This is the third in a 3-part series on how to get your emails through the spam filter, so they land in your subscribers’ inboxes. The first week was all about the technical aspects of making your emails spam filter friendly. Last week was about how your content affects the spam filters. This week is all about how to avoid having your emails land in the Gmail promotions tab.
The dreaded Gmail promotions tab. Where perfectly good emails go to languish until, by luck, they’re found and read, or not.
This is the last place you want your emails to your subscribers to end up. The open rates for emails in the Gmail promotions tab are dismal.
Fortunately, there are a few ways to avoid the Gmail promotions tab.
What Is the Gmail Promotions Tab Anyway?
In 2013 Gmail introduced tabs to sort out the “desired” email from all other emails. The idea was to keep a customer’s personal and/or “important” emails under one tab, where they’re easy to find, and keep the other emails sorted by type, so they can be gone through later.
The Gmail promotions tab seems to be the bottom of the barrel. It is the last place you want your emails to end up. Unfortunately, a lot of emails seem to go there. Including emails you actually want to receive.
I was part of a Copywriting Mastermind group for a while and one of our members was constantly frustrated that emails from Mastermind group members kept ending up in his Gmail promotions tab. There were only 6 of us. It’s not like it was a flood of emails.
This is just to show you how easy it is to accidentally end up in the Gmail promotions tab. It’s not your fault. Gmail is overly protective of its customers.
There Are Ways Around the Gmail Promotions Tab
It’s true. You can get your emails into your subscribers’ Primary Gmail tab instead.
The best way is to have your subscribers whitelist your email address. This is true of all email clients, not just Gmail.
Gmail has specific instructions for whitelisting:
- Find emails you want from specific senders in your Promotions tab.
- Drag those emails into your Primary tab.
- Click on an email from a specific sender.
- Click on the down-pointing arrow next to “Reply.”
- Click, “Add sender’s name to Contacts list.”
- Do the same from your Spam tab, if applicable.
These are the most functional steps to get your emails out of the Gmail promotions tab and into the primary tab. But they do rely on your subscriber taking action.
If you want to create a whitelisting instructions page of your own, I recommend Surety Mail’s free service. Follow the instructions, then add the link to this page to all of your welcome and lead magnet emails so your subscribers know how to whitelist your email address. You can also add it to the footer of your email template, just in case.
If you would prefer to customize the text on your whitelisting instructions page, copy the text from the page Surety Mail generates and make a new page on your website. Customize the text, then link to that page instead.
Make Your Emails Gmail Primary Tab Friendly
I went over all of these tips in the other two blog posts in this series. You can find links to both at the top of the page. But it’s worth restating a few of them because Gmail does put more weight on these factors when it comes to putting your emails in the Gmail promotions tab or the primary tab.
Use One or Two Images in Your Emails
Too many images, or a high image to text ratio will get your emails sent to the Gmail promotions tab, or worse yet, they won’t make it through the spam filter. Use one or two images at most and have a link that takes subscribers to a landing page if you need to show more images.
Use One or Two Links in Your Emails
Same issue here. If you have too many links in your emails, Gmail will assume it is a promotion or spam. If you want to share a bunch of resources, put them on a landing page and use a link in the email to guide your subscribers to these resources.
Provide Valuable Content in Your Emails
I will die on this hill if I must. Seriously. Regardless of where your emails end up, provide useful, valuable content in your emails. This is probably the most important factor when it comes to sending emails to any internet service provider (ISP). They want to see that your subscribers open and read your content. If you provide valuable content, this will become a no-brainer.
Improve Your Open Rate
Gmail takes its cues from its subscribers. If your emails get opened, they’ll end up in the primary tab instead of the promotions tab. As mentioned above, sending quality, useful content is key to getting your emails opened.
Improve Your IP Reputation
As mentioned in the first post in this series, your IP reputation is very important. If your email address or domain name have been blacklisted, you’re in trouble. I listed ways to check your IP reputation in the previous post. Email service providers tend to be sticklers about this, because their reputation relies on your IP reputation being clean.
Only Send Emails to People Who Have Opted into Your Email List
I shouldn’t need to say this, but I will.
Don’t buy email lists.
Don’t add people to your list who haven’t subscribed.
Don’t scrape the internet for email lists.
Be a good marketer and play by the rules here. Otherwise you’ll get penalized far worse than just having your emails sent to the Gmail promotions tab.
Avoid Spam Trigger Words and Phrases
This includes:
- Amazing
- Congratulations
- Free
- Increase sales
- Get hard
- Buy now
- Dear friend
- Special offer
- Guarantee
- Risk-free
- Home-based business
- Discount
- Chance
- Miracle
- Wife
- Never
- This is not spam
Some of these may be impossible to avoid. If they’re in context, they’re less likely to set off spam filters. But still, be cautious whenever possible.
Check Your Emails to See If They’re “Spammy” Before Sending
Run your email through free tools like MailTester.com or ISnotSPAM.com before you send it to your subscribers to confirm that it’s good to go.
Honestly, the best way to get your emails into the Gmail promotions tab and through any spam filter is to write good content and make sure your emails comply with the CAN SPAM Act. Whenever possible, get your subscribers to whitelist your emails, as this overrides most ISPs and delivers your emails to where your subscribers can see them.
Want to Learn More About Getting Your Emails Delivered and Opened?
Join the waitlist for my upcoming course. I’ll show you how to reengage your email list and nurture your subscribers so you can offer products and services for sale without getting marked as spam or having a ton of unsubscribes.
Click on the button below to join. You’ll be the first to know when I announce the course.
Meanwhile, please practice safe emailing so your emails end up in your subscribers’ inboxes and not in the Gmail promotions tab or spam filter.