Follow these tips to help ensure email newsletter recipients actually see your messages.

7 Tips for Making Your Email Newsletters Land in Gmail’s Primary Inbox
Email marketing can be an extremely effective tool for driving traffic to your website and increasing conversions. But of course, for your emails to be effective you must get the recipients to read them!
A snappy subject line may not be enough to get readers to click and open your email these days, thanks to some changes to inbox sorting and layout implemented by Gmail, the number one email provider in the US.
Rather than having all their emails appear in a single inbox, Gmail users now have the choice of using an organizer designed by Google to separate messages into different “tabs” or sub-inboxes. One of these tabs is for “Promotions,” or emails that Google’s algorithms have determined are the equivalent of snail mail junk mail.
Fortunately, there are some tips and tricks you can use to give your email newsletters and promotions a better chance of landing in Gmail’s primary inbox tab:

  1. Mention the Reader By Name. By including an opening salutation with the recipient’s name, you can make Google consider your message more personal than promotion. Your email marketing program should let you do this easily.
  2. Write in Traditional Letter Form. Again, trying to make your newsletter or promotion resemble a natural, personal email will help it land in the right box.
  3. Lose the Images. Google has decided that embedded images are synonymous with promotions—perhaps because your ordinary average email user isn’t savvy enough to set them up.
  4. Include One Link, Max. Having more than one link in your email will increase the risk of Google’s algorithm placing your message in the promotions tab.
  5. Don’t Use RSS. While RSS feeds can be useful for distributing content, they almost always land in the promotions tab because it’s clear the message is not coming from an individual.
  6. Keep it Short & Sweet. Apparently, letter-writing is a lost art—even in email form. Google tends to view long emails as more likely to be promotions.
  7. Avoid Obvious Sales Offers. If your email contains content similar to an advertising circular, with product thumbnails, prices, and “buy now” links, it is destined for that promotions tab.

Need Help With Email Marketing?

If you need help managing your email lists and composing and sending email newsletters, Webstract Marketing is here for you. Contact us today to discuss your online marketing plan including ads, social media, and emails.