How will Apple's new inbox tabs impact email marketing and placement in Gmail?
Summary
What email marketers say12Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Mailjet shares that maintaining a good sender reputation is always important, and this will help ensure emails are delivered to the inbox (or relevant tab) in Apple Mail.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that fortunately, we all have canned responses for the same question with respect to Gmail, so we can repurpose those.
Email marketer from EmailMonday answers that A/B testing becomes essential to understand how different email elements perform within Apple Mail's tabbed interface and optimize for better results.
Email marketer from MarketingProfs explains that user behavior within Apple Mail's tabs might differ from Gmail, requiring marketers to adapt content and frequency for optimal engagement.
Email marketer from LinkedIn shares that marketers need to closely monitor email performance metrics within Apple Mail to understand the impact of the new tabs on open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.
Marketer from Email Geeks explains there are no clues, as I understand it. Labels aren’t folders in Gmail, so it’s not like there’d be anything in the IMAP transaction
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum shares that attention-grabbing subject lines will be even more critical to stand out within Apple Mail's tabs and encourage users to open emails.
Email marketer from HubSpot suggests that maintaining consistent branding across all email communications will reinforce recognition and trust, potentially influencing how users interact with emails in Apple Mail.
Email marketer from Campaign Monitor explains that optimizing email preview text is crucial. Compelling preview text can entice users to open emails, even if they are placed in a secondary tab.
Email marketer from Reddit shares that refined segmentation and targeting are crucial. Marketers need to understand which segments are more likely to use Apple Mail and tailor content accordingly.
Marketer from Email Geeks predicts the most popular question will be: Why is my mail being labeled X at Gmail and Y at Apple?
Email marketer from Quora shares that increased personalization can improve engagement. Tailoring email content to individual user preferences might help emails stand out within Apple Mail's tabs.
What the experts say6Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks shares that Apple does not have a history of taking clues or suggestions from anyone.
Expert from Email Geeks thinks the chances of two different MBPs making the exact same placement decisions 100% of the time are probably about 0%!
Expert from Email Geeks notes you can actually create breadcrumbs to make tabs flow through to IMAP, but it's not something that is enabled by default. That's how inbox testers read Gmail tabs; they set up Gmail filter rules that convert a tab (category) into a particular IMAP folder.
Expert from Spam Resource announces Apple introducing tabs to their iOS mail app in a blog post.
Expert from Email Geeks asks: So if you’re reading Gmail in Apple Mail: are they going to try to take any clues from Gmail for placement, or is it possible for your boss to see the proof land in Promotions on Gmail but appear in Updates on their iPhone?
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that deliverability is still important, but inbox placement is the new focus. Apple Mail's tabs means marketers need to optimize for getting into the 'right' tab.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from Apple Developer Documentation explains that the MailKit framework provides tools for developers to integrate with Mail, but it does not directly influence how Apple Mail categorizes emails into tabs. This is determined by Apple's algorithms.
Documentation from Litmus shares that rendering across devices and clients still matters, but marketers should also test how their emails appear within the various Apple Mail tabs to ensure optimal display.
Documentation from Google Developers explains that while the Gmail API allows programmatic access to Gmail data, it does not influence how Apple Mail interprets or categorizes emails. Apple Mail's behavior is independent of Gmail's API.
Documentation from IETF explains that SMTP protocol governs email transmission, it does not influence how email clients like Apple Mail organize messages into tabs or categories. Tab placement is a client-side feature.
Documentation from RFC Editor explains that IMAP protocol handles email retrieval, it doesn't dictate how email clients like Apple Mail categorize messages into tabs. The categorization logic is client-specific.