In 2013, Google rolled out its latest Gmail update, adding several new tabs such as Home, Advertising, Social, and Updates. These tabs have a significant impact on what messages users open and ignore. When users open their Gmail inbox, the new promotional email update is detected and placed in the Promotions tab. Users usually don’t notice this tab, and the advertising message remains unread. If you are a marketer or sales person for a company, you should be able to use workarounds to prevent company emails from going to the Gmail Ads tab.
Why should we prevent emails from going to the Ads or Spam tab in Gmail?
As mentioned above, due to the new updates, Gmail is using new algorithms to scan incoming messages. If the sent messages are sent using a bulk email software such as Mailchimp, A Weber, Active Campaign, or if Gmail detects that the sent message is an advertisement, they will be entered into the Gmail Ads tab.
According to the statistics of emails entered into Gmail, 5.84% of them are recognized as advertisements and end up in the Gmail “Advertisement” tab. Of these messages, only about 19.2% are read by users, which is a very small statistic. Therefore, entering your messages into the main tab of Gmail is an important factor in email marketing that you should pay attention to as a marketer. Below we present you solutions so that you can easily escape this trap of dark marketing.
Advantages of entering the email in the main folder
In the previous section, we learned why we should avoid sending emails to the spam folder or the ad folder of Gmail. In this section, we want to know what advantages you get by entering the email in the main folder.
The probability of the email being opened multiplies
One of the main advantages of placing an email on your homepage is that your users are more likely to open it. The capacity of the spam folder is smaller than that of the main folder, so it fills up less time and users often delete the folder without opening their emails. But if your email lands on the homepage, sooner or later users will open it and the opening rate of your email will increase.
Increase the conversion rate
The conversion rate is what you are looking for in your advertising message. For example, if you want to click on a link or buy a specific product, attend an event or perform another task, the more users complete your goal, the higher your conversion rate will be. This is undoubtedly the biggest and most important benefit that adding emails to the main page gives you.
You increase your trustworthiness
Imagine that you are subscribed to a newsletter and this newsletter drops your emails into your main inbox. This problem can significantly increase your credibility with the newsletter users and make it easier for them to trust you. This factor also helps you find regular users and customers and build a long-term relationship with them. As you know, increasing the number of regular customers contributes significantly to the success of your business.
16 Key Strategies to Prevent Emails from the Gmail Ads Tab.
In the previous sections, we learned how important it is to get to the Gmail homepage and not end up in the spam folder. In this section, we want to provide you with solutions so that you can access your users' email homepage and benefit from solid and professional email marketing.
Avoid sending bulk emails
If you send your promotional messages in bulk, Gmail will definitely not recognize them as a useful message and will not place them in the Gmail Announcements tab. This is making you lose a lot of your customers. It is definitely not a good idea to send a separate message to each customer! So what is the solution? To avoid this problem, simply create a campaign for your customers and group them together. You can send these messages to many groups without them ending up in the spam folder. In this case, to ensure that the email is opened or that users respond, you can automatically set the message to be automatically forwarded until the customer opens the email, for example 10 times at specific time intervals.
Use minimal links and attachments
Imagine that you want to use a promotional email to encourage users to click on certain links or download certain files. If you include all these links and files in your promotional email, Gmail algorithms will recognize your message as a promotional message and put it in the spam folder. Therefore, to avoid this problem, try to use a minimum of links and files in your promotional email.
Increase the credibility of your email as a sender
One of the important factors to place your email in the main tab of Gmail is the amount of credit that Gmail evaluates for you. Based on this balance, Gmail decides whether to send your message to the Spam folder or the Home folder. Before sending your emails, it uses tools to constantly determine your spam score and reduce it to the lowest possible value. To check this problem, you can use the Mail Tester tool. In this tool, the validity of the email is confirmed and when you send your email to different addresses, Gmail recognizes this message as valid and enters it in your main tab.
Keep HTML files as small as possible
If you choose to send an email using an HTML file, your message is less likely to reach the main tab of Gmail. In this case, Gmail’s algorithms detect that the message was sent by a tool and not by a real person. To prevent messages from reaching the spam tab, you need to prove to Gmail that you wrote them manually and that someone wrote them. To achieve this goal, the HTML content of your email should be as minimal as possible. If the ratio of HTML files to text files is less, your message may end up in the spam folder!
