Hotmail adds new tools targeting graymail

On the 3rd October 2011, Hotmail launched a series of improved tools targeting what they describe as “graymail”. Their motivation was to help reduce the number of emails people receive that they simply ignore – sometimes called emotionally unsubscribed from. These are the mails you still receive, never read but can’t quite be bothered to unsubscribe from.

As social network usage increases Hotmail are noticing that the emails that we don’t read are increasing too:

Source: Hotmail

Hotmail has again refreshed their user interface to help users navigate the torrents of email they receive. Fresh from the sweep development, the new tools include:

• Identifying newsletters: newsletters will be identified and filtered into a new category. Hotmail believe they are 95% accurate with this technology
• One-click Unsubscribe: if the email does not contain the list-unsubscribe header and a recipient clicks unsubscribe, then all emails ongoing will be banished to the spam folder.
• Re-ordered inbox: those emails flagged as important will bubble up to the top of the inbox.
• Grouping senders: users can categorise senders to group all emails from groups of senders.
• Automatic Clean-up: emails from specific senders can be scheduled to be deleted or moved to a specific folder after a period of time.
• Folder nesting: it’s now easier to create nested folders within other folders making the archiving of emails even simpler.

Our prediction is that this is not going to affect email marketers that heavily as long as you are using reputable email broadcasting technology. 60% of most marketers’ lists are not engaged to their emails – the most effective programs focus on the remaining 40% with relevant, timely and valuable communications whilst trying within tolerance levels to reactivate those that are emotionally unsubscribed. Having a useful and sensible welcome program for all new subscribers is essential as these tools simply give users more power and opportunity to ignore your emails if they didn’t hit the mark.

You can find out more at Hotmail’s official blog

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