Having your emails land in Gmail promotion tab can greatly reduce your open rate. Emails that Land in the promotions tab in Gmail only have an open rate of 19%. If your email are landing in the promotions tab no need to panic. In this article I will cover what exactly is the promotions tab in Gmail. How it effects your open rate. Then I will go over the steps you can take to get your emails into the primary tab in Gmail!
What is the Gmail Promotions Tab?
The Gmail promotions and social tabs were added to Gmail way back in 2013. This was a massive update at the time and it really effected open rates on emailing campaigns. Like anything new it took time for Gmail users to get use to the new system. A lot of Gmail users simply missed a lot of emails when the update was rolled out. I know that I myself had to get used to the new system. Up until this point your email was made up of your inbox, and your junk/spam Folder. So for me personally it took a while to start checking the other tabs an not just assuming that they were all spam or junk emails. If you know anything about google at this point they are very customer oriented and all about user experience. Googles intention with this update was to provide a way for users to better organize their email. Users could basically separate personals messages from from what email marketers are sending them. Of coarse email marketers where not happy about this but this change was here to stay. Since that time users of Gmail have gotten use to the system and you can still achieve very good open rates even if you are hitting the promotions tab. I think a way to put a positive spin on this change is I personally think it has saved email marketers from spam complaints. I think a Gmail user is less likely to mark you spam in the promotions tab. then if they are receiving your emails all the time in their primary inbox. Gmail also added a new feature in 2017 that let user unsubscribe from email marketing right from your Gmail inbox. On it surface this might sound bad, but I would argue that it is going to keep you out of spam, keep your open rate hight and save space on your email list for interested subscribers.
Steps to take to Avoid the Promotions Tab
There are serval step you can take to try and avoid the Gmail Promotions tab. Keep in mind this is an aromatic process performed by Gmail and there is no way to guarantee you will end up in the primary inbox. The following practice
Get Your Subscribers Involved
I would recommend taking is simple ask your customers to add you to there primary inbox. A good example of how to do this would be to include this in your sign up process for your email list. After you new subscribers has signed up have an email with instructions sent to them automatically. Ask your new subscribers to add you to there primary inbox to make sure they don’t miss out on any new content and offers.
Segment Your List
Segmenting your email list is a great practice to avoid the promotions tab. If you email is being sent out to 50,000 people most Lilly it is going straight to the promotions tab. Logically this is not a personals email and is indeed a promotion. By email small segments on your list you can greatly increase your chances of landing in the primary inbox., this is aloes important to maintain a high open rate!
Less Pictures
Try to use no more than one picture. It might be tempting to fill your email with tons of great photos. This will get you in the promotions tab for sure. No picture would be an even better bet. This is where you have to start to determine which is worse for your campaign, the promotions tab, or a dull email in the primary inbox.
Simple HTML or Plain Text
Complex HTML will automatically get your email sent to the promotions tab. Plain text is an even better bet if your trying to avoid the promotions tab. As long as you can get your message across without anything fancy this is a great option to try.
One Link Only
Avoid using a lot of different links in your emails. Use on link in your email and I recommend only using this link one time. There is some debate about if using the same link more than once will effect wither or not you end up in promotions. I would play it safe and only use it one time. There is no debate if you use more than one link you are headed for promotions. Keep in mind your unsubscribe link doesn’t count so keep that in there.
Skip on Social
Leave social media links out of your email. These links will be counted towards your links. So if you use one link plus a social media link that is going to count as two and your fate is decided. Why would you really want to drive your subscribers to social media anyway? Keep them focused on your product instead of them going down the worm whole of ultimate gym fails!
How to test Where your Email will End up
If your like me talk is cheap. I always want to test and be able to see result, because money is on the line here! Gmass offers a free email tester that does just that. Basically you can send your campaign out to multiple address they provide and they show you the result and give you feedback. It is really easy and worth a try for sure.
Conclusion
Now that you have a better understanding of what the promotions tab is and how it work you can better plan your future email campaigns. If you follow the step listed in this article it will greatly increase your chances of hitting the primary inbox for your email subscribers that are Gmail users. Keep in mind that the promotions tab is not all bad. As I mentioned in the opening paragraph it can help you stay out of spam. I would take in to consideration what kind of product you are marketing and how many emails are you going to be sending out. For example:
- If you sending a low number of email you will want to hit the primary inbox.
- If you are going to be sending a lot of emails the promotions tab might suit your needs better and keep you out of spam.
Always try to put yourself in your customers shoes when putting a campaign together. Would you want to receive this message to your primary inbox? or would you rather see it in promotions.