Several of the most popular Mailbox Providers are automatically sorting received content by Folders or Tabs. When performing Seedlist Testing within Inbox Monster, you can gain direct insight into where your emails are being sorted.
Folder/Tab sorting is an enhancement to your subscriber's experience. Understanding and leveraging the Folder/Tab placement for your content creates an opportunity to further enhance the end user experience, without needing to be concerned about where you're sorted. Here are our thoughts on the topic.
Facts about Folder/Tab Placement
Each Mailbox Provider employs their own custom solutions for sorting, but there are a few facts about this process and reporting which are consistent across each:
Folders/Tabs = Inbox Placement: In order to be "sorted" by these mailbox providers, your content is first defined as Not Spam. As a result, the Folder/Tab placement does not negate your content from landing in the Inbox. Folders/Tabs are UI - not filtration.
Spam Placement will prevent reporting: Following the same logic as above, Spam Placement will prevent a Folder/Tab assignment for your campaign. In Inbox Monster's reporting, we refer to this as "Not Available"
User Control: Subscribers have the option to re-categorize their messages, or even disable Folders/Tabs entirely. The seeds are reflecting of the "default" assignment for each campaign. Individual Preferences will only influence sorting if a large portion of subscribers perform similar reclassifications.
Folder/Tab Reporting
Folder/Tab placement is reported within the Inbox Monster platform in two areas: Dashboard and Campaign Reports.
Dashboard
Within the Dashboard, there are two optional tiles for at-a-glance average placement for both Google's Tabs and Outlook's Tabs. These can be toggled on or off for each account via Settings (⚙️) > Dashboard > Other Tiles:
When Enabled, you'll see the Tiles populate in the top half of the dashboard, reflecting the average Folder/Tab placement for the selected date range:
Campaign Reporting
Folder/Tab placement is also reflected within Campaign Reporting, just below the overall Inbox Placement metrics in the top right portion of the report.
Below is a screenshot of some sample Folder/Tab Placement data:
💡 Please note: You'll only see Folder/Tab placement for Mailbox Providers that are both Enabled for your Domain's reporting and received your content within the Inbox (not spam or missing).
In the above example:
100% all Gmail seeds with Folder Placement data reported that the content landed in Promotions
100% of all Outlook seeds with Folder Placement data reported that the content landed in Other (Not Focused)
iCloud Folder/Tab Placement is "Not Available", as this particular campaign landed in the Spam Folder for all iCloud seeds. iCloud's sorting is by Category.
100% of Centrum.cz seeds were sorted into the Bulk folder. "Bulk", in this context, refers to "bulk messages from e-shops, discount portals, social networks, and other websites that typically send large numbers of the same messages to many addresses." (From Centrum's documentation)
89% of Seznam.cz seeds were sorted into the Newsletters and 11% in Inbox. Seznam's "Newsletters" are similar to "Bulk" in Centrum's sorting, where newsletters and commercial offers are grouped. (Seznam's documentation)
57% of Onet.pl seeds were placed in the Promotions and 43% in Inbox. Onet.pl uses Smart Folders, similar to Gmail, for Promotions, Social, etc. (Onet's documentation)
💡If you're accessing Folder/Tab Placement via the Inbox Monster API, you may notice that not all seeds report this data for every campaign.
As more Mailbox Providers adopt similar Folder/Tab/Category sorting methods, Inbox Monster will keep you up to date on changes and the data directly related to your email program.