My emails go to spam or don't arrive at all: why, and what can I do?

When Fotostudio says an email was sent, it really left. What happens next, inbox or spam folder, is decided by your client's mailbox, not by Fotostudio. The good news: there are several things you can do to improve it.

Who decides that an email is spam?

An email goes through three steps:

1. Fotostudio hands it to a sending server (your Gmail account if you connected it, your own email server if you set one up, otherwise Fotostudio's server).
2. That server passes it on to your client's mailbox: Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL...
3. Your client's mailbox runs it through its spam filters and decides where to put it.

Step 3 is the one that decides, and nobody but your client's mailbox controls it. No sending tool, Fotostudio or any other, can guarantee that an email lands in the inbox. These filters are secret and change all the time.

Why some clients get it and others don't

It's almost never "all my emails go to spam". The result varies from one client to another, for four reasons.

Your client's mailbox. They don't all filter the same way. Hotmail, Outlook and Live are much stricter than Gmail, especially with a sender they don't know yet. The same email can reach a client on Gmail and go to spam for a client on Hotmail.

The content of the email. Filters read what you write. For example, they are wary of:

• a subject line in CAPITALS, with exclamation marks or words like "Free", "Sale", "Urgent"
• an almost empty email with just a link, or on the contrary lots of links
• a large image with very little text
• shortened links (bit.ly...) or links to unknown websites
• large attachments

Your history with this client. If the client has already exchanged emails with you, or has already moved one of your emails out of spam, your next email gets through more easily. A brand-new contact is the opposite.

The address and server sending it. An address on your own domain name, properly set up, inspires more trust than a generic address. A server whose IP address has been used to send spam, even by someone else, is penalized.

"My newsletter arrives, but not my other emails"

First of all, a newsletter doesn't reach everyone's inbox either. A good share ends up in spam or in Gmail's Promotions tab: that's why an open rate between 30 and 50% is already a good result. If it feels like it arrives better, it's also because it doesn't travel the same way as your other emails.

With Gmail or your own server, your workflows are sent exactly like an email sent from your usual mailbox. Whether they arrive then depends on your provider (Gmail, GoDaddy, Ionos, Namecheap...) and on how your domain name is set up. "My server is set up correctly" means sending works, not that your clients' mailboxes trust it.

With Gmail, Google also applies its own daily sending limits (about 500 emails for a free Gmail account, 2,000 for Google Workspace). Beyond that, Gmail refuses to send and Fotostudio sends the email through its own server.

"When I send a test, it works"

A test sent to yourself doesn't prove much. Your mailbox knows you, you are often with the same provider as your sending server, and you may have already moved your emails out of spam. For a real test, send it to a Hotmail or Outlook address that has never written to you.

"The same email sent from my Gmail arrives, from Fotostudio it goes to spam"

First, check how the Fotostudio email is sent. If your Gmail account isn't connected to Fotostudio, it's not the same sender at all: the email is sent from no-reply@fotostudio.io, with your name, not from your Gmail address. For it to really come from your Gmail, connect your Gmail account to Fotostudio.

If your Gmail is already connected, the email really is sent from your Gmail account. You'll even find it in your sent messages. Still, it's almost never "the same email":

• The layout. An email written by hand in Gmail is plain text. A Fotostudio email has a layout, your logo, buttons and links to the client area.
• Open tracking. Fotostudio emails contain an invisible image that lets you know whether they were opened. Some spam filters are wary of it.
• The context. A reply in an ongoing conversation gets through much better than a new email sent automatically by a workflow.
• The test recipient. If you compare by sending both emails to yourself, your mailbox already knows you, and the test proves nothing (see above).

To check, compare both emails on mail-tester.com: the site tells you exactly what lowers the score.

What you can do

1. Ask your clients to add your address to their contacts. It's the most effective step. Slip it into your first email: "Remember to check your spam folder and add me to your contacts so you don't miss anything."
2. If an email landed in spam, ask the client to click "Not spam". Their mailbox remembers that choice for the next ones.
3. Take care of the content. A clear, calm subject line, real text, few links, no shortened links, light attachments.
4. Use an address on your own domain name (hello@yourstudio.com) rather than a gmail.com, hotmail.com or yahoo.com address. Google Workspace lets you use Gmail with your own domain name.
5. Have your domain setup checked. If you use your own server, ask your hosting provider (GoDaddy, Ionos, Namecheap...) to enable SPF, DKIM and DMARC. These are three technical settings that prove to mailboxes that your emails really come from you. Your provider has a help page for each one. With Google Workspace, DKIM is enabled in the Google Admin console. With a gmail.com address, Google already takes care of it: nothing to do.
6. Test your score on mail-tester.com: send an email to the address shown, and the site gives you a score out of 10 and a list of what's wrong.

Check that an email was actually sent

Open the email in the contact's or the session's email history. You'll see:

• whether it was sent, on what date, to which address and how (your Gmail account, your server or Fotostudio's)
• whether it was opened or a link was clicked

If the email shows as sent, it has left Fotostudio: if it's not in the inbox, the client should check their spam folder or their tabs (Promotions, Updates in Gmail). Also check the contact's address: a single typo is enough.

Contact support if the email shows as failed, or if it was sent through Fotostudio's server even though you connected Gmail or set up your own server. In that case, sending through your account failed: for Gmail, reconnecting your account is often enough; for a server, your settings need to be checked. We're happy to help.

Updated on: 23/10/2026