How does starring a promo email in Gmail affect deliverability and inbox placement?
Summary
What email marketers say12Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Mailjet Blog mentions that engagement signals like starring are used by mailbox providers to assess email quality and relevance, potentially influencing inbox placement.
Email marketer from Email Geeks shares that a single subscriber starring an email won't change much. However, many subscribers doing so might tell Gmail that subscribers like emails from the sender, potentially causing messages to be sent to the primary tab for those users and others.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum thinks that the precise effect of starring is hard to pin down, but users should always encourage actions, such as starring, that make email valuable. This will increase overall user engagement, increasing deliverability and inbox placement.
Email marketer from EmailOctopus Blog notes that positive engagement, like marking emails as important, contributes to a positive sender reputation, which impacts deliverability over time.
Email marketer from Email Geeks shares anytime users provide positive signals, like starring, indicating they want the email, it's a good signal that can influence deliverability.
Email marketer from Gmass states that interactions like starring and marking messages as important may send positive signals to Gmail, potentially improving the placement of future emails.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that while not definitively proven, user interaction such as starring may have a small positive effect on deliverability due to engagement signaling.
Email marketer from Litmus says that email engagement metrics like opens, clicks and replies do impact deliverability, however Starring is not directly mentioned as a key factor.
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign shares that sender reputation is the top aspect in determining inbox placement. Good engagement increases sender reputation and deliverability.
Marketer from Email Geeks explains that starring a promo email is an engagement signal and likely puts the message at the top of the web interface, suggesting it's not a bad idea.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that starring a message can result in it being displayed in the Primary tab of the inbox.
Email marketer from Neil Patel's Blog shares that Gmail uses engagement metrics to determine placement. Starring could signal importance, positively influencing future deliverability to the primary tab.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks shares a quote from Google explaining that starring emails marks them as important and helps users remember to look at them later, signaling to Google that the sender is important.
Expert from Email Geeks believes that Gmail probably doesn't pay attention to stars but they are there for personal use.
Expert from Spam Resource states that user engagement, such as starring messages, sends positive signals to mailbox providers, which can improve inbox placement over time.
Expert from Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, states in an article that engagement is one factor in how inbox placement works. She states that inbox placement changes over time.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from Sendgrid states positive sender reputation is the core of getting emails delivered. It mentions engagement is the core aspect to this but does not explicitly state starring an email.
Documentation from Google Support explains that starring emails in Gmail marks them as important, helping users remember to look at them later. This does not explicitly state it affects deliverability for future emails.
Documentation from SparkPost explains the various elements of email deliverability. Engagement, such as starring a message, are elements that ISP's will look at to decide your sender reputation. A positive sender reputation will increase chances of landing in the inbox.
Documentation from Microsoft Support explains how flagging messages as important affects the display in Outlook but does not discuss the impact on deliverability.