Gmail introduced three Inbox tabs, Primary, Social, and Promotions, to help improve email deliverability, open rates, and help decrease spam complaints about their users and email delivery.
Email sent through your email marketing platform will typically end up in the Promotions tab because they are an Email Service Provider (ESP).
There’s no need to fear the Promotions tab, though. You can think of these tabs as additional Inboxes. And not all Gmail users take advantage of the tabs.
Many disable them in favor of having a more traditional Inbox, where all email is delivered to one place. The bottom line: send engaging emails and your contacts will open them no matter what tab they get delivered to.
Primary Tab
Getting your email to land in a contact’s Primary tab naturally is hard to control. Google’s algorithms are always changing, and take variable data into account. Here are some key best practices to use:
- Ask your contacts to add your From email address to their safe sender list.
- Personalize your email by addressing your contact by name.
- Write to your contacts as if they are your friends.
- Avoid using spam-like characteristics in your subject line.
- Don’t have spelling and grammar mistakes in your subject line and the body of your email. Too many could land your email in a spam folder.
- Authenticate your sender ID.
Promotion Tab
People who use the Promotion tab in their email account are used to looking here for emails from their favorite stores, online shops, and other businesses whose list they joined.
If they are very engaged with your emails, they may move you to their Primary tab themselves. Google will learn this behavior, and eventually, your email will be delivered to their Primary tab.
