How to get your newsletters in Primary tab for Gmail instead of Promotions?

Two years ago gmail launched it’s tab interface which splits our mail interface into 3 parts – Primary, Social, Promotions. Before the tabs Gmail’s open rate was 15% and when it launched that percent dropped down to 12.5% and even to 10% during holidays.

So the significant difference between primary tab open rate (35%-50%) and promotions tab (5%-10%) make many marketers want to get out of the last tab. But how can we prevent our newsletter mails to go to Promotions tab?

Here is the traditional way that is almost inapplicable, making your readers to move your emails to the Primary tab:

Here are few simple tips you can try:

1. Always write in the right time.

Do not send newsletters over the weekend or holidays (this is a sign that you are promoting something). Try to contact your subscribers whenever they are up to this. The best time for this is 2-3pm. The end of the workday is great time to contact them. They are still focused in their email and it’s absolutely business emailing time. If you email once per week statistics shows that the best days for this are Wednesday and Thursday.

2. Use no images. And include maximum 1 link. No Rss.

Many marketers will disagree using of no images in your email, but that is very valuable for reaching the primary tab. You can catch your readers attention with right text formatting and replace the call to action fancy image buttons with the right wording. Including maximum 1 link will guarantee that you are not sending promotional email with links to many offers in your website.

3. Write your emails in traditional letter form.

Try to write your readers like they are your friends. Using traditional language in your emails will help you to get out of the promotions tab. “Hey George, how are you doing?”, “It’s Dido from Front End Factory. I hope you are doing well.” and etc.

4. Make your emails personal. Reader’s name is a must have.

If you are using aweber or mailchimp you can include your readers’ details in your emails to make them more personalised. Include as many personalised elements as you can. Adding user’s company, project name or address is also a great solution if is possible for you.

5. Do not use promotional words.

Your email and especially subject should be free of promotional wording like “Promotion”, “Sale”, “Discount” etc. Here are few bad examples for your subjects “Hey Mike, see our promotions today”, “Limited time offer for you”, “Save up to 50% on our new collection”, “Get rich with us” and etc.

I hope this article will help you to reach the primary tab of your readers’ gmail accounts.

Please share tis article to help your friends doing this also.