I have a very active friend with email marketing and daily send emails to his list. He was very proud because his open and click rate was high. On one Saturday meeting( we have a weekly meeting and share what works every Saturday), he complained that most of his emails start ending in the promotional folder.
We did a lot of research together in the following weeks to find what went wrong. We analyzed his emails, contacted the email service provider, tracked every email, and discovered why his emails went in the promotional folder.
He is very active and sends emails to his list daily, as I told you initially. However, at that time, he sent emails twice a day: In the morning and evening to people who didn’t open his emails that day. So his open rate at the second time was shallow, and by time, google recognized him with a bad reputation and started sending his emails in the promotional folder.
He put several different promotional links in the emails, which is the red flag for Google. According to Google, you need to get your personal emails in your inbox, and personal emails don’t have many promotional links in them.
We studied how he can improve email deliverability, and he implied every best practice in his emails.
He stopped using pictures and videos in his emails
He checked email deliverability before sending the email
He checked subject lines
He stopped using spam words in the emails
He stopped selling something in the emails only.
He changed the email account.
By the time his open and click rate increased.
If you want to ensure that your email will finish in the inbox, ask your subscriber to whitelist you in your welcome email. Ask them questions in the emails, try to engage them, and reply to your emails. In this way, Google will recognize your emails as friends’ emails and always put them in the inbox.
Never put all capital letters in the subject line and never put the subject line with the capital letter of every word in it. Did you send these kinds of subject lines to your friends? Instead, make your subject lines normal.
Clean your list regularly. If someone doesn’t open your email for more than three months, the chances that he/she will continue reading your emails are meager. You don’t need these subscribers. They will lower your email deliverability and your open rate and click rate. As a result, your emails will finish in the spam or the promotional folder.
I want to give you one helpful tip at the end.
Compare the emails in the inbox and the promotional folder.
Compare their subject lines, their email body. Take time and study them. See how many links have the emails in your inbox, explore the language in it, call to action and do the same with the emails in the promotional folder.
If you use a business email, check if your domain is on some blocklist. If you use shared hosting, the chances that your domain is on the blocklist are bigger. Use mxtoolbox.com as a free tool to check it. If so, change the sender email on your email service provider.
Track your email deliverability, clean your list regularly, A/B test your emails, and your emails will never finish in the promotional folder. Your list is your biggest asset.
How to be sure your email will not finish in the promotional folder
If I want to send this post as an email, I will check it before sending it.
First, I will check the subject line.
It is good so that I can use this one.
Next, I will check if the subject line is good for social posts.
I can improve it according to the suggestion or use it because it is above average.
In the end, I will check for the spam words. You can check your email for spam words here.
So I will replace the spam words with nonspam ones
My email will look like this one now
Why your emails may end in the promotional folder
I have a very active colleague who daily sends emails to his list. He was very proud because his results and email metrics were high.
On one Saturday meeting( we have a weekly meeting and share what works every Saturday), he complained that most of his emails start ending in the promotional folder.
We did a lot of research together in the following weeks to find what went wrong. We analyzed his emails, contacted the email service provider, tracked every email, and discovered why his emails went in the promotional folder.
He is very active and sends emails to his list daily, as I told you initially. However, at that time, he sent emails twice a day: In the morning and evening to people who didn’t open his emails that day. So his open rate at the second time was shallow, and by time, google recognized him with a bad reputation and started sending his emails in the promotional folder.
He put several different promotional links in the emails, which is the red flag for Google. According to Google, you need to get your personal emails in your inbox, and personal emails don’t have many promotional links in them.
We studied how he can improve email deliverability, and he implied every best practice in his emails.
He stopped using pictures and videos in his emails
He checked email deliverability before sending the email
He checked subject lines
He stopped using spammy words in the emails
He stopped selling something in the emails.
He changed the email account.
By the time his results and email metrics increased.
If you want to ensure that your email will finish in the inbox, ask your subscriber to whitelist you in your welcome email. Ask them questions in the emails, try to engage them, and reply to your emails. In this way, Google will recognize your emails as friends’ emails and always put them in the inbox.
Don’t put all capital letters in the subject line and don’t put the subject line with the capital letter of every word in it. Did you send these kinds of subject lines to your friends? Instead, make your subject lines normal.
Clean your list regularly. If someone doesn’t open your email for more than three months, the chances that he/she will continue reading your emails are meager. You don’t need these subscribers. They will lower your email deliverability. As a result, your emails will finish in the promotional folder.
I want to give you one helpful tip at the end.
Investigate the emails in the inbox and the promotional folder.
Investigate their subject lines, their email body. Take time and study them. See how many links have the emails in your inbox, explore the language in it, CTA, and do the same with the emails in the promotional folder.
If you use a business email, see if your domain is on some blocklist. If you use shared hosting, the chances that your domain is on the blocklist are bigger. Use mxtoolbox.com as a tool to see it. If so, change the sender email on your email service provider.
Track your email deliverability, clean your list regularly, A/B test your emails, and your emails will not finish in the promotional folder. Your list is your biggest asset.
Now I can check the deliverability and send it or improve it again.
According to the score, I can send this email and people will get it in their inbox
If you need help optimizing your emails or raising your ROI on the backend with email campaigns according to your subscriber’s awareness stage you can contact me at contact@onlinemarketingacademy.club or https://calendly.com/workwitheli