There is no known way to ensure your email will be delivered directly in the main inbox of your customer, especially since the "Promotions" and "Social Media" tabs made their debut in Gmail. Google uses complex algorythms constantly changing to determine in which tab your message will be delivered. Emails from mass mailing applications such as ours often end up in the "Promotions" tab.
Don't be afraid, it is not necessarily bad news! According to a studty by Return path who sureveyed nearly 3 million Gmail users, the arrival of the tabs has little to no impact on the opening statistics of your emails. Indeed, the research notes a better delivery rate since promotionnal emails are recognized as such instead of being classified as spam! Furthermore, it was also demonstrated that there were less complains about unwanted emails.
It is interesting to also note, still according to the same study, "Move me!" campaigns had only a small success and that most of the users actually appreciated the tabs. We recommend you don't use that type of content but rather guide your members who would like to receive your message in their inbox if need be.
Here are a few tricks that could proove usefull if your members complain they are receiving your email in their "Promotions" tab.
- Invite your member to add you to their Gmail contacts.
By adding your sender's address to their contacts, the emails will tend to be delivered to their main inbox rather than in the "Promotions" tab. For more informations about how to proceed, click here.
- Drag the desired email from your "Promotions" tab to your "Primary" tab.
You can drag an email from a tab to an other. By doing so, Gmail will display a message in the top of your screen in an orange header confirming your mesasge has been moved to the appropriate tab. Gmail will also, in the same text box, ask you if you would like to apply this same modifications to future message comnig from the same sender address. All you need to do is click on the word Yes. Messages coming from this same address will automatically be delivered in the inbox of your choosing.
- Completely remove the "Promotions" tab: Emails that should have been delivered there will then automatically be sent to your primary box.
It is possible, in the settings of your Gmail account, to edit the tabs or to simply remove every tab and therefore receive every communication in your primary box.
To do so :
- Click on the gear icon on the top right of your screen and should see ‘Quick settings’.
- Click on ‘See all settings’.
- Click on the ‘Inbox’ tab.
- Now uncheck the box next to promotions (or any other unwanted tabs) to remove them from the inbox.
- Click on ‘Save changes’ at the bottom.