How Gmail Tabs Affect Email Marketing

Matt Grove at MailChimp:

More than half a year has passed since Gmail announced the new tabbed inbox. My initial research hinted that open rates took a hit, but at that point I was just looking at a few weeks’ worth of opens. Now that things have settled down, we can look at months’ worth of all kinds of engagement data. To be specific, I pulled 29 billion emails, 4.9 billion opens, 4.2 billion clicks, and 43.5 million unsubscribes to find out how Gmail’s tabs are affecting open rates.

I found this data fascinating, mainly because I hardly ever look at my ‘Promotions’ inbox tab these days. Email marketing is certainly taking some punches from Gmail recently.