Strategies to Combat Email Promotion Tabs

Welp, Gmail’s done it again. More new updates to make the inbox experience better *for recipients*, much to the chagrin of some senders. The Promotions tab is getting ranked by relevance (hell yeah), post-purchase mail is getting its own swim lane with a dedicated Purchases tab (just in time for the holiday email season!), and Manage Subscriptions makes pruning senders you no longer want to hear from effortless. Why does *this* change matter, given all the new features they’ve been rolling out recently? Because it means delivery ≠ visibility… even if you send at the “perfect” time for your subscribers. In this new reality, two people can open at the same time and see different stacks. If you’re not in their regular rotation, you’re headed to the Promotions basement (or shuffled to page two)… send-time optimization be damned. Tabs are optional, but the consequences of not sending it right are universal. Ranked visibility rewards usefulness and consistency, not hacks or send-time optimization. Here are some things you can do right meowww… 1️⃣ Separate (and de-glam) your transactional. This one’s all about business up front and (promotions) party in the back. Dedicated subdomain/IPs, and kill the promo pixie dust that might make your business-critical mail seem promotional: upsell CTAs, cross-sell banners, and “while you’re here” copy. 2️⃣ Lean into easier unsubscribes Allowing users to easily “Manage Subscriptions” will accelerate list churn, whether you like it or not. But they don’t hurt deliverability (unless there are a TON), and there are ways you can encourage would-be unsubscribers to stay with you by getting in front of it, like offering a preference center where subscribers can opt-down instead of out. 3️⃣ Adjust your Promotions presentation for “Most Relevant” You can’t force… really anything in your recipients these days. But you can encourage them to engage by making it super clear what your message is about and why they need it in their lives with very little effort. For example, instead of: “Our Fall Drop is Here”, get specific! Say the outcome: “24-hr restock on [X] you favorited” 4️⃣ Update your scorecard to match how Gmail ranks mail Unlike the “Most Recent” view, where your visibility’s been mostly about timing, getting mail delivered under a “Most Relevant” reality doesn’t equate to a fair shot at being seen (even if you land in the inbox). 💌 Optimize for speed of engagement, reach (how many engage), and stickiness (how often they engage). Metrics like Time-to-First-Open, First-6-Hour Click Share, Active Gmail Reach (30d), Click Reach (30/60/90), Replies/“helpful” signals, and Persistence (opened 2+ of last 4) will help you figure out how your mail’s really landing. 5️⃣ Stop blasting to everyone. No, seriously. Stop it. I wrote all about this in my recent Send It Right blog post (and newsletter). Get the full scoop: https://lnkd.in/gSP5GtgE

Checked my spam folder yesterday and found SO MANY DTC brands that used to be in my promotions tab. Even found double opt-in messages in there. Seems like Google/Yahoo updates are working hard to protect consumers from receiving unwanted messages 👏 For us, email marketers that means taking time to update our sending strategies and tighten the engaged segments. If segmentation was not your top priority before, it definitely should be now! Segmentation allows you to target people based on their intent, their interests, the stage of their customer journey, demographics, location and more. Some basic tips: 1. Check your flow filters. Make sure that people are not receiving your Browse, Cart and Checkout Abandonment flows all at the same time. Think about whether people in your Welcome or Thank You flows need to receive your email campaigns. 2. Make sure to send to your Engaged Segment only. And remember, Open Rates are not the true indication of engagement. 3. Send relevant content. Engaged segment is great, but imagine how many different customer personas are there! You have VIPs, prospects, one-time buyers, low AOV, high AOV, and discount shoppers - they all resonate with a different message. So take the time to really look at your audience and craft compelling offers for them. 4. Send more text-based emails. It is not a secret that text-based emails tend to land in the inboxes more frequently than the image based. So utilize that knowledge, especially if you need to fix your reputation among inbox providers. Plain text emails have the power to stand out among the other promotions tab messages and feel much more personal than the image-based sent-to-everyone flashy email. 5. Clean your list and set up proper exclusion segments. Remove spam trap accounts, unengaged, chronic bouncers, and those who have long story of not opening. What else will you add here?

