Google has performed a significant facelift on their gMail service, and overall it is getting pretty positive reviews. One big improvement that has been added back to their system after being unavailable for quite some time is allowing brand images in subject lines. For marketers, this is going to offer a great way to set your email messages apart from the others.
This option is called ‘PromotionCards’ and is technically still in the experimental stages, but will almost certainly remain in place.
In a comment for Media Post, Justin Khoo from FreshInBox said, “The ability to present an offer visually is very valuable to email marketers especially, among online retailers. Promotion Card frees marketers from trying to rack their brains over an 80-character subject lines.”
Tom Sather from Return Path also commented on this change saying, “Promotion cards could be a huge advantage for marketers, making images the new subject line, and providing a more visual way to stand out in a crowded inbox.”
The feature hasn’t been rolled out to everyone yet, but once the testing phase has completed it will likely roll out to the wider audience. Anyone who receives an email from someone testing this feature will see the images in the subject line though.
Another benefit of this type of thing is that it will help to verify an email is coming from the actual company that it says it is from. Using copyrighted images, and other security steps, the image in the subject line can improve user confidence in clicking on the email itself, and trusting the links within the email.
There is no word on when this feature will roll out to all gMail users.
