Have you ever noticed the “promotions tab” within your Gmail account? When you send your email campaigns Google will scan the incoming message and – depending on the kind of content – it will assign the email to the Primary mailbox, Social tab, or the Promotions tab. The idea is to make sure your primary mailbox remains as clean as possible without an influx of newsletters and mailers
One of the most frequently asked questions we get is “why do my emails keep going to the Gmail Promotions tab?” It’s a question that has continually plagued marketers since the inception of the tab. Nobody enjoys their emailers landing up amongst thousand of others within this tab yet most newsletters and mailers seem to end up here
At the end of the day, however, it’s up to Gmail to scan these mailers and assign them each to the relevant tab that it believes it should be in. There are, however, some steps and actions you can take to help your mailers end up within the primary mailbox.
5 Steps you can take:
- Image to text ratio
Ensure your mailers contain the correct image to text ratios. Where possible try and aim for an 80% text to 20% images ratio - Personalisation
Try personalising your mailers, by either mentioning subscribers by name in your opening greeting or alternatively try personalising the subject line of your mailers - Limit the number of external links in the mailer
The more external links you include in your mailer, the higher the chances are that Gmail will place your email in the Promotions tab. Try to avoid adding too many external links, only include the essential ones. - Avoid fancy fonts
Besides the fact these fancy fonts may not be websafe and render correctly in some email clients, fancy fonts can also be seen as sales-based leading Gmail to place your emailers in the Promotions tab. - Avoid Sales terms and phrases
Including wording such as “sale now”, “Want to make money?” or “Buy this product or service now” can lead Gmail to place your mailers firmly in the dark grips of its Promotions tab. Try and get creative with the wording you use in your mailers so that you can still communicate a ‘salesy’ email whilst avoiding the Promotions tab.
Don’t worry though if your emails end up in the Promotions tab. More than 45% of people check their promotions tab daily according to Validity and Return Path data. Trying to avoid the tab through sneaky tactics can end up hurting your efforts. Rather make use of the above tactics and see the Promotions tab as your friend instead of your enemy.