No one talks about this. But it’s killing your revenue. You can spend $30k on beautiful design, clever copy, and strategic offers... But if your emails are going to spam? You're lighting money on fire. Bad deliverability is the most expensive silent killer in your email marketing. It’s the first thing we check in any audit—because everything else depends on it. Great email strategy sits on one thing ⤷ A clean, trusted domain with inbox placement dialed in. Here’s what we check in a deliverability audit: 1. Sending Infrastructure ⤷ DMARC, SPF, DKIM setup ⤷ Branded sending domain 2. List Health ⤷ % of unengaged contacts ⤷ List scrubbing cadence ⤷ Presence of bot/trap accounts ⤷ % of customers vs. prospects 3. Inbox Placement ⤷ Are you hitting Primary, Tabs, Spam… or just disappearing? ⤷ Which ISPs are flagging you? 4. Blacklist Checks ⤷ Using tools like GlockApps/MXToolbox/MultiRBL ⤷ Identifying domain/IP reputation issues 5. Segmentation Strategy ⤷ Are you using the correct segmentation filters? ⤷ Are you excluding the right contacts from your sends? ⤷ Are you over or under-segmenting your list? Until these boxes are checked, nothing else matters. Because visibility drives conversions. More emails in inboxes → More eyes on content → More sales. Stop searching for silver bullets. Fix your foundations first.

40% open rate. 0 replies. If that’s your campaign, I guarantee that you’ve got a deliverability problem, not a messaging one. Let me know if this sounds familiar 👇 You write the perfect message. The ICP is spot on. The targeting is clean. But the replies? Silence.   It's not because they ignored it, but because they never saw it. In 2025, getting seen is half the battle.   Here’s a quick 3 step checklist we use before anything goes out:   #1: Check the content Run every message through a spam checker (we built a free one for you, link in the comments). Watch for: risky phrases, shouty formatting, aggressive CTAs. If it screams “promo blast,” Gmail buries it.   #2: Verify your email lists We use ZeroBounce to clean and validate contacts, before a single message is sent. Why? Because a few bad emails can tank your sender reputation. Hard bounces, invalid domains, and catch-alls kill deliverability. Clean lists mean safe sends.   #3: Test where your emails actually land A 42% open rate doesn’t mean Primary tab. We use various tools to test inbox placement before we launch, across 20+ seed inboxes, 100+ checks (headers, no links on email #1, DMARC, DNS, content, all of it).   Because Primary vs. Promotion can be the difference between pipeline and nowhere.   Top GTM teams test deliverability like it’s part of their Outbound motion (because it is).   P.S. I’m breaking this down in a live webinar with Jack Boulter from ZeroBounce on June 30. Link is in the first comment 👇

Arthur was struggling with low open rates. Here is how I took it from 14% to 45% with minor changes: 1. Fixing the subject line 90% of the time, low open rates are caused by the hooks. So I knew the problem even before I started. His hooks were: A. Pale B. Unclear C. Not written for readers D. Sparking no curiosity As soon as I fixed them, We jumped from 14% to 30% open rate in the next email. 2. Make each email more personal Giving an email ID is like giving your personal phone number. If someone is giving it to you, that means they expect something more than what they can get from Google. If they don’t feel connected with what they’re reading, they’ll soon be unsubscribing. My client's emails were written for his past selves and not readers. So readers couldn’t connect and stopped reading. 3. Started giving value in return of attention WIIFM. What’s in it for me? Simple rule of copywriting. His emails were lacking that. We turned the table and started giving value. Result? The reader kept coming in. 4. Stopped emails from going to promotion tab Low response rate/low domain authority = landing into the promo tab. We segmented his list with daily readers. Written engaging content. Got replies. Fixed his emails go into promo tabs. P.S. Also in the welcome email sequence, we asked people to move the emails to the primary tab to stop emails from going into the promotional tab. 5. Increased upload frequency He was inconsistent He was not posting much Often kept the emails dead for weeks. You trust a brand because it has built it by showing their ads daily. The same psychology goes with emails. These simple 5 fixes took our open rates from 14% to >45% in just 3 weeks. So if you are struggling with low open rates, Feel free to give these tips a go.

Apple just made email marketing harder. Here's what you need. If you’re using Apple Mail, things are changing. Emails are now categorised—some land where they're seen, others don't. Here’s how Apple is shifting inboxes: → Primary tab → Family, friends, colleagues, urgent messages → Other tabs → Promotions, Updates, Transactions Translation? Urgency-based emails (like countdowns or deadlines) might lose visibility. Your marketing emails may get buried. But don’t panic. Here’s what I’m doing for brands I work with: 1/ Segment smart: Focus on subscribers who already engage with you. Prioritise relevance over reach. 2/ Mix up content: Blend educational content with promotions. Keep emails engaging and worth opening. 3/ Test subject lines: Move beyond urgency and try fresh approaches. 4/ Set up dummy inboxes: Learn where your urgent messages land—and adjust accordingly. Apple is also grouping emails by sender. Your subject line and opening copy now matter more than EVER. (Those first few lines? Prime real estate.) Want visibility? → Keep your sender names and branding CONSOLIDATED. → Stay consistent with your tone across all your emails. Adapt or fade away, what’s your strategy for tackling Apple’s update?