If you open your own emails in Gmail, you know: Gmail's Promotions Tab sorts emails with the precision of a Swiss watch and, while great for users, ending up in the Promotion Tab for marketers and brands is like being banished to Siberia. 

Particularly after the BFCM frenzy, chances are a good chunk of your email campaigns have been hitting the Gmail Promotion Tab (or even Spam folder), after sales countdowns, aggressive discounting, increased send frequency and expanded email segments.

So what can you do and why is this important? 

Understand the beast

Over 30% of the daily emails worldwide are sent through Gmail. While having good deliverability takes much more, it’s not too late to focus on Gmail deliverability first. You really don’t want to put this off, especially ahead of the big changes and new Gmail/Yahoo requirements announced for February 2024.

So, first things first, do this to dodge the Promotion Tab and take the first steps towards better email deliverability overall.

  • Personalize the ‘From’ Field
    Instead of using a generic company name, try a personal name or a combination (e.g., “Elise from Brand Name”).

  • Text-to-Image ratio matters
    Heavy use of images can trigger the Promotions tab. Strive for a balance between text and images.

  • Avoid overuse of sales language
    Avoid spam trigger words that will also trigger the smart Gmail filters; words like “discount,” “sale,” “Free” and “clearance” can land you in promotions, spam folders and affect your deliverability altogether. Get creative in how you convey your offers and avoid that messaging in Subject Lines too!

  • Use clean coding and design
    Avoid fancy fonts, don’t use too many links, avoid large image templates and sloppy HTML that can flag your email. Keep your code clean and simple.

  • Ask subscribers to Whitelist you
    Sometimes the direct approach works best. Politely ask your subscribers to add you to their primary inbox, starting from your Welcome flow.

  • Improve your sender reputation 
    This one goes beyond the Gmail Promotion Tab and may take time, but you need to start somewhere; for instance, stop blasting your list and only email engaged subscribers as your go-to segments. You can also use segmentation based on purchase intent and behavior (while excluding non-clickers and chronic non-engagers), like a specific category interest or purchase, and loop back in semi-engaged segments every few email campaigns. 


Now that you got the basics, let’s get you ready for February 2024. Read here our breakdown of the 3 new Email requirements.