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FluentCRM

I could really use some help here.

Hey everyone, I could really use some help here.

I’ve been running a small but solid newsletter for a couple of years now. Nothing crazy - just value-based content to a clean list. I’m using Amazon SES (shared IP) with FluentCRM, and everything used to work perfectly. Open rates were consistently 30%+ and deliverability was never a problem.

But out of nowhere, a couple of weeks ago, everything tanked. Emails are suddenly landing in spam - even for new subscribers who just opted in. I ran tests with mail-tester.com and I'm getting a perfect 10/10 score. SPF, DKIM, DMARC - all properly set up and passing. No spammy content. No blacklists. Still going to spam.

I’ve tried to troubleshoot it myself, but I’m hitting a wall.

If anyone here specializes in email deliverability - especially in the context of FluentCRM and SES - and might be able to help me figure out what’s going wrong, I’d deeply appreciate it. You can DM me or just reply here. I’m open to suggestions, audits, even hiring someone if needed.

Thanks in advance 🙏

I could really use some help here.
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  • 1 comment

Mat ‎

Guy Levy please find some general hints below:

  • Check your domain reputation:

    Are there any issues? If a domain has a poor reputation then you need to build it up.

  • Did you configured SNS in AWS and you track bounced emails? Do you have any bounced emails? Complains?

  • Is your domain warmed up before sending large campagns? Do you keep your domain warmed up or you just send emails once a month?

  • Do you send a marketing only emails to your users?

  • Do you mix emails providers when sending campagns (free gmail, outlook users but also a business emails) or you send lets say 1000 emails to gmail users only in one batch. Mixing mailboxes might help you out.

  • Your users might not be engaged with your emails (open rates, clicks, replies marking emails as fav/stars, deleting emails without opening them). Ask your users to mark your emails as not spam. Ask them to reply too (if possible).

  • When you send a "manual" email to your customer (without using SES) but from your business mailbox directly does it go to the Spam folder too? Try to send an email from a different ESP/IP just to make sure that it will be delivered to the Inbox folder. This is for the RCA (Root Cause Analysis) only - its always good to use your primary IP mail service like SES so you dont need to focus on too many vendors.

  • Do you use any spammy lines or words in a subject or in your email body.

  • Change your SES API keys just in case someone else is using for spamming purposes

  • Do you use noreply@ email for your campagns?

  • Do you include the unsubscribe link in your marketing campagns so users can click it if needed? If yes do you have many unsubscriptions?

  • When do you send your campagns? Over night, weekends? Do you send emails too often (short email sequence = every 1-2 days)?

  • Does your emails feel robotic or overly templated. Do you generate them with AI or they are more human related?

I suggest to work on your domain reputation and users engagement.

Dont forget that ISPs/ESPs constantly adjust their spam filters so you can have everything setup correctly but if your users dont engage with your emails it might be a good indicator that those emails are "poor quality" and not too many users care about them.

Try to send smaller campagns to the most engaged users first and then if you see the engagement growth then start adding other users to your mailing list.

ps. maybe it is a good idea to have a community where users will get your email notifications (transactional emails too) so they will mark your domain/emails as not Spam etc.