The organization of folders in inboxes by email service providers is primarily designed to help users organize their email correspondence.
Tabs like "Main," "Promotions" or "Social" were created to separate marketing, sales messages from the important communications that everyone receives on a daily basis (e.g., bills, invoices, booking confirmations, etc.).
Email service algorithm analyzes content, sender reputation and user behavior. If the algorithm detects marketing content, such as sales offers or discount information, the message will be classified as promotional and automatically moved to a folder dedicated to these types of messages.
That's why it's worth keeping in mind a few helpful tips that will definitely increase the messages being delivered to the main folder on your recipients' inboxes.
Authenticate your sending domain to improve deliverability
We recommend setting up SPF, DKIM and DMARC records for your domain. They allow you to verify the authenticity of emails and help ISPs identify reliable senders
Improve your sender reputation
Verify your mailing list (regularly make the hygienization of your database) and monitor the quality of the messages you send out
Send short messages
The length of the email is one of the factors determining whether the email should go to the main inbox or to the Promotions tab. Key principles are a clear subject line, direct content with the most relevant information, the use of bulleted lists, avoiding repetition, and a clear Call To Action for your recipients.
Avoid adding too many links, fonts and graphics
Inbox algorithms analyze not only the content of the email, but also its formatting and structure. A plain text message, using minimal font variation, no unnecessary graphics (the suggested ratio of images to text is 40:60) and a limited number of links has a better chance of being delivered to the main folder.
Take care of your email's footer and unsubscribe option
To avoid the message being categorized in the Promotions folder, keep the footer minimal and readable, so that it contains only elements relevant to the recipient - necessarily with an option to opt-out of receiving notifications, but without additional links or promotional content.
Don't use spam trigger words
Email inbox algorithms are particularly sensitive to phrases like "buy now," "sale," "free," "best price" or "promotion." By avoiding these, you will prevent the email from being routed to the Offers folder.
Send valuable content to your subscribers and use segmentation
Try to ensure that your messages take into account the recipients' interests, provide relevant information, include some added value, such as discounts or free e-books; at the same time, balance promotional and non-promotional content and encourage user engagement. Consistently delivering valuable mailings, will increase the chances of your messages being prioritized by email inbox algorithms.
Personalize your email messages
Shortening the distance and communicating with the user as if you were writing a letter to a friend can increase the chances that the message will be read and placed in the main inbox. Research confirms that personalizing content, including an attractive subject line and addressing the recipient by name, significantly increases open and click-through rates, while creating a sense of belonging among recipients.
Ask your recipients to add your email address to their contact lists or move the message to the Main tab
This is the easiest way to avoid placing emails in the Promotions tab. Email inbox algorithms take into account open and click-through rates, which influences the decision to place future messages in the Main tab.
Encourage recipients to reply
Actively responding to email messages, as well as adding an address to your contact list, significantly improve message deliverability by allowing the algorithm to assign them to the primary inbox. Increasing user engagement, especially through response rates, signals to email service providers, the existence of real and ongoing interaction, resulting in a better destination for future messages.
If you implement all the mentioned rules, you can be sure that, for your part, you have taken maximum care to ensure that your mailing reaches the main Inbox.
It is worth bearing in mind, however, that the whole process may ultimately depend on the individual settings of each recipient's mailbox - in a simple way, you can create a filter that will search for the indicated phrases, e.g. marketing, and automatically redirect the message to the selected folder. So the same message in one person may go to the Main tab, in another to Promotions.
Do you need additional help?
If you have more questions about delivering your messages to the Promotions folder, please contact us at hello@edrone.me