results. Across all seven of the verticals Google researched (Travel, Restaurant, Auto, Local Services, Retail, Finance, Technology), click to call, whether it appeared in the paid or organic results, was an important feature for people looking to find information and make purchases, Google said.
Calls are most important to mobile searchers who are researching (52 percent) or ready to buy (61 percent).
And what about businesses that don’t offer a call option? Almost half of those surveyed said «the lack of a call option would lead them to be both frustrated with the business and more likely to turn to another brand. Additionally, 33 percent said that they would be less likely to refer the brand to others and would be less likely to use the brand in the future.»
Thus, it is clear that the design of the emails must change and take advantage of the new technologes to be as self-transactional as possible. And that also shouldincludes a call button because at the end of the day we cannot forget that the potential client is using a phone !
