Sender Reputation
Sender reputation is Flo’s measure of how healthy your broadcast email is. It looks at the last 30 days of sends — deliveries, hard bounces, spam complaints, and engagement — and turns that into a score from 0 to 100.
You see it on Dashboard → Subscribers in the Sender Reputation card (next to List health). Use it before a big campaign to make sure Flo will let the send go through at full speed.
For list hygiene and engagement tiers, see the List health · SES tiers card on the same page — Manage your list. For sending basics, see Broadcast deliverability.
Where to find it
- Open Dashboard → Subscribers.
- Look at the top row of cards — Sender Reputation on the left (or stacked on mobile).
The card loads automatically. If it cannot load, you see Reputation unavailable with a short error message.
What the card shows
| Item | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Score | 0–100 with a progress bar |
| Badge | Excellent, Good, Fair, or Poor (from your score) |
| Complaint rate | Share of sends where someone marked mail as spam |
| Bounce rate | Share of sends that hard bounced (invalid or dead addresses) |
| 30‑day sends | How many messages counted in the last 30 days |
Score labels
| Score | Badge | What it usually means |
|---|---|---|
| 90–100 | Excellent | Healthy sending — no extra limits from reputation |
| 80–89 | Good | Usually fine — you may still see a yellow needs attention note if rates are edging up |
| 70–79 | Fair | Flo may throttle large broadcasts |
| 50–69 | Poor | Heavier throttling |
| 31–49 | Poor | Very heavy throttling; a red note that suspension could follow |
| 30 or below | Poor | Flo may auto-suspend sending based on score alone |
The badge only uses four names, but Poor covers everything below 70. Hourly caps follow the score bands in the throttling section below — even when the badge still says Good.
Not enough data yet
If you have sent fewer than 100 messages in the rolling 30-day window, Flo treats reputation as healthy and shows a score of 100 until there is enough volume to judge complaint and bounce rates fairly.
That is normal for new accounts. After your first broadcasts, the score will start reflecting real results.
What hurts your score
| Signal | What happened | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Spam complaints | A recipient clicked Report spam (or their provider did) | Highest weight — Flo must protect the whole platform |
| Hard bounces | Email could not be delivered (bad address, mailbox gone) | Hurts score; often means old or purchased lists |
| Low engagement | Few opens on large sends | Does not punish you alone, but strong opens can help once you have enough volume |
Soft bounces (temporary inbox full, etc.) are retried separately — they do not show in the card’s Bounce rate the same way hard bounces do. See Broadcast deliverability.
What helps your score
| Practice | Why |
|---|---|
| Double opt-in only | Subscribed fans confirmed they want mail — Email capture |
| No purchased or scraped lists | Fewer bounces and complaints |
| Remove bad addresses | Unsubscribe or Delete in Manage your list |
| Honest subject lines | Fewer spam reports |
| Useful content | Better opens over time (can help once you have 500+ deliveries and strong open rates) |
When Flo throttles vs suspends
These are different:
| State | What you see | What happens to broadcasts |
|---|---|---|
| Throttled | Yellow or red note: Flo may throttle large sends automatically during warm‑up until your metrics recover. | Sends may go out slower or in smaller batches per hour |
| Suspended | Red banner: Email sending suspended + reason + Contact support | New broadcasts cannot send — error like Email sending is suspended for your account. |
You can still use most of Flo (pages, products, etc.). The block is on outbound broadcast email.
Warning on the card
Between Good and suspension, you may see:
Your sender reputation needs attention. Avoid sending to cold segments until bounce and complaint rates cool off.
That is a heads-up — not a full block yet.
Score very low but not suspended yet
If your score drops below 50 but Flo has not flipped the account suspension flag, you may see:
Email sending could be suspended automatically if thresholds are breached further.
That means the next spike in complaints or bounces could trigger a full pause.
Score-based throttling (behind the scenes)
When your score drops, Flo may cap how many emails go out per hour:
| Score range | Typical hourly cap (after your first 10+ broadcasts) |
|---|---|
| 90+ | No reputation hourly cap |
| 80–89 | No reputation hourly cap (watch the yellow warning) |
| 70–79 | Up to about 10,000 per hour |
| 50–69 | Up to about 1,000 per hour |
| Below 50 (not suspended yet) | As low as about 100 per hour |
Large lists may take longer to finish — that is intentional so one bad send cannot damage deliverability for everyone.
