Inbox Placement: Ensuring Your Emails Evade the Spam Folder

If you’re a coffee lover, you know the metal filter in the coffee maker extracts the oil and flavors to produce a clean cup of coffee.

Just like the metal filter in a coffee maker, your email marketing software acts as a filter, ensuring your emails are delivered to the inbox and not marked as spam.

Emails are generally tested and filtered into two distinct categories: spam and legitimate messages.

Inbox placement is the ability of your emails to land in the subscribers’ primary inboxes instead of the promotions or social tabs. When emails reach the main inbox, they have a higher chance of being opened and engaged with.

The process requires you to understand the intricacies of email assessments and how to avoid becoming bait to spam traps.

We’ll review the best practices and discuss how to make inbox placement work the best for your email marketing.

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What is Inbox Placement?

Inbox placement is the ability of emails to land in the recipient’s primary inbox successfully rather than being filtered into spam folder or other tabs such as promotions or social.

It’s a critical email campaign metric to measure email deliverability because even if your emails get delivered successfully (email delivery rate) they may not necessarily reach the primary inbox. Email deliveries can be affected by sending emails to inactive lists, high bounce and complaint rates, or not maintaining list hygiene.

Email deliverability and inbox placement are closely related but are not the same. We’ll examine the primary differences in the following portion.

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Inbox Placement vs. Email Deliverability: Understanding the Differences for Optimal Results

The table below addresses the subtleties between email deliverability and inbox placement.

Aspect	Email Deliverability	Inbox Placement
Definition	The ability of your emails to reach the intended recipients’ inboxes without being filtered by spam	The process of ensuring your emails land in the primary inboxes of subscribers rather than being filtered into other inboxes such as promotions, forums, etc
Key factors	‣ Sender reputation ‣ Email infrastructure ‣ Authentication ‣ ISP relationships ‣ Technical issues	‣ Sender reputation ‣ Content quality ‣ Email design ‣ Authentication ‣ List management ‣ Subject line optimization ‣ Timing and frequency ‣ Email client compatibility
Relationship	Essential for email campaign success	It’s a subset of email deliverability contributing to the success of email campaign
Key difference	It’s more connected with the technical aspects of deliverability	It’s more focused on the recipient’s experience

Poor email deliverability can directly impact inbox placement, as emails that don’t reach the recipients will have no chance to land in the primary inbox.

Sometimes, the two terms can be complementary: achieving optimal inbox placement requires a thorough understanding of the factors affecting deliverability and how people perceive your emails.

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Why is Inbox Placement Important?

If you want to gain a trustworthy email sender name, it’s critical to focus on the inbox placement rate. When your emails consistently land in inboxes, your subscribers are more likely to engage with your emails.

To amplify your email marketing strategies, it’s critical to calculate your inbox placement rates properly.

We’ll learn how to measure this aspect.

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How to Measure Inbox Placement Rate?

Inbox placement rate is the percentage of emails that reach the customers’ primary inboxes out of total emails sent.

The formula to calculate the inbox placement rate is:

There’s no golden standard for inbox placement rate. However, you can compare them against industry benchmarks.

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Industry Benchmark for Inbox Placement Rate

According to a study by Validity, 1 in 6 legitimate and permission-based emails do not reach the recipient’s inbox, and the receiving mailbox provider does not accept 1 in 10 emails.

Many factors can affect your inbox placement rates and there is no standard to mark them. In general, an inbox placement rate above 80% is considered good. While 70-79% is considered fair, anything below that needs more planning and focus.

Before calculating your inbox placement rate, understand what might affect that percentage and how to rectify it.

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Factors Affecting Inbox Placement

Note: This section may contain technical and standard industry terms.

The table below summarizes the various factors affecting inbox placement rates.

Factors Affecting Inbox Placement	Aspects to Focus on
Sender reputation	‣ Sender score ‣ Email volume and engagement ‣ Complaint rates ‣ IP and domain reputation ‣ Authentication protocols
Content quality	‣ Email content and relevance to subscribers ‣ Use of HTML and plain text ‣ Link and code quality ‣ Personalization
Email segmentation	‣ Divide customers based on demographics, psychographics, etc ‣ Personalize content addressing their specific needs
Email design	‣ Mobile optimization ‣ Proper coding and formatting ‣ Use of high-quality images
List management	‣ Permission-based marketing ‣ Double opt-in procedure ‣ List hygiene
Recipient behavior	‣ Interaction with emails ‣ Whitelisting
Email sending practices	‣ Consistent sending volume ‣ Email cadence ‣ Timing of email campaigns
Compliance with regulations	‣ GDPR ‣ CAN-SPAM ‣ Unsubscribe mechanism

We’ll review each of the above factors in detail.

Factor #1: Email Sender Reputation

Email sender reputation is a trust badge that demonstrates your IP and domain reputation. ISPs track every email, so it’s important to stay secure, especially when sending mass emails.

Email service providers (ESP) constantly evaluate your IP address’s reputation to ensure the receivers’ compliance and safety.

Factor #2: Email Content Quality

Engaging and relevant email content naturally draws subscribers in, increasing conversions. Understand the audience’s needs and preferences.

However, not all your subscribers will have similar preferences and interests. For example, a baker in a metropolitan city might have differing interests than a stay at home mother.

To produce great content, you must know the audience’s preferences and needs.

Factor #3: Email Segmentation Strategy

Email segmentation strategies will help you target the right people at the right time.

