Why your email goes to Promotions
Gmail sorts mail into tabs by how it reads and who sends it. You can't control the sender part quickly, but you can control the words. Paste an email below for an instant check, or read what our tests found.
What our tests found
- Sales wording is the biggest factor: "Try it today", "Join now", "Ready to X? Do Y!".
- Urgency and discounts: countdowns, "last chance", percentages off.
- Links styled as buttons or pointed at with ">>>" and arrows.
- Exclamation marks, emoji and Title Case in subjects.
- A "free masterclass" or "free gift" pitch.
What helped: writing to one person, opening with their situation or a question, saying plainly what the link is and why it's worth their time, one link in a normal sentence, and inviting a reply.
What Promotions is fine for
If you run a shop and send sales, Promotions is where people expect them and look for them. Don't disguise a sale as a personal note or fake a "Re:". This is for emails that really are personal: welcomes, stories, lessons, check-ins.
The sender matters too
A new or poorly set up sending domain can land anywhere regardless of wording. That part is set up once in your email tool. The instant check looks at the words; Inbox Tuner's full version also sends your emails to real Gmail inboxes and reads the tab.