thread How To Avoid The Gmail Promotions Tab with Square Marketing? in Archived Discussions (Read Only)

How To Avoid The Gmail Promotions Tab with Square Marketing?

jameshoilman — Thu, 27 Jul 2017 11:00:38 GMT

Hey there,

So I've just tried out Square Marketing, and I love the various campaigns that can be created. I also love how customizable each of the campaigns are.

However...

I've tested a number of them with my own email address, and it always seems to end up in gmail's "Promotions" tab... which I personally NEVER look at...

Obviously I can ask my clients to save my address to their contacts so that they will see my emails. However, a good number of these clients are "lapsed" and it would be awesome if the latest emails they receive from me are from my Square Marketing efforts.

Is there anyway that Square can make their marketing emails show up directly in people's inbox? Or is that totally unavoidable because it's a Gmail thing?

Let me know.

Thanks!

Re: How To Avoid The Gmail Promotions Tab?

VanKalkerFarms — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 16:36:56 GMT

I don't think that is avoidable as google's algorithm looks at the email and decides that it is spam, promotion (but not spam), social, and regular. I barely use Gmail directly via a web interface, most is thru mail on iPhone and mail on my Mac, but everything is in the inbox in Gmail unless I choose a specific folder like spam, promotion.

Re: How To Avoid The Gmail Promotions Tab with Square Marketing?

RB — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 20:24:03 GMT

This is a great question, and one I expect many sellers have, so thank you for asking!

On the Square Marketing team, we’ve looked into this quite a bit, and here’s what we’ve found. You are right that this is ‘a Gmail thing’ -- Gmail controls whether our emails land in the Primary tab, the Promotions tab, or elsewhere, and it is not something we, or any email service provider, can easily affect. However, there has also been a lot of research and testing done to help us better understand the impact of these deliverability rules.

The good news is, according to a Return Path study of three million Gmail users, the tabs actually improved deliverability, increased open rates, and decreased spam complaints from email recipients. The study found it’s actually quite hard to get a marketing email into the primary inbox -- but that marketers shouldn’t be too concerned, as “instead of ignoring marketing messages Gmail users are actively searching for them and reading them at almost the same rates at which they did before tabs. Gmail has essentially created a second inbox where users hunt for email offers.” Additionally, because the Gmail tabs are optional, not all of your customers will have a Promotions tab (though it is admittedly quite common).

With that in mind, there are the few things that you could do to drive up your chances of landing in the Primary tab, such as:

Asking your customers to add your email to their contact list.
Asking customers to drag the email message into the Primary tab.

How do you know if you’re being negatively affected by the Promotions tab? Check your open rates. The industry averages for open rates are approximately 20-25%, depending on your line of business. Most Square Marketing customers, however, see higher open rates than this -- across the Square network our average open rates are 39%! Individual results may vary, so check your campaign results to see how you’re performing. Chances are if you’re above 25%, the Gmail tabs aren’t doing too much damage.

I hope this helps with some guidance and reassurance when it comes to Gmail. Thank you for trying out Square Marketing, and keep us posted on how your campaigns perform!

Re: How To Avoid The Gmail Promotions Tab with Square Marketing?

jameshoilman — Sun, 02 Apr 2017 18:43:06 GMT

Epic, thank you!

Re: How To Avoid The Gmail Promotions Tab with Square Marketing?

Pizzaguy — Mon, 03 Apr 2017 13:33:47 GMT

My open rates are above 50%, been using this service over a year , more concerned with the unsubs.

Re: How To Avoid The Gmail Promotions Tab with Square Marketing?

PK1 — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 14:27:45 GMT

What email address should be used? Should I use the "marketing@messages.squareup.com", or the actual business address?

Re: How To Avoid The Gmail Promotions Tab with Square Marketing?

EJ_ — Tue, 09 Jan 2018 22:05:56 GMT

Hi @PK1

Your business name will appear on all of the marketing emails you send out, but the marketing emails themselves are sent from the email address marketing@messages.squareup.com.

Re: How To Avoid The Gmail Promotions Tab with Square Marketing?

ArchAmbition — Thu, 27 Sep 2018 10:00:51 GMT

My business email definitely does not appear; sender is displayed as square marketing for every test email I’ve sent out! Am I doing something wrong?

Re: How To Avoid The Gmail Promotions Tab with Square Marketing?

Helen — Thu, 27 Sep 2018 19:00:09 GMT

@ArchAmbition As EJ mentioned above Square Marketing emails will always be sent from marketing@messages.squareup.com, and your business name and logo will appear at the top of the email.

If you want to inclued your email address in a marketing campaign you could include it in the Text section of a campaign. Also, if a customer replies to a marketing email the message will be directed to your business email address.