The secret to keeping open rates high following the introduction of Gmail's inbox tabs? Great email content.

The new Gmail inbox tabs strike fear in email marketers who worry their brand content will be siphoned into the “Sponsored” section and never seen again. Gmail Product Manager Alex Gawley recently spoke with Marketing Land‘s Danny Sullivan, advising marketers not be consumed by lower open rates and instead focus on creating high-quality emails. Gawley says valuable web content is still the only way to win clicks and score a click-worthy place in consumers’ inboxes.

With the new Gmail inbox feature, mail is sorted into three categories – “Primary,” “Social” and “Sponsored” as a way to better organize consumers’ incoming mail.

“Send people mail they expect to get from you. Send high-quality mail. Do all the right hygiene things you should be doing. If you send high-quality and expected content to users, they’ll want to read it. That’s the best advice,” Gawley explained.

This is not a new message for marketers vying for web visibility. Google continually revises algorithms and tools meant to keep the internet spam free, although its efforts usually have a larger impact on brands’ SEO content marketing campaigns than outbound email efforts. Ultimately, this means email content now requires the same (or more) attention to relevancy as news articles shared on company web pages and delivered over social channels.

While the degree to which promotional emails are considered useful to recipients will determine where web content falls in Gmail inboxes, marketers can also increase the chances of their messages being read by sending emails at strategic times. Brafton reported desktop users open emails during business hours, indicating daytime is the most effective time to send messages to B2B audiences. On the other hand, emails tailored for B2C prospects are most successful at night when internet users manage inboxes via mobile devices.

Lauren Kaye is a Marketing Editor at Brafton Inc. She studied creative and technical writing at Virginia Tech before pursuing the digital frontier and finding content marketing was the best place to put her passions to work. Lauren also writes creative short fiction, hikes in New England and appreciates a good book recommendation.