blog · May 23, 2026

Why are my emails going to the Promotions tab?

Gmail's Promotions filter is triggered by deal language, image-heavy templates, and sender reputation. Some of this is intentional (promotional emails belong in Promotions) but you can shift to Primary for transactional + lifecycle.

It's mostly working as designed

Gmail's Promotions filter exists specifically for sender-to-many promotional content. Most of your marketing email belongs there — it's not a deliverability failure, it's accurate categorization.

Where it does matter

Order confirmations, shipping updates, account verifications. These should land in Primary. They land in Promotions when sent from the same sending domain as marketing email. Fix: send transactional from a different subdomain (e.g., transactional.yourbrand.com) with separate sender reputation.

Cosmetic fixes that help marginally

Plain-text-style emails (less imagery), single-CTA design, lowercase subject lines, no 'SALE' or 'discount' in subject. Each shifts the filter slightly. None gets you fully out of Promotions for legit promotional content.

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Klaviyo — The default; deep Shopify integration; segmentation that actually works.
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