Platform limits (auto-suspension)
Even if your score has not fallen far, Flo suspends immediately if rates cross these 30-day limits (after at least 100 sends counted):
| Metric | Warning shown | Throttling begins | Suspension |
|---|---|---|---|
| Complaint rate | Above 0.05% | Above 0.07% | 0.10% or higher |
| Hard bounce rate | Above 2% | Above 5% | 8% or higher |
These rate limits apply once you have at least 100 sends in the 30-day window (same as scoring).
Examples:
- 0.10% complaints = 1 spam report per 1,000 sends.
- 8% hard bounces = 80 hard bounces per 1,000 sends.
Flo acts before provider-wide limits so one creator does not put the whole system at risk.
If you are suspended
When sending is suspended:
- The Sender Reputation card shows a red message with the reason (for example complaint or bounce limit).
- Flo emails you at your account address: Your Flo email sending has been paused.
- Broadcasts fail to start or enqueue with Email sending is suspended for your account.
What to do
Stop risky sends
Do not try to work around the block — fix the underlying list quality first.
Clean your list
In Subscribers, remove bad rows, avoid cold imports, and rely on Newsletter double opt-in going forward.
Contact Flo support
Email support@myflo.link from the link on the card. Reinstatement is reviewed manually after Flo checks what caused the spike.
Wait for metrics to cool
Over time, older bad events roll out of the 30-day window and your score can recover — but suspension still needs support to clear the account flag.
There is no self-serve “turn sending back on” button in the dashboard today.
New sender warm-up
Separately from your reputation score, Flo limits how fast new accounts can mail while the platform builds trust:
| Lifetime broadcasts sent | Rough hourly send cap |
|---|---|
| 0 (first sends) | 200 / hour |
| 1–3 | 500 / hour |
| 4–10 | 2,000 / hour |
| More than 10 | Reputation score rules above apply |
So your first campaigns may send gradually even with a perfect score. That is normal.
Before you send a big broadcast
Use this checklist on Subscribers:
| Check | Action |
|---|---|
| Badge is Excellent or Good | Safe to proceed |
| Fair or Poor | Send to your most engaged subscribed fans only, or wait and clean the list |
| Red suspended banner | Do not send — contact support@myflo.link |
| Complaint rate rising | Pause large blasts; review subject lines and list source |
| Bounce rate above 2% | Stop importing cold lists; remove hard-bounced addresses |
| List health shows high unconfirmed | Improve double opt-in completion — Email capture |
Also confirm Settings → Profile has a valid physical address (required for broadcasts) — Broadcasts overview.
Reputation vs List health
Both cards sit on Subscribers but answer different questions:
| Card | Question it answers |
|---|---|
| Sender Reputation | “Is Flo allowed to send mail for me at full speed?” |
| List health · SES tiers | “How engaged is my list (Hot/Warm/Cool/Cold) and how are bounces spread?” |
Use reputation for platform limits and suspension. Use list health for pacing waves inside a send.
Troubleshooting
| Issue | What it means |
|---|---|
| Score stuck at 100 | Fewer than 100 sends in 30 days — not enough data yet |
| Score dropped after one blast | Normal — complaints and bounces count quickly on small denominators |
| Complaint rate looks tiny but still suspended | 0.10% limit is strict — one report per thousand can matter |
| Broadcast says suspended but card looks OK | Refresh Subscribers — suspension flag may have just updated; trust the send error |
| Throttled for hours | Large list + Fair/Poor score — send completes in waves |
| Platform warm-up error today | Flo-wide daily cap — try a smaller audience or tomorrow |
| Reinstatement after fix | Must contact support@myflo.link — metrics improving alone may not lift suspension |
Quick reference
| Goal | Where to look |
|---|---|
| See score | Dashboard → Subscribers → Sender Reputation |
| Avoid suspension | Opt-in only, low bounces, low spam reports |
| Recover from suspension | Clean list + support@myflo.link |
| Send tips | Broadcast deliverability |
| List cleanup | Manage your list |
What's next?
- Subscribers overview — list statuses and plan limits
- Manage your list — search, unsubscribe, delete
- Email capture — double opt-in signups
- Broadcast deliverability — domains, warm-up, soft bounces
- Broadcasts overview — sending requirements
- Broadcasts compose — write and send campaigns