Auntie Kate The Resale Expert

Maybe you use Gmail.

Maybe Google’s changed the way you view your incoming mail, maybe they haven’t yet (but they will, so read on.) Here’s what Google has to say about sorting your mail for you. And a disinterested 3rd party explains further.

Here’s how to opt out of this (something I had to search for, since Google doesn’t seem to want to give us free will): Click on the little gear icon in the upper right of your screen, which takes you to Settings. Select “Configure Inbox” and UNcheck everything. You’ll be left with just Primary, which means “lump it all together and let me use my brain.”  Hit Save and exit.

But I don’t use Gmail, so why should I, as a resale shopkeeper, care?

Because it will affect your marketing, if you use email to motivate shoppers. If a customer on your mailing list uses Gmail, they’re likely to miss your communication. Where will your broadcast email to your mailing list end up? Your quickly sent simple reminder to A consignors or your Preferred Shoppers? Those email updates your blog software sends to folks who have subscribed to your blog? Or even the answer to an email they’ve sent YOU.

Your emails to your fans and followers will probably be hidden in the “Promotions” tab. And as you can imagine, this tab, which sounds like “ads”… will probably be the last tab any recipient opens. They may never open it, unless they’re bored at the dentist and have a smart phone and figure they’ll “clean out the junk.”

So what can a poor resaler do?

The service providers such as Aweber, Constant Contact, Emma and Mailchimp may have the answers (but this article seems to throw up its hands.) Check your provider’s help screens.

Don’t rely on, as Mailchimp suggests, asking your recipients to fiddle around with your incoming messages to “train” Gmail. That, they are highly unlikely to do (heck, most of ’em wouldn’t even open the email that would tell them how to!)

Suggesting, via every social media outlet you can, that Gmail users watch their “Promotions” tab and learn how to “train” Google that your emails deserve to be in their Primary tab, is just about all you can do at this point.  And of course, you’ll have to repeat the message over and over again.

Speaking of which, do you subscribe to get Auntie Kate blog email updates on Gmail? Have you been switched over to the tab settings?

Did you get here by opening your Promotions tab and seeing me?

Did you know you could train Google? Will you bother? Chat with us in the comments.