Fintech - Apps - B2C - Consumer finance
GetFlex
Discover how MailSoar fixed Gmail promotions and spam placement for a fintech app at 50M+ emails a month, boosting opens 70%.
Talk to a deliverability expert See more case studiesInbox Placement
Unique Opening Rate
As a consumer fintech product built around timely payment reminders and account communications, Flex depends on email actually reaching users — a message stuck in Gmail's Promotions tab or filtered as spam can mean a missed payment split or a lapsed credit-building opportunity.
- Industry
Finance - Consumer Fