Your emails land in Gmail's Promotions tab

What it means

Gmail sorts incoming emails into tabs: Primary, Promotions, Social, Updates and Forums. Emails that look like marketing (offers, newsletters, sales) go to Promotions. This is a different thing from the spam folder.

Why it matters

• It is not a deliverability failure. Your email was accepted and delivered. Gmail simply thinks it is promotional.
• Readers check the Promotions tab less often, so open rates can be lower.
• For newsletters and sales emails, Promotions is the expected place. Trying to trick Gmail into Primary is not worth it and can hurt trust.
• For personal emails, receipts, password resets or account alerts, landing in Promotions is a sign that the email looks too much like marketing.

How to check

• Send a test email: on the home page, copy your unique test address, send it a normal email from the mailbox or tool you want to check, then open the report. Make sure authentication and reputation are fine first: SPF, DKIM and DMARC should pass and no blacklist should list you. If they do not, your problem is spam, not tabs.
• Then send the same email to a Gmail address you own and see which tab it lands in.

How to fix it

For transactional and personal emails

1. Separate them from marketing. Send receipts and alerts from a different address, or better a subdomain such as mail.yourdomain.com for marketing, so Gmail can tell them apart.
2. Keep them simple. Mostly text, one logo at most, no banners, no big buttons, no promotions mixed in.
3. Few links. One or two useful links, not a full menu and a row of social icons.
4. Personal tone. Write like a person to one person: a name in the greeting and a real From name.
5. Send a text version along with the HTML.

For newsletters and offers

• Accept that Promotions is their normal home. Many readers use it to read offers when they are ready.
• Ask new subscribers, in your welcome email, to move one of your emails to Primary if they want. Gmail often remembers this choice.
• Encourage replies, for example with a question. Conversations look less like mass marketing.
• Do not fake a personal email ("Re:", no unsubscribe link) to reach Primary. Readers feel tricked and report spam.

What does not help

• Removing your unsubscribe link: it is required for bulk senders and only increases complaints.
• Changing words randomly to "beat" the filter. Gmail looks at the whole email, its layout and how readers react.

Check that it is fixed

After changes, send a new test from the home page to confirm everything still passes. Then send the email to a few Gmail addresses, ideally ones that never received it before, and look at the tab it reaches. Tab placement can change from one reader to another, so look for a trend, not a single result.