Will The New Gmail Themes Effect Your Next Campaign?

Last week Google announced the launching of 30 new Gmail themes that users can use to visually spice up their Gmail experience simply by adjusting the settings. I use Gmail daily so I played with it a little but didn’t really give it much thought.

Potential Problem

Gmail’s new themes have the potential to pose a readability problem for your newsletter emails or email marketing campaigns. A couple of the themes actually change the background color of the main content area of the email. If you are using HTML in your emails, and you should be, keep this in mind the next time you change the font color. Perhaps you should contrast font colors by specifying the background color as well.

I don’t know how big of a problem this actually is. Gmail is very popular and I’m sure a significant percentage of your list are using Gmail but most of the themes use a white background by default.

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Brian on November 28, 2008 | Filed Under Email Marketing

31 Comments

Make Money Blogging  on November 29th, 2008

Hi Brian,

I wonder if you are interested in placing a 125×125 ad on my blog? I am raising some funds to revamp my blog. Its going for $10 per month only and I will design a banner for you if you want. Do let me know!

Ben

Make Money Bloggings last blog post..Will You Chip In For My New Blog Theme?

Brian  on November 29th, 2008

Hi Ben, I’d be crazy not to advertise on a site of that quality for just ten dollars. I’ll shoot over there shortly.

Sire  on November 30th, 2008

Sorry Brian if I am showing my ignorance, I know that when I did that on another blog the owner of the blog nearly jumped down my throat, but as I have never used Gmail, I’m not sure exactly what it is. I suppose it is something like Hotmail, is that correct?

Sires last blog post..ProBlogger Plea To Amazon Associates Program

Make Money Blogging  on November 30th, 2008

Aww Brian.. Its so encouraging to hear that. I am glad to place such confidence on my site. Thanks! I appreciate that..

Make Money Bloggings last blog post..Scammers Target Stay At Home Moms

Brian  on November 30th, 2008

Hi Sire, that’s exactly what Gmail is. It’s just Google’s version of a free web-based email service. There are a few differences such as Gmail uses labels rather than folders. The idea is that you can archive all of your mail once read and search for it if needed later. It uses a very nice search feature.

Other differences include the ability to ’star’ messages and filter certain emails. For example, any payment notifications I receive from PayPal are automatically labeled with the ‘PayPal’ label. I have another filter setup that adds a label called ’support’ whenever I receive a helpdesk ticket. This really helps when you’ve been out all day and want to find the important emails without sorting through two hundred offers and email alerts.

Sire  on November 30th, 2008

Now that is interesting. All my mail goes to my Outlook Express, and gets sorted into three categories, Inbox, Read Later and Spam. I can definitely see the advantages of having more categories. Thanks for the info as it now gives me another option.

Sires last blog post..ProBlogger Plea To Amazon Associates Program

Brad West  on December 1st, 2008

Yes Brian I have noticed this issue with some of the themes on the new Gmail look.For me it is a love hate thing. I love the ornate but have to have functionality above all.

Now I do have a quick simple solution to have both and actually have considered including it in the intro or initial hello to our news letter.

Wow that was a mouthful for this. “Can’t read it go to the upper right corner of your page and click on older version, so you can temporarily view your page corectly.

Brad West ~ onomoney

Brad Wests last blog post..Making a Zip File

Brian  on December 1st, 2008

Nice tip Brad, I played around with it for a bit and ended up back with the original theme. I found the themes a little distracting.

I can’t believe I just sent the Ezine out to our list yesterday and I forgot to add a white background. I had planned on adding a white background using the .DIV tag to over-ride the default background colors but I totally forgot.

Sheryl Loch  on December 2nd, 2008

Hi Brian,
I get most everything through my Google Reader, so I would have never thought about it.
As far as the themes go – I went with the Classic theme. I am sooo boring! Actually, I have a really hard seeing the difference in READ & Unread mail on most of the new themes. I also must get distracted very easily! 8)
Sheryl Lochs last blog post..Looking for Health Book Summeries

Brian  on December 2nd, 2008

Hi Sheryl, I must be boring too because I went back to the Classic theme after playing around with the new themes. Just like you said, they are distracting.

promotional pens  on December 4th, 2008

I do not know the new ideas of gmail and what benefits we can derive. Any how a positive change is the symbol of development. Perhaps I have a little knowledge about the different aspects of emailing.

Brian  on December 6th, 2008

Hi Dowlis.com. Gmail is simply a common online email service much like Hotmail, Yahoo, MSN and a ton of others. I don’t mean to recommend their service. I prefer Gmail but that’s just personal taste. If I had an established email account somewhere else, and I do, I would keep that email, and I do. I just want that to be clear. I’m not endorsing Gmail but if they want pay me some big bucks then I will. Are you listening Google? ;) Thanks for the comment.

Brad West  on December 6th, 2008

Gmail,

I love Gmail, The dependability of Gmail is far superior to most other web-based mail systems.

