My subscribers moved my emails to ‘Primary’ but they're still going to spam. What else can they do?

While your message may pass a mailbox provider’s initial security checks, additional filters evaluate factors like your sending reputation, content, and engagement history. If these factors indicate your message might be unwanted or potentially problematic, it’s routed to the Spam folder as part of the provider’s effort to protect their users, and allow for additional review.

If subscribers still find your emails in their Spam folder, even after moving them to the Primary inbox in Gmail (or similar folders in other email clients), there are additional steps they can take to help ensure they don’t miss future messages.  As we know, each mailbox provider goes about things differently, but here are a few common options you should suggest: 

• Safelisting: Many providers allow subscribers to safelist a sending domain, which signals that emails from your domain are trusted and should not be marked as spam. This process varies by provider, but typically involves adding your domain to a safe list in their email settings.
  
  
• Creating Filters: Creating a filter is a direct way for subscribers to manage where emails from specific senders go. For example, in Gmail, subscribers can create a filter to have your emails sent directly to their Primary inbox and marked as ‘Never Spam.’
  
  
• Adding to Contacts: Some mailbox providers prioritize emails from contacts, so by adding your sending email address to their contact list, subscribers may reduce the chance of messages going to spam.
  
  
• Marking as ‘Not Spam’: If emails do land in the Spam folder, marking them as ‘Not Spam’ helps train the provider that messages from your domain are wanted, gradually improving placement over time.

For a great rundown of how to execute on these steps within Gmail, Yahoo and others, check out: How To Safelist Newsletter Senders in Popular Email Services.

Before ending, It’s important to note that while these methods will greatly improve the chances of your emails landing in the primary inbox, they don’t guarantee that messages won’t go to the Spam folder. Mailbox providers continually modify their filtering and evaluate incoming messages in a dynamic fashion.  Even when subscribers safelist a domain, create filters, add to contacts, or mark emails as ‘Not Spam,’ messages can still be routed to the Spam folder if they trigger the wrong filter.