Welcome back to Marketing Qualified! Here’s what we’re talking about this week:
-
Deliverability is overrated. Inbox placement is what actually matters.
-
The 5-second rule. Use it on your next landing page.
✉️ Deliverability is overrated. Here’s what actually matters.
Imagine this…
You spent hours crafting the perfect email. The subject line is strong. The copy is airtight. The call to action is clear.
You hit send.
Your email platform reports 99% deliverability—you did it! You’re an email marketing god!
But oh wait…
When you look closer at the metrics, the open rate is mediocre. Clicks are nonexistent. New revenue? What revenue?
Here’s the truth no one talks about: Deliverability doesn’t mean your email actually reached anyone. It just means the mail server accepted it.
Where did the email actually land? That’s the real question.
Why deliverability doesn’t matter as much as you think.
Certain marketers love to brag about their deliverability rates.
That’s like UPS bragging that they successfully delivered a package without knowing whether it ended up in the recipient’s hands or was tossed into some bushes near the porch, never to be seen again.
Because deliverability doesn’t tell you where your email actually landed. A “delivered” email could be:
-
Front and center in the Primary inbox (ideal)
-
Shoved into Promotions (not great)
-
Rerouted straight to Spam (game over)
And the worst part?
Most marketers don’t even understand this. They think a high deliverability rate means their emails land in the primary inbox.
If you want to actually drive results, deliverability isn’t the goal. Inbox placement is.
How to tell if your emails are invisible
Your email marketing tool won’t tell you if mail providers secretly push your emails to Promotions or Spam. But there are warning signs.
1) Gmail open rates are suspiciously lower than other providers.
If Outlook and Yahoo users are opening at a normal rate but Gmail lags behind, that’s a sign your emails aren’t landing where they should.
Gmail tends to be most aggressive about sorting emails into Promotions or Spam, and it uses different filtering logic than other inbox providers.
The problem isn’t always obvious. Things might seem fine if you only look at your overall open rate. But breaking it down by email provider can reveal hidden inboxing issues.
2) New subscribers engage less than longtime readers.
When someone signs up for your list, the first few emails set the tone. If those emails don’t reach inboxes, there’s a good chance people won’t even realize they’re subscribed.
Mail providers heavily weight inbox placement based on early interactions. If a subscriber opens, clicks, or replies to your first emails, future messages are more likely to reach them.
But if people never see or ignore those emails, providers assume they don’t care. Over time, it becomes harder for your emails to reach the primary inbox.
If new subscribers aren’t opening as much as your longtime readers, the problem might not be your content. It could be that your early emails are landing in Promotions or Spam before they even get a chance to engage.
3) Your engagement is slowly fading.
Email providers don’t just look at whether someone opens your email. They also analyze how recipients interact with you over time.
And they track far more than what your email marketing tool shows you in reports.
While you see open and click rates, Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo are tracking:
-
Dwell time – How long someone keeps your email open before closing or deleting it.
-
Quick deletes – If users frequently delete your emails without opening them, it signals low interest.
-
Scroll behavior – If they open your email and immediately scroll to the bottom, it looks like they’re skimming and not engaged.
-
Forwards and replies – If people forward or respond, that’s a strong positive signal.
-
Foldering behavior – If users manually drag your email from Promotions to Primary (or vice versa).
-
Spam complaints – Even a tiny percentage of Spam complaints can tank your reputation.
And here’s where things get even trickier: Inbox placement isn’t the same for every subscriber.
Even if your email lands in Primary for one person, it could hit Promotions for another and Spam for a third—all in the same send. That’s because inbox placement is personalized. Email providers track each user’s individual behavior, adjusting where your emails land based on how that specific person interacts with them.
If someone regularly opens, clicks, and replies, your emails are more likely to stay in their inbox. If someone ignores, deletes, or marks emails as Spam, you’ll slowly get pushed further out of sight. And once Gmail decides you belong in Spam, it’s tough to recover.
If your email engagement rate is dropping over time, it’s a sign that mail providers dislike how recipients interact with your emails.
How to get back into the inbox.
If you believe your emails are landing in Promotions or Spam, here’s what to try:
1) Fix your welcome email first.
Inbox providers decide early on where your emails belong. If your first email lands in Promotions, future emails will likely do the same.
-
Strip down your welcome email to look more like a one-to-one message than a marketing blast.
-
Avoid tons of links, excessive formatting, and heavy images.
-
Ask a question that encourages replies. Even a simple “What made you sign up?” can improve inbox placement.
2) Make emails look less like promotions.
Gmail flags emails with too many images, buttons, and links as promotional. If your emails have a lot of design elements, test some simpler versions.
-
Cut unnecessary images, excessive links, and giant CTA buttons.
-
Try some formats that look more like personal emails. Text-first, short, and to the point.
3) Train email providers to recognize your emails as important.
Inbox placement is based on how each individual subscriber interacts with your emails over time. If they never open or engage, providers deprioritize your future emails.
-
Ask subscribers to move your emails from Promotions to Primary and mark them as important.
-
Run a re-engagement campaign for inactive subscribers. If they aren’t opening, stop emailing them before they drag down your reputation.
4) Reset your reputation.
If emails are going to Spam, you need to pause and rebuild trust before blasting your list again.
-
Start sending only to highly engaged subscribers for a few weeks.
-
Gradually add back other segments as open rates improve.
-
Keep emails short, text-first, and reply-friendly during the warm-up phase.
The Bottom Line
Most marketers focus on deliverability because it’s easy to measure. But your real job isn’t getting emails accepted by the mail server—it’s getting emails seen and read.
If engagement is slipping, don’t assume it’s always a content problem. Investigate where your emails are actually landing. If you’re stuck in Promotions or Spam, tweaking subject lines isn’t going to cut it.
The only way forward is to optimize for inbox placement, not just deliverability. Because if no one sees your email, it doesn’t matter how good it is.
📰 In the news this week.
🔢 LinkedIn finally added newsletter analytics.
🤖 X rolls out AI-generated ads to win advertisers back.
🙈 Report: AI overwhelms 72% of B2B marketers.
💻 Homepage outline templates to try.
📈 Marketing and creative hiring is on the rise.
☝️ The 5-second rule.
Need a quick way to see if your landing page works?
Ask a friend or coworker to scroll for 5 seconds, then close the page.
Next, ask them what you do and why it matters.
If they can’t immediately tell you, your message is failing.
To fix it:
-
Make your headline crystal clear.
-
Add a strong, benefit-driven subheading.
-
Use one clear CTA.
😂 Marketing meme of the week.
How’d we do with this week’s newsletter?
A READER’S REVIEW
Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to a friend to spread the love.
Want us to write about something specific? Submit a topic or idea.
