Effect Of The Latest Gmail Policies On Email Marketing

By Author: Albert Mitchell
Total Articles: 566
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A recent Gmail update that rolled a few months ago allows Gmail users to view images in their mails directly without having to click on a separate link to download the images. Also, the same image does not have to be downloaded every time the users open the same mail.

The new image handling features in Gmail have both positive and negative consequences for email marketers. By automatically downloading inline images, Google has helped email marketers increase the impact of images. It eliminates one step from the process of viewing the marketing content, thus reducing efforts required by the users and increasing reader engagement.

However, the new feature poses difficulties in data collection. When a user opens an image loaded mail, Google stores the image in the cache memory of one of its servers. The image seen by the viewer thus comes, not from the marketer’s server, but from Google’s server. When the user opens the mail again, Google displays the cached copy of the image rather than downloading it from the marketer’s domain again. This is a disadvantage for email marketers who use open tracking technique.

The ...
... open tracking technique is a simple feedback mechanism employed by marketers to obtain user information. This is done by inserting an invisible image only one pixel in size within the email body. When the mail is opened, this invisible image or the ‘tracking pixel’ is resent to the marketer’s email service provider (ESP) to record an ‘open’. It also holds information related to the user such as location, device, browser, cookies, and timing. The information is used for personalized market targeting in affordable email marketing services by Xpresso Marketing. For instance, email marketers can show store locations near the user’s location. They can also customize their content according to the device on which the content is being viewed. Cookies help marketers in ad synchronization. Innovative marketing techniques like countdowns make use of the timing information.

However, now the tracking pixel will be sent not from the user’s domain but through Google’s servers. By inserting itself between marketers and recipients, Google has set up restrictions on the access to user information. While this is a plus for the users’ privacy, it means a loss of large amounts of crucial data for email marketers.

The involvement of Google servers causes one more problem for email marketers. Now the marketer ESPs will be able to record only the first opens and not the subsequent ones. As a result, email marketers will not be able to gauge the total opens. However, the records for unique opens will become more accurate as it will filter out those busy recipients who open the mails but do not download the images on their own. Moreover, these changes will not affect Mac Mail and Outlook users.

The latest updated by Google in its email policies has raised many concerns among email marketers. Such situations call for innovative methods of customer engagement.