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Open Rates

How we escaped the Gmail Promotions tab — tested strategies

copywriter_chrisEmail Copywriter

About 60% of our subscriber base uses Gmail, and landing in Promotions instead of Primary cuts our open rates roughly in half. Here is what we tested.

What worked

  • Plain text format: Emails that look like personal messages land in Primary more often
  • Single CTA: One link instead of multiple reduces the "marketing" signal
  • Engagement-based sending: Only emailing active subscribers improves sender reputation

What did not work

  • Asking subscribers to move you to Primary (temporary effect at best)
  • Removing images entirely (marginal impact, hurts engagement)
  • Changing send times (irrelevant to tab placement)

The biggest factor is your sender reputation with Gmail. Clean lists, consistent sending volume, and high engagement rates matter more than any formatting trick.

#gmail#promotions-tab#deliverability
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3 Comments

deliverability_danDeliverability Expert

Sender reputation is the real answer here. All the formatting tricks in the world will not help if your domain reputation is low.

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newsletter_nerdNewsletter Creator

Plain text emails have been our best performer for landing in Primary. My newsletter goes out as plain text and consistently hits Primary for 90%+ of Gmail subscribers.

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growth_graceGrowth Marketer

Since switching to Brew, more of our emails land in Primary. I think their IP reputation is better than our previous ESP's shared pool.

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