Something we haven’t seen in a while is a new idea for improving upon Google’s original purpose; search. That is probably because Google has already created a pretty tight, functional search platform so that little improvement needs to be made. Also, Google is becoming less and less known for its search function, and more so for things like social networking, driving direction, and advertising all over the web, among countless others. Now, though, Google has added something to its apparently flawless search engine, and that is Gmail results upon searching. It will be great for advertisers, but there is a decent possibility that users will be skeptical at first.

Last week, Google announced that they will be testing a new pilot scheme that will allow for a user’s Gmail messages to show up when they search for related criteria. Advertisers have long faced the problem of their email marketing messages not being read by those receiving them, therefore making these messages completely irrelevant. Whether marketers have received an email address through user registration, email newsletter sign-up, or just plain lead generation, people are often not attracted to emails that don’t pertain to the daily essentials currently at hand.

Now, though, when potential customers are searching for specific search criteria, any emails in their inbox that pertain to these criteria will appear in the results, whether they have read them or not. Google has not provided much information on the pilot, but it is easy to understand just how well it can function for marketers. Email marketing will be much more successful than it already is, in that consumers will find the things that they are actually looking for, within their email accounts, even if they were never aware of the promotions or advertisements even being there.

This new pilot also brings about another strange new opportunity. Now, messages and information distributed through email can also be optimized for the search engine. Since both email marketing and SEO have been quite successful in the past, bringing the two together can only improve them as a team. Including important keywords within the subjects of emails will now be essential, because causing an email to show up within search results [or rather beside them] will make the advertisement all the more successful for the advertiser.

There are a lot of people that are disappointed with this new pilot, as they have always expected more from Google than something this small. But, in reality, this improvement is not all that insignificant. This new feature could help marketing professionals quite a bit, giving them more room to target consumers through email. The feature is still only in a pilot form, but Google has invited anybody to join the testing process. Currently, it is only available in English and on Google’s search engine for Gmail accounts. Google states that a spot during the testing period is not guaranteed, but they encourage advertisers to join so that they can get feedback on just how well the feature works.

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Written by Michael Levanduski

Michael Levanduski is a news reporter at Performance Marketing Insider. He’s been a writer at one level or another for the past 15+ years. He has three kids and lives in Grand Rapids, MI.

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