Did Google just kill email marketing?

So I have just finished reading Google’s blog post titled:

„Gmail is entering the Gemini era“

(Gemini being Google’s very own AI model.)

The press release was essentially a summary of the features they’ll be rolling out to Gmail inboxes in 2026.

Some of the new features were:

• AI-powered inbox search – instead of typing keywords, you can ask something like: „What was the Italian restaurant we went to last year in New York?“
• AI-powered proofreading and writing assistance…
• AI-powered suggested replies…

(I have not used this feature ONCE since they rolled it out 18+ months ago… I wonder why AI is so bad at predicting how I want to reply to someone?)

But the feature which caught my eye was the…

„AI Inbox“

In Google’s words:

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AI Inbox is like having a personalized briefing, highlighting to-dos and catching you up on what matters. It helps you prioritize, identifying your VIPs based on signals like people you email frequently, those in your contacts list and relationships it can infer from message content. Crucially, this analysis happens securely with the privacy protections you expect from Google, keeping your data under your control.

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What does this all mean for the future of email marketing?

Here are my thoughts:

If you rely on the usual transactional email marketing ways – i.e. you’re just sending ‘buy buy buy!!!“ sales pitches…

(Examples of those emails can be found on pages #31 & #34 in my book…)

…then you’ll struggle more than ever.

(Side note: It already got way harder to do email marketing this way in – January 2025 – when Apple rolled out that iOS 18.3 update, which basically made the standard images/graphic-heavy emails even more detrimental than they already were. I go into this on page #36 in my book, in case you’re curious about the nitty-gritty.)

Whereas if you do email MY way, à la “Email Storyselling”…

Where you actually rely on building a relationship – the relationship “glue” – with your subscribers…

Then you won’t feel a thing from this update.

Because you will establish a long pattern of „signals“ which Gmail’s AI can use to establish you as someone’s „VIP“.

Reminder:

Some of those signals are: ‘people you get emails from frequently, people in your contacts list, and the relationship the AI can infer from the content between your emails.‘

I wager there’s actually more – some „hidden“ signals they didn’t mention like:

• How often you open someone’s emails…
• How long you spend reading them…
• How often do you reply/do you even reply…
• How many times you click on links and so on…

(All metrics which – if you do emails à la “Email Storyselling” – you will hugely outperform compared to the usual promotional mail sent in this industry…)

More:

Avoiding the spam/promo tab will become even harder than it already is.

Machine learning for inboxes has only gotten smarter and more sophisticated – we’re moving away from having just simple keyword detection spam filters… to having these super smart, context-aware ways to assess the actual message/email quality and reader intent.

And the trend is that it will only keep getting harder to avoid landing in the spam/promo tab.

That is, only if you continue sticking with the standard transactional approach to email marketing.

(Good luck getting past all that AI-powered filtering.)

On a related tangent:

I actually have an entire section dedicated to tackling this problem in my book – in Blind Spot #7 specifically.

I wrote that months ago – without knowing Google would come out with this update obviously – but I had this increasingly difficult primary tab placement trend in mind when writing it.

So what I wrote months ago in that book…

Actually applies perfectly to counteract this Gmail update.

Here’s what I wrote:

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All the Gmails, Outlooks, Yahoos etc…

“What do they all look for?” is what you should ask yourself.

They all look to provide THE BEST user experience for their users.

Why?

To keep them on their platform for as long as possible…

(So they can make more money off of them…)

And if YOU provide a good email experience to your subscribers?

Well…

They’re naturally going to reward you for it with higher deliverability.

Because just by sending people emails that they would find useful, interesting, relevant and entertaining to read…

And,

Offering them products & offers – in those emails – that they would want to buy…

You make ALL parties happy!

You make the ISPs (Gmails, Outlooks, Yahoos) happy…

(So they reward you with higher deliverability…)

And you make your subscribers/customers happy…

(So they reward you with more purchases & repeat purchases…)

Everybody ends up winning.

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What does one of the first few paragraphs on my homepage say?

What does it say??

WHAT DOES IT SAY?!?!

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I send an email every day on just some of the strategies & systems needed to give your current & potential customers – on your email list – an experience SO GOOD… that they’ll simply refuse to buy supplements from anyone else afterwards. That’s the Intended Goal Behind „Email Storyselling“.

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Bottom line:

I’m not really worried about a change like this – in fact:

I am EXCITED!

Why?

Because this update is a lot worse for everyone besides me, and the few folks who have jumped on the „Email Storyselling“ train of doing marketing emails.

It will keep getting easier and easier to become differentiated in the inbox – to stand out and scoop up market share…

(And consequently, to make more moolah.)

Because if that January 2025 iOS 18.3 update put the standard transactional method of doing emails inside the coffin…

…then this Gemini Gmail update drove the final nail into it.

Anyway, those are my thoughts.

If you liked this email?

If you like the way I think and strategize about these things… and how I deliver opinions and insights that pretty much no one else offers in this industry?