Earlier this week my inbox blew up with messages from entrepreneurs who were obviously scared that Gmail might destroyed their business model (or something very much along those lines – blew up might be a bit of an exaggeration). I have a really really hard time believing that any business is this reliant on another company, even the big Google. At first I read the notes & then I just started deleting them, one by one. Occasionally unsubscribing to the lists I wasn’t really clicking with anyway. The ones that told me I needed to immediately do something to the way I managed my own email account, to make sure I didn’t stop getting their emails. And going even one step further, telling me I must send a message to my own email list, telling them to do the same thing.
I could smell the fear. And I raised my hand up in my own frustration and wrote this post on my Facebook Wall.
The conversation (agreeing and disagreeing) was quite interesting, and if this is news to you, you’ll find some interesting tidbits there. (especially from my wise friend Nikole from ThatSuperGirl.com – we choose to disagree & still be friends)
Will I buy into sending a mass email to my email list telling them what to do?
No way! Not on your life.
Even if it means some people won’t see messages I send.
Today I’ve seen a huge flux of others writing about their thoughts on this topic. Some are great & funny reads. Some are packed full of fantastic stats and information. And I thought I’d start collecting them here on this page, so I can reference them later.
I’m using List.ly to update this list on the go. If you don’t see a list below, click refresh on the page. Sometimes it plays a disappearing act. Feel free to add yours to the list too. little pink button, I believe
As business problems go, this one seems really small to me. We learn to adapt as human beings, entrepreneurs and creatives. It isn’t the first time, or the last time we’ve had to make some kind of adjustment because a big company made a change that impacted business. Maybe this lackadaisical attitude comes from my years on the other side (in the software industry), I’m not sure.
Regardless, I’m not at all scared. It’s just part of business. We adapt and change on a dime if needed.
Back to regular scheduled programming?
p.s. Please do add your resources to this list. It would be fun to have
I am a gmail user for long. I do notice this tab but don’t feel any problems yet. Thanks for this post, now I know what to pay attention on it.
As a gmail user I’m loving the new feature and it doesn’t affect my email habits as much as people think. I already have gmail automatically sorting most of the newsletters and promotional mails I receive into a separate folder that I check when it’s convenient for me.
And as a business owner I assume most of my subscribers do the same. I seriously don’t see the problem. We ARE sending promotional mails, of course it’s okay to flag them as exactly that. We are not fooling anybody by pretending that we’re not.
I see all the hype as a lack of trust in the intelligence and digital savvyness of subscribers. And maybe even more important; a lack of confidence in the value of the content people deliver. I mean, if you’re putting out quality material in every single email you have nothing to worry about. People will figure out how to get to the good stuff. It’s like assuming that if you move the ice cream bowl out of someones immidiate reach they will forget about how delicious it is and never eat ice cream again. I’m pretty sure that’s not the case, or we wouldn’t have a problem with obesity anywhere.
Google new tab thing is impressive but same messages storing up my inbox is not seems convincing to me at all. I also feel tired by deleting same type of confirmations and notifications by another companies who are associated with Google. Change needed to done fairly or else in the future users will delete same messages without opening. Thanks.
I’ve heard about this Jackson, but haven’t experienced it personally. I wonder if I’m still being phased into this option & am not yet seeing the promotional notifications you’re talking about. hmm.. Food for thought.