Why are my app emails getting marked as promotions?

App emails often land in Promotions because inbox providers think they look more like marketing than personal/important mail.

Common reasons:

• Marketing-style content: lots of images, buttons, banners, or “salesy” wording.
• Bulk sending patterns: many recipients getting the same or very similar message.
• HTML-heavy templates: especially if the email resembles a newsletter.
• Low engagement: people ignore, delete, or move your emails out of inbox.
• Sender reputation issues: new domain, poor authentication, spam complaints, or inconsistent sending.
• Mixed content: transactional emails that also include upsells, offers, or promotional links.
• Subject/sender cues: words like “deal,” “offer,” “save,” or a branded sender name that looks like a marketer.
• Gmail/Outlook filtering signals: they use machine learning and user behavior, not just keywords.

If these are supposed to be transactional app emails (password resets, receipts, alerts), they’re usually more likely to stay in Primary/Inbox if you:

• Send from a clean, authenticated domain with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC set up
• Keep the email plain and utility-focused
• Avoid promotional images/CTAs
• Use a recognizable sender address like no-reply@yourapp.com or support@yourapp.com
• Separate transactional and marketing mail into different streams/domains
• Ask users to add you to contacts or mark as “Not promotions” if appropriate

If you want, I can help you diagnose it based on:

1. the email type,
2. the subject line, and
3. a sample of the email content/template.