Marketing is always most effective when it is delivered with something else of value. If you open your postal mailbox and its nothing but ads, you tend to throw the whole bunch away. But, if one offer comes along with other interesting pieces of mail or if it includes something valuable like a gift card or a coupon, you tend to give it more attention.

Very profound statement. It is not worth delivering a piece of mail or email without an offer. The offer doesn't have to be something that cheapens your brand, but it has to deliver value to the customer receiving it, or else you will become junk mail or unsubscribed.

The new Gmail tabs obviously create an interesting challenge. Even though they are being viewed less, it may provide customers a better way to interact with brands. When all email is together, emails can get skipped or just ignored as they scan through. However with the tabs, a customer has to be going and looking for a promotion. Isn;t that what digital marketing is all about? Engage with the customer when they want to be engaged, instead of the bombarding of their email feeds?

We asked nearly 5,000 consumers their attitudes toward the switch to Gmail Tabs inbox view. About 40 percent of respondents say they now spend less time with promotional messages from their favorite brand, while only 7 percent of users say they spend more time with promotions. This large percentage of respondents revealing they don’t spend as much time with their favorite brands shows that marketers must up their game.

Marketers should always be stepping up their game. I get so many emails from companies on a daily basis, maybe this will make them stop and think about the "spam" strategy that seems to be the norm in this channel. When emails are targeted and offers are valuable and thought out, customers will engage with your brand no matter what tab they are on. Continue to over communicate and your brand will never make it out of the promotions tab.