First, a little background. Back in 2013, Gmail began grouping all incoming mail and created five tabs for emails:
Unsorted. All personal messages that are not sorted into other sections appear here.
Promotions. All marketing mailings, messages about discounts and promotions go here.
Social networks. This folder accumulates all sorts of notifications from social networks.
Notifications. This tab contains all automatic notifications, such as password changes or new account creations.
Forums. All messages from forums that users are subscribed to are sent here by filters.
Why is this necessary? First of all, so that users who receive hundreds of emails a day can conveniently check their inbox.
What is the principle by which letters are sorted ?
To distribute emails into tabs, the mail service analyzes the content and the sender's IP, and also uses machine learning algorithms. Sometimes it happens that Gmail cannot classify an email into any of the categories. In this case, spam filters check it again and, if everything is in order, the email ends up in "Unsorted". The Return Path study shows that only 2.41% of emails end up in this folder.
What's wrong with the Promotions folder?
The Promotions folder receives 68% of all sent emails . So, in one day, each user accumulates a significant stack of emails. Of course, many people check the tab to find emails from their favorite brands. According to Smaily, more than 45% of users check the folder every day. However, 25% of respondents do this only once a week, and 19.9% never go to Promotions.
As a result, each new letter in the promo becomes less and less noticeable. For this reason, every marketer dreams of mailings ending up in the “Unsorted” folder, and subscribers do not lose sight of them.
Where else might a company's mailing end up?
If you have an online store and you qatar business email list send out a mass mailing, it will most likely end up in “Promotions”. According to statistics, letters from clothing stores, children’s goods, sports brands and tour operators most often end up there.
“Social Networks” receives emails from social networks, job search services, and dating sites.
Letters from banks, financial services, airlines or insurance companies come to the “notifications” of users who have created a personal account on the sites.
Emails are only placed in the “Forums” folder if the company has its own forum and the user monitors the information posted there.
If the user does not want to see the contents of all tabs, he can hide them in the Gmail settings.
Is Gmail Sorting Wrong?
Despite the fact that the service has developed the most progressive email filtering system, annoying mistakes happen. Sometimes people miss important notifications because they accidentally fly to the “Promotions” folder. For example, one user almost missed his flight at the airport because of such a miscalculation.
What can I do to prevent emails from ending up in the Promotions folder?
To give your newsletter a better chance of getting into the Unsorted tab, use our tips.
1. Think about the subject of the letter . If the subject line contains loud calls to buy something and the words “sale”, “promotion” or “urgent”, filters will send the letter to “promotions”.
2. Consider the ratio of visuals to text. Gmail will consider emails with a lot of pictures as promotional mailings.
3. Remove unnecessary links. The fewer links in the letter, the better. The optimal number is 2-3, including the unsubscribe link.
4. Personalize the letter. Personal letters often end up in the main inbox, so try to make your newsletter look personal too. Address users by name and don’t make the content impersonal.
5. Get rid of the header and footer. Every email marketing campaign has a header and a block with contact information. Remove these elements and place the unsubscribe link under the signature at the end of the email.
6. Consider the time of sending. Gmail always monitors how the recipient reacts to the letter - whether it is opened, deleted or marked as important. Choose the time when your subscribers most often check their mail.
