Email prospecting is where you identify, research, and qualify potential customers for c, and in emails. It is also one of the simplest and most effective strategies for generating sales leads.
But if you don’t do it correctly, it won’t just be a huge waste of time, it will also harm your personal and company brand.
What’s more – about 320 billion emails are sent and received daily worldwide. This figure is even increasing by about four percent each year. [1]
So, as a marketer, how can you ensure your prospects see your emails and move your deals forward?
Don’t worry. We’ve got your back. Read this guide to discover why your emails are landing in the spam folder and the steps to improve your Gmail delivery. Let’s dive in.
Gmail Primary Inbox: How Gmail Sorts Email Based on Preferences
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In 2013, Google introduced the inbox classification to help users organize their email easily and build an ecosystem safe from spam and potential abuse.
That classification sorted emails into five tabs: Primary, Promotions, Socials, Updates, and Forums. Gmail users can enable or disable any different inbox tabs anytime.
Intended Uses of the 5 Inbox Tabs in the Gmail App
Primary Tab
This tab hosts person-to-person conversations with people you know. Gmail considers this a necessary and essential message, so all email marketers want their campaigns to land in this tab.
The Gmail app learns the collective information based on user habits, including the frequency of previous interactions between the sender and the recipient. It then decides whether the email deserves a reply and puts it in the Primary tab.
Promotions Tab
Emails that land here include offers, deals, and other promotional emails. This tab is where email marketing campaigns tend to land, if not the Primary tab.
Socials Tab
In this tab, you’ll see messages from social networks and other media-sharing websites. These messages include notifications of comments, reactions, or new posts.
Updates Tab
Emails under the Updates tab include confirmations, notifications, statements, bills, and receipts. If you share Google slides, documents, and other collaborative projects with others, this tab will notify you of the edits made to those files.
Forums Tab
This tab is where you’ll find messages from online groups, mailing lists, and discussion boards. It also shows Google invitations and messages sent to large groups of friends, employees, and organizations.
Some factors impact the Gmail Primary Inbox tab classification, and the email’s overall content is one. Obviously, what you write in your campaign highly affects the category, especially whether to land it in the Primary Inbox or the Promotions tab.
In addition, the trigger keywords, images, links, and HTML you use matter too. The abuse of images is also similar to the overuse of links. Tons of these signal promotions may land your email in inbox categories other than the Primary.
Why Landing in the Primary Inbox Matters
A recipient will be less likely to open an email that lands on the promotion tab than an email that goes to the primary tab. For instance, it’s like receiving a phone call from an unknown number vs. your family member. You’re more likely to answer that call from your family member.
In the world of email, it’s essential to be in Gmail’s primary tab because being there means more recipients are reading your emails. Consequently, it also leads to better business relationships and more deals.
9 Tips to Make Sure Your Emails Are Seen By Your Prospects
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Here are nine proven strategies to improve your Gmail inbox delivery and ensure your prospects see your emails:
1. Ask To Be Placed in the Primary Tab
First and foremost, if you truly want to land in Gmail’s Primary tab, you can simply ask for it. There’s no harm in asking your recipients.
Another option is to ask them to add you as their contact. You can do this by sending your subscribers a newsletter, encouraging them to include you in their contacts for a high chance of landing in the primary tab. This is because the recipients have consented to you to do so.
It’s also better if your instruction email has a visual guide for the recipients to move or drop one of your emails into the Primary folder.
2. Sound and Act Like a Human
Another way to ensure your prospects see your emails is to sound and act like a human in your message. After all, your email content matters if you want to land in the Primary tab.
Making your email personal is more engaging to the recipient, increasing your Gmail deliverability.
You can achieve this by addressing the recipient by name and caring more about your subject line. As much as possible, avoid being so sales-pitchy and make it short.
3. Utilize Good Design Principles
A well-designed email captures the reader’s attention and increases your chance of being moved into the Primary tab.
So, design with a purpose. For instance, if it’s a transactional email, ensure you stick to the point. Readers should easily see the specific information they want, such as “Your password has been reset” or “Your order has shipped.”