OOh ya! I need a disclaimer, This is only an opinion of me and my experiences with said topic. In no way shape or form am I associated with or endorse any company but my own, and maybe Brian’s. LOL!

I also have multiple mail accounts, a few web-based accounts like Yahoo, and the domain accounts from our sites. Opening each and every mail account was really a waste of time, so all my accounts are forwarded to one main Gmail account and filtered into their corresponding folders to separate each mail account. Very helpful and very easy to set up.

Some other mail systems are rendered unreliable because of their efforts to pre-filter your mail before it hits your in-box. For this reason we disallow the use of certain mail to be used when registering to our forum site. People with AOL, Hotmail, and some Yahoo accounts don’t even receive their conformation e-mail to return and log-in.

Gmail allows you to filter your own mail very easily, I have never had a problem with a filter unless the sender changes the origin of the mail, and that is rare.

Communication is all about reliably getting your information. The other Gmail features and ease of usage are just a huge bonus.

Yes I am a Gmail fan.
Brad West ~ onomoney

Brad Wests last blog post..Wraping images with text in BB code

Brian  on December 6th, 2008

Nice disclaimer Brad. Together we can demand huge premiums for Gmail endorsements :)

Shanker Bakshi  on December 9th, 2008

I used it for 5 minutes and then get back to old classic themes, days are gone when i like to play with Themes and plugins. (am getting older now :-) )

Brian  on December 9th, 2008

Same here Shanker. Who has the time anymore? We’re all too busy for stuff like that.

Matt Helphrey  on December 11th, 2008

I use Google mail and I also run an email marketing campaign so I was concerned with the change as well. I have not had any problems at either end, so so far so good…knock on wood.

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Brian  on December 11th, 2008

Hi Matt, considering that there are only a couple of themes that change the background color and those are annoying, I think we’re ok until more themes start coming in. If that happens then adding a simple background color to the HTML message should do the trick. The text versions will change to the correct color by default.

gmail themes  on December 17th, 2008

After its search and advertising core businesses, one of Google’s hottest products is its Gmail service. One of the most widely used free email services on the internet; Google is constantly at work improving the service. Typically upgrades

Brian  on December 17th, 2008

Hi Gmail themes, I use Gmail myself. Some of the features like being able to use outside email addresses and their filter system are very convenient.

Brad West  on December 17th, 2008

Totally cool,
If Google Themes is truly a part of the Google crew than I am way more impressed that I was with the Gmail product.

This shows me that the company really cares and is out collecting data from people to improve the product even more.

Two thumbs up Google Themes

Brad West ~ onomoney

Brad West  on December 17th, 2008

Ooh ya I forgot to mention one thing.

It’s snowing in Las Vegas right now!

I mean really snowing, I have seen this in the last 8 years but this looks serious.

Brad West ~ onomoney

Brian  on December 17th, 2008

I guess we get the same storm here in Michigan tomorrow afternoon :(

Brad West  on December 18th, 2008

I think we took most of the snow out of it. If we didn’t just use your gmail and contact me.
Brad West ~ onomoney

Gary J  on March 2nd, 2009

Very informative site. I also use Gmail daily and had no idea that they came out with new themes. However it is pretty disconcerting that the new themes have the ability to affect email marketing campaigns. This is the cornerstone for my business marketing and will definitely be taken into consideration when my next blast is scheduled to go out. Thanks.

Brian  on March 2nd, 2009

Hi Gary, I’m glad to help. I recently made a short video on setting up Gmail filters. You can see it here if you like: Creating Gmail Filters

shinn  on April 16th, 2009

We are all Google’s guinea pigs… hahaha!!! With all these tools coming out of GLabs, it’s becoming confusing.

Brad west  on April 16th, 2009

I have grown accustom to the Mountains theme on my Gmail for me it is working well. I think that the change in how my mail was presented in the beginning was a bit much but I have grown to like the enhancement. Maybe it takes me away from the dessert some when I open it, really don’t like it much here, have had a taste of hell and decided that it’ not for me.

I am going to try the Graffiti for a while that theme seems to hand a touch of the old fashion look to the inbox, And possibly the Summer Ocean but that is getting back to the blue which seems to be hard to decipher the read and not read items for some people.

All in all I’m starting to like the options and choices that are offered in gmail themes now.

Brad West ~ onomoney

Brad wests last blog post..Paper Plate Craft Series

umbildee from zackmo helpdesk  on July 3rd, 2009

Gmail is my daily email account.
Just the thought it came from google. heheheh!

You got a good point on font color selection. How about using black and white color only? white background and black font? for simplicity :)

thanks

Brian  on July 6th, 2009

I think that’s the best bet Umbildee, black font on a white background.
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satine  on July 18th, 2009

gmail is the best and will always be the best :) and the gmail theme that i love is the green one, splendid
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