Send a personalized email
One of the easy ways to prevent messages from reaching the spam tab is to personalize it. Mailmerge makes it easy to personalize messages. This brings the email to the home page and gives users a sense of ownership.
Using various tools like Sales handy, you can create a CVS file for all your subscribers and add their personal information. You can send emails with someone’s name, multiplying its effectiveness. This increases the probability that users will open the email by 50%.
Avoid spam in your emails
One of the mistakes that will cause your message to be broadcast in Gmail ads or spam is using words that Gmail recognizes as advertising. The most common words are:
- Free
- sale
- Best price
- Discount
- Clearance of goods
- make money
- Be your own boss
- AND…
You should definitely use these words when sending your promotional email, but be careful not to overuse them when writing your message.
Use the right format
Because of the beauty of message formatting, you can use different fonts and formats in different parts of your email. Not only does this not have a positive impact on the credibility of your email, but it also increases the chances of it ending up in the spam folder. Try to avoid using different fonts and formats to prevent the email from ending up in the spam folder.
Compact Footer
Another important way to prevent messages from going to the Gmail spam folder is to use a short and compact footer or to remove it. You may need to include a list of terms and conditions, responsibilities, etc. in your advertising message. In this case, try to put the most important elements in the footer and remove the rest.
Get help from your customers
Another very practical solution to prevent emails from arriving in the ads tab or spam folder is to ask your users for help. You can ask your users to register you as a target audience. This increases the likelihood that your messages will be entered in the main tab. You can also ask your users to delete their messages from the spam folder and place them in the main folder.
Produce valuable content
Another way to prevent emails from ending up in the spam folder is to focus on providing valuable content rather than advertising and selling products. When users consume your messages and find them useful, the likelihood of your message landing on the homepage increases. You can introduce users to new features of your products and services or keep them informed about the latest developments in your field. Producing quality content can have a huge impact on your long-term marketing success, so take it seriously.
Send short emails
Another practical solution to avoid your email ending up in the spam folder is to keep it short. If you use long texts in your promotional email, Gmail will recognize them as worthless content and place them in the spam folder. In general, it is best to limit the body of your email to less than 300 words. Interestingly, emails with only 4 words are opened 21% more often than other emails.
Send emails at the right time
Another practical solution to avoid emails ending up in the spam folder is to send them at the right time. What does this phrase mean? Imagine that you are in the industry and you want to send your advertising message to the managers and owners of the industries. In this case, the best time to send an email is during office hours, when the managers check their work email. Also, if you want to promote a recreational event, it is better to publish it on weekends or when users are away.
Do not send emails to fake addresses
You can also include fake addresses in your list for email marketing and when creating campaigns and groups and send your emails to them as well. You can easily detect fake and inactive emails and avoid sending messages to them. To do this, you can use the Sender Policy Framework or SPF. It compares the sender's IP addresses and gives you peace of mind knowing that the email is on the list of pre-approved IP addresses to send messages to.
Build a Mailing List or Bank
Another important solution that can prevent emails from ending up in users’ spam folders is to set up an email database of your top customers and users. You can use different methods to get users’ email addresses when they land on your website and ask them if they want to receive promotional emails, newsletters, festival announcements, etc. The final list that you will receive will be people who are genuinely interested in you and your field. Therefore, sending them emails can be very reliable and useful for you.
Clean Your List
When users send a large number of their emails to Gmail’s spam or promotions folder, they gradually lose their credibility with Gmail’s algorithms. To prevent this and prevent it from ending up in users’ spam folders, you need to clean your mailing list and bank account regularly.
Several users may have unsubscribed from you, set their mailbox to send their messages directly to the spam folder, or never open or respond to your emails. You should find these users using various analysis tools and remove them from your email bank.
Give Users the Right to Choose
If your users are constantly receiving your emails inadvertently, they will end up in their spam folder, seriously questioning your credibility. To avoid this and prevent users from ending up in the spam folder, give them the right to choose. This means that when they access your website or sign up, ask them whether or not they want to receive emails from you.
Final Words
Without a doubt, email marketing is one of the best and most effective online marketing methods that can help you introduce your business, services, and products to many people. An important factor in the success of email marketing is placing your message on the homepage. In this article, we will provide you with solutions to help you prevent your messages from ending up in the spam folder and the main audience folder.
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