Silverpop Talks About the Future of the Email Inbox
In a post on Bill Nussey’s blog (CEO of email marketer Silverpop), head of product marketing Scott Voight talks about the future of the email inbox.
At a recent Email Insider Summit meeting, Scott gave a presentation on a hypothetical “‘inbox algorithm’ that inbox providers might use to categorize, prioritize and sort messages.”
According to Scott, companies are working to provide technology that would help people manage their email overload. Yahoo!, for example, demonstrated “a future version of Yahoo! Mail that included a ‘simplify my inbox’ button, which, once clicked, would reorder messages based on ‘people that are important to me.’”
Amen! I could use that, like now!
One product I recently started using that has helped with inbox overload is CA’s Anti-Spam application, which runs in conjunction with its anti-virus and firewall application. As the email comes in, the application transfers all suspected spam items to a special folder where you can indicate whether or not an email is spam. Once you check a sender as “not spam,” all future emails arrive in the inbox.
This is why it’s a best practice to ensure your marketing emails come from a real person versus an unknown sender. It’s even better if people can actually respond to your email. I keep getting emails from ICO — not only can I not respond to them, I can’t get off their list! All their emails now get automatically deleted.
What I like about the CA application is that I can tell at a glance what is spam and what is not without having to sift through dozens of emails. And, none of the emails open in the Preview Pane, meaning, I don’t have to look at pornographic material, and I can delete it all a couple of clicks. It’s definitely lowered my blood pressure!
But, inbox overload is something that marketers will need to deal with. I know I get too much email — in fact, whenever a retailer asks for my email when completing a transaction, I don’t give it out.
How has email overload affected your method of dealing with it? What do you use to deal with spam?