If you’re looking for a way to group different audience segments for the same email campaign, you can use Campaign Refinery’s latest audience group segmentation feature.

Factor 4#: Email Design Best Practices

Coding can make your emails look unique. If you use HTML rather than a plain text email, keep it responsive and clean. If you lack coding experience, you can customize professional email campaign templates. For example, Campaign Refinery offers a pre-built campaign library, completely customizable or ready-to-use.

Keep your email elements balanced. You can use your ESP’s built-in fonts and high-quality images to attract attention. Pay attention to the email sign off as well. These little elements hold immense power to capture attention and persuade action.

A proper email format along with great design can strike the right balance, helping recipients see the most important elements first. Your email design does not end with choosing a layout alone. Ensure it’s well optimized for mobiles and other devices.

Factor 5#: List Management Process

Email list management is the process of organizing and maintaining a group of email addresses for marketing purposes. Having an email list also means maintaining list hygiene and good sending practices.

Collect permission-based contacts with double opt-in forms. The double opt-in process adds an extra layer of security, ensuring recipients actively seek brand information.

Start by grouping contacts with similar preferences, habits, and needs. Then, clean the email list by removing inactive email addresses, duplicates, and unengaged subscribers. This ensures better deliverability and inbox placement.

On top, implement email security best practices to avoid domain blacklisting.

Factor 6#: Recipient Behavior

Every subscriber can interact differently with your emails. For example, a student might view a Dior bag as expensive and you will require a downsell strategy to retain a sale. Whereas, a well-established working woman could find the same product fair-priced.

These nuances in purchase behavior will reflect the overall audience segment’s beliefs. Each customer segment will have varied lifestyles and require different products.

In addition, check if these recipients have whitelisted your emails. This step establishes your emails are from a known and legitimate sender.

Factor 7#: Email Sending Practices

The timing and frequency of your messages (email cadence) are directly linked with successful inbox placement. If you send emails when customers are the busiest, they might not open them. A down sliding open rate can indicate poor email quality, alerting ISPs to check for spam.

The more emails that go unopened, the higher the risk of your domain being blacklisted.

Stay consistent with your sending schedule. Most companies send welcome emails and promotional messages and disappear from customers’ inboxes. This makes it hard for users to remember and engage with the brand the next time they see an email.

You can prepare an email content calendar and re-use email calendar templates to save time and speed up the process.

Factor 8#: Email Marketing Compliance

Following email marketing regulations ensures your emails are clean and land in subscribers’ inboxes. ISPs and ESPs constantly monitor your sending patterns and best practices. Adhering to email marketing regulations such as the CAN-SPAM and GDPR Acts is mandatory.

At times, you could notice a dip in inbox placement rates even after implementing email marketing best practices. That’s when you must pay more attention to the email deliverability and inbox placement rates.

Below, we’ll review how to test inbox placement rate and align your marketing goals.

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How to Test Inbox Placement Rates?

There’s no right method to know if your emails actually reach customers’ inboxes. Various email clients and ESPs have different mechanisms to test emails for spam. Your IP and domain reputation, email volume, and other factors can also impact the nature of spam traps.

Testing emails before sending them is not possible. However, even if not 100%, there are ways to predict the inbox placement rates.

The table will examine the main aspects.

Methods	What to do
Use email deliverability tools	‣ Inbox placement checks, ‣ Spam score analysis, ‣ Reputation monitoring
Implement seed lists	‣ Send emails to test email addresses ‣ Use the data to analyze inbox placement rates
Monitor engagement metrics	‣ Review open and click-through rates and bounce rates
Use feedback loops	‣ Sign up to receive feedback loops from ISPs
Prioritize content testing	‣ Use spam filter testing, ‣ Run A/B tests
Check sender reputation	‣ Review sender score ‣ Check IP reputation

1. Email Deliverability Tools

There are many free and paid tools to monitor email deliverability rates. For example, Mail Tester and Inbox Inspector allow you to gain insights into email deliverability rates for free.

As for an ESP, you can use their built-in email deliverability and spam test tool. Campaign Refinery uses bulk email verification, mail server validation, spam trap detection, and syntax check to ensure proper inbox placement.

We adhere to email marketing best practices and that’s how we provide the highest email deliverability rate on the market.

2. Use Seed Lists

A seed list is a group of test email addresses offered by ESPs and email clients. You can create your own or use services that provide seed lists.

Choose a list of real email addresses from different providers. After sending the test emails, monitor where your messages are landing using email deliverability tools.

With that data, you can improve your email campaign performance. Often, a simple adjustment to your email subject line or layout can do the trick.

Similarly, you can review your engagement metrics, sign up for feedback loops, and check sender reputation to comprehend inbox placement rates.

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How to Improve Inbox Placement: Best Practices and Tips

Improving inbox placement rates takes consistent efforts. Since the nuances are almost negligible, most of the best practices related to email deliverability apply to inbox placement rates as well.

We understand not all email marketers start at the same place. That’s why we have a gift to help you maximize inbox placement and achieve marketing success.

Download the Inbox Formula for Higher Conversions

You can get all of this and more inside the Inbox Formula — Download it now!

Sometimes, even the most experienced marketer needs a little guidance. Campaign Refinery is here to help you quickly scale your email marketing with the best inbox rates.

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Achieve the Highest Email Deliverability Rate with Campaign Refinery

Campaign Refinery’s approach to inbox placement is straightforward — we use strict authentication protocols and allow verified and responsible senders on our platform.