Recent developments by major email providers should cause email marketers to take a closer look at how they do business.

Gmail’s decision to sort incoming emails into tabs, which means promotions will go to a specific tab, will have an effect on email newsletter marketing efforts. The big players, like Groupon and Seamless, reacted quickly to this change and directed their customers to take action that would keep their emails from getting lost in the shuffle. Many marketing experts believe it’s not just the big companies that will be affected – even small email newsletter marketing efforts can be impacted.

Another possibility is that the changes made by Gmail will actually help email newsletter marketing. The use of tabs will focus the attention of these types of emails into an area where people with an interest in them will be more likely to respond. One early skeptic of the changes said his CTR dropped by 10 percent when Gmail’s change first went into effect, but has now risen by 14 percent.

Other changes by email providers are shaking up the industry. Microsoft is reclaiming dormant email addresses. When a user hasn’t signed in for 275 days, that access is closed. Microsoft will then release that address a year later. Yahoo has also made similar decisions to reuse old addresses that have been abandoned. These changes aren’t expected to have as large of an impact as the Gmail change, but email marketers are seeing it as a predictor for future changes.

Susan J. Campbell Copywriting Solutions is a company staying on top of the changes made in the industry. The focus at SJC is promoting the brand and the mission of its clients through several channels, including email. Having a difficult time staying current with industry developments? Let SJC do it for you.