trying to get phplist emails in inbox not promotions in gmail mail boxes (this is how we share info in our organization)
the email contents have html code! trying to get this to inbox!
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Remember that you can’t directly control what happens on the receiving end, and that’s where this is happening. This has little to do with phpList - but what you do with phpList might affect how the receiving system treats your email.
Receiving systems won’t share details about how they analyze incoming messages, because that would allow bad players to find ways around the protections they have in place for their users. So, with a mix of art and science, you need to determine what “signals” you are giving to the receiving end that makes them think your email is promotional rather than informational in nature and then address those specific issues.
If you think HTML content is one of those signals, then don’t send in HTML. Step 3 in the process of creating a campaign allows you to set it to “text only” - do that. You might be right, this might help (but I think it’s not the only factor to consider). I just tried this with a test campaign and can confirm that there was no HTML in the received message. That is, I used formatting in the message body, but it came through only as plain text (and that’s based on viewing the raw message source, not just how it appeared in the normal reading window).
There might be other factors that are causing Gmail to treat your messages as promotional. You can research “email deliverability” to discover other things to consider. A shortcut that can help with the basics is to use mail-tester.com to test your campaigns. I do, for every campaign I send. If you have glaring problems that aren’t apparent yet, this service will help you see them. You might also find parts of their FAQ informative: Frequently Asked Questions - mail-tester.com (I’m not an affiliate or even a paid user, although considering how much I use that service, maybe I should be.)
Going back to your concern that phpList might be at fault, I assume it affects the mail headers for each outbound message (can’t imagine how it could not), and those are certainly included in the analysis on the receiving end. If you discover a specific issue in that regard, please report it so that we can all benefit from having it corrected. Most likely, though, the issues are unrelated to phpList and really about your use of it and the other things you’re doing email-wise (server you’re sending from, message content, etc.).
Hope this helps. Getting messages where we want them can be frustrating, but on the receiving end it’s just technology. The “art” part for us comes from trying to figure out what hidden algorithms we’re trying to convince to give the result we want.
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