In addition, make marketing emails mobile-friendly, as more than half of all emails are now being read on mobile. So, optimize your CTA buttons and text size for that, as this will provide a good user experience.
The arrangement of your content can likewise boost engagement. You can follow the inverted pyramid, which funnels the reader’s attention toward the CTA or the Z model.
Such a design style follows how we read blocks of text from left to right and diagonally to the end of the paragraph. Meaning, draw attention to the zigzag pattern.
Related: Cold Email Template for Graphic Design Services – 7 Unique and Effective Email Templates
4. Check Reply-to Email Address
The reply-to email address of your marketing emails should be similar in the sender field to increase the chance of landing in Gmail’s Promotions tab.
If both email addresses don’t match, Google will assume you use a business email. Gmail recognizes the difference between business and personal email addresses, as the latter usually don’t use a no-reply or reply-to address.
Impersonalized mass outreach using a business email address usually lands in the Promotions folder rather than the Primary inbox.
5. Be Familiar with Gmail’s Current Bulk-Sending Guidelines
Gmail’s rules are the ones that truly matter when sending campaigns. So, reviewing its recent guidelines for sending bulk emails is best. [2]
Doing so will also increase the chances of your emails not landing in the spam folders.
Related: How to Send Bulk Emails in Gmail
6. Declutter the Footer
The footer is a part of your email that may seem insignificant and small. However, ensuring your future emails appear in Gmail’s primary tab is crucial.
It is also one of the factors that the Gmail algorithm considers. Overly promotional or a cluttered footer may trigger Google. It will classify your emails as promotions and land them in the Promotions tab of your recipients’ Gmail inboxes.
Therefore, we recommend you refrain from excessive links, unnecessary information, and images in the footer. Instead, keep it clean and minimal, and add only essential elements that offer value to the recipient.
7. Test Your Emails with Different Email Clients
Always test your email before sending it. Every device and browser displays email differently. So, if you want to ensure your campaign looks good to everyone on your list, test it with different email clients.
Some email platforms provide an email preview option, which makes this strategy easier.
8. Include a Call-to-Action
A clear CTA, whether for purchasing, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a resource, makes it easy for the reader to know the action to take and why.
In addition, it removes uncertainty and confusion because there’s a clear path toward a desired outcome. As a result, it will have a big impact on the success of your email marketing efforts. It will also increase the open and click-through rates of your email.
9. Use an Email Marketing or Deliverability Tool
One of the many benefits of using an email marketing tool for your marketing messages is increased visibility.
This benefit is especially useful if your business sends in high volume, as it ensures your emails will not be throttled.
Some email marketing software even allows you to set up automated email campaigns. When using them, the system automatically decides the best time to send your campaigns without your intervention.
Read also: Best Email Deliverability Tools
Another key benefit of using an email deliverability tool is higher open rates. After all, you have a better chance of landing in the Primary tab. It will also increase the chances of your readers engaging, responding to your emails, and clicking on the link you provided.
InboxAlly, for instance, is an email deliverability tool that serves a diverse range of users, from cold emailers to deliverability experts and email marketing agencies.
With it, you can use tools for email authentication, IP warm-up, reputation management, and real-time monitoring and analyzing email campaigns. Learn more here: How does InboxAlly work?
Improve the Visibility of Your Email Campaigns Today
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Now that you know how to ensure your prospects see your emails and increase the odds of landing in the Primary tab, applying these strategies will get you ahead of the competition.
Remember, always prioritize making personal connections with real people while implementing these strategies.
Don’t just “blast,” but deliver value to people who want to hear from you. It’s all about improving your recipients’ lives through what you can offer and conversations that can happen anywhere, anytime – through email.
If you’re interested in using an email deliverability tool that will help you send mass emails and increase open rates without fear of landing in spam, try InboxAlly.
It also teaches email providers to put your emails in the Primary inbox from the very start.
Sources:
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/456500/daily-number-of-e-mails-worldwide/
[2] https://support.google.com/mail/answer/81126?hl=en