We previously wrote about how Gmail’s new “Promotions” tab is actually increasing click-through rates for some email marketing emails, even while decreasing open rates. But our own research of more than 70 subscription marketers provides data that argues the contrary.Specifically, our new Email Marketing Benchmark Report asked subscription marketers and digital content publishers about how Gmail’s new promotion tabs had affected their open and click-through rates. As you can see in the chart below, the large majority said it was largely unaffected by the change, but nearly 33% said the new automatic separation of email types led to a decrease in open rates, and 21% reported a decrease in click-through rates. Most notably, NO ONE reported an increase in open or click-through rates. This is contrary to the data reported by Return Path in December of last year.

 What does all this mean? Well, for one, sites trying to sell premium content or digital subscriptions for access to information are clearly not advantaged by Gmail’s new configuration. This is likely because most subscription and paid content sites send email newsletters and their primary form of email engagement since it helps market both free and paid content to audiences and keeps them visiting the site. Newsletter promotion is particularly critical to metered models, and lower open and click-through rates mean fewer registered users are going to hit the paywall to subscribe.On the positive side, the fact that the large majority of sites are unaffected by the change is good news, indicating that consumers may be searching their promotions folder for informational content. Numerous open rates in a Promotions-filed email can sometimes lead to that email type being sent directly to a Gmail user’s Inbox, which is also good news. But email marketers may want to also keep a standing sidebar in their emails explaining how subscribers can get their newsletter automatically delivered to their inbox.