Many marketers believe that emails that land in the Gmail Promotions Tab won’t get read.

In reality, your messages aren’t getting buried:

• The Promotions Tab was designed for desktop, so mobile users won’t have email separated into tabs. They’ll likely see your email in their main inbox.
• Even if your email lands in Promotions, the numbers aren't bad:

• 50% of readers check their Promotions Tab daily.
• These readers tend to click through more often because they’re in the mindset for promotional emails.

Instead of trying to artificially avoid promotions, focus on getting people to engage with your emails:

• Prompt replies: Propose questions to get people to reply. Two-way communication sends positive signals to Google, fast-tracking you to readers’ primary inboxes.
• Personalize and segment your campaigns: They’ll get more engagement, which shows Gmail that your content belongs in their inbox.

People use Google for three objectives:

1. To be inspired
2. To be educated
3. To execute

Using a standing desk as an example, we can use variations of the keyword “standing desk” to create a stream of relevant content for all buyers:

• “Minimalist standing desk home office"
• “Benefits of a standing desk”—Once a buyer has identified a product, they’re likely to start looking for practical reasons to buy. Benefit-focused content answers their biggest questions, solves their pain points, and moves them toward a purchase.
• “How to attach monitor to standing desk”—Once they’ve made a purchase, continue to educate with content about setup and product maintenance. Consumers who engage with your content and customer service are likely to buy from you again.

Some social proof is better than none.

According to a major ecommerce study, a seller with negative reviews and poor photos is more likely to outperform a seller that has zero information.

Chew on that for a second.

Zero information leads to distrust, while negative information facilitates a neutral level of trust.

This finding illustrates the importance of “uncertainty reduction.” That is, people require information to feel more trust about something.

That’s not to say you should actively seek out bad reviews. Rather, understand that having no reputation or photos whatsoever may preclude sales.