Getting to a Google user’s inbox can be a complicated maze to navigate. Some of your emails arrive fine while others seem to hit only the Spam folder. The biggest factor is Google’s Bulk Sender Requirements. If you adhere to those rules, your email is most likely to make the Inbox. DMARC compliance, of course, is a base requirement.

But, what if you are still hitting the Spam folder?

Google is Judging Your Content

Remember that Inbox Providers are trying to provide a service to their customers. Part of this service is to improve the quality of their inbox experience by reducing spam emails and surfacing only email that their customers want to receive. Google categorizes emails in several ways:

• Primary – Person-to-person email, direct business correspondence, etc.
• Promotions – Newsletters, ad campaigns, sales circulars, etc.
• Social – Notifications and invitations from social media platforms.
• Transactional – Receipts, order confirmations, order updates, etc. Transactional can end up in Primary or Social.
• Bulk – Email sent to a significant number of Google inboxes. Promotions are a bulk form of email.

As a marketer, you will want to land in the category most likely to get opened: Primary. However, Google and their customers want your email to be properly categorized so that they can prioritize their email. What folder or category your email ends up in is largely due to the content of the message!

What Content Gets You to the Spam folder?

Google is also judging your content versus other email content and user sentiment about those emails.

Google has four main reasons for marking your email as spam:

1. Content is similar to other messages marked as spam.
2. Content is similar to yours was used to steal personal information.
3. Links in your email were suspicious.
4. Emails from your Domain have been marked as spam in the past.

You can see the messaging Google uses in their web UI, in the screenshots below

What can you do if you have Content Reputation Issues?

The good news is that you control your content. You have the option to make changes to your emails before you hurt your domain reputation.

MxToolbox recommendations:

1. Send separate and distinct emails for transactional and marketing purposes and do not mix marketing messages into a transactional email.
2. Use distinct subdomains for Person-to-person, Transactional and Marketing emails. This will solidify the separation to Google and given their algorithm a clue into proper categorization.
3. Review your Marketing lists regularly and prune outdated contacts in order to reduce the likelihood of your email being categorized as spam.
4. Review your Marketing content for spammy/histrionic language.

How can MxToolbox help?

MxToolbox Delivery Center provides the email delivery management and monitoring that you need to keep your messages flowing.

• Monitor DMARC compliance rates across all senders. DMARC is key to making the Google Inbox.
• Closely monitor your Gmail Spam rate. Being reported as spam by a few senders will get you marked as spam in all Inboxes.
• Check your email for 1-Click Unsubscribe, a requirement of Google, Outlook.com and Yahoo! bulk sender rules.
• Analyze your campaigns for other potential reasons to miss the inbox with Inbox Placement. Our MxTips ™ give you insight into potential Content Reputation Issues by analyzing your campaigns before you send them.
• Alert you to issues while they’re occurring to enable quick resolution and damage control.