Why did my email land in spam or promotions?

The email arrived. Their mail provider sorted it, and Jounce has no say in that last step. Nothing about your email or your list changed.

Promotions isn’t spam

Gmail puts most marketing email in its Promotions tab on its own. The reader still has it and can move it to Primary. It counts as delivered on your results page.

Spam is different. An email in spam is one the provider doesn’t trust, and most readers never see it.

What moves an email toward the inbox

Providers judge the sender first and the email second. These are the things in your hands.

• Send from your own domain. Until you authenticate one, your emails go out from Jounce’s sending domain, shared with every other sender on Jounce. Your own domain signs each email as yours and builds a reputation that is yours alone. See Send from your own domain.
• A From name people recognize. Readers mark as spam what they don’t recognize. On the Review step, select Change beside From and use the name they signed up with. See Change the name your email comes from.
• Words, not only images. A filter can’t read an image. When the preview says Most of this email is images or There’s almost no text in this email, add your main point as text.
• Links once, and https://. Link each page once, and switch any link that starts with http:// to https://. The Review step points out both, two notes at a time.
• People who asked. An imported list that didn’t ask for your emails marks them as spam, and spam complaints are what providers punish hardest. See The permission statement.
• Leave the unsubscribe link alone. A reader who can find it uses it instead of Report spam.

Google publishes its own list for senders: Email sender guidelines. Jounce handles the unsubscribe header for you, and your own domain covers the signing.

What a reader can do

Ask them to move the email to their inbox and, in Gmail, to press Not spam or drag it to Primary. Adding your From address to their contacts helps too. Their provider learns from that, for them.

Watch your own numbers

Under the numbers on an email’s results page, Jounce warns when bounces or complaints run high. If they keep climbing, a banner appears at the top of the app. Providers watch the same signals. See Sending warnings and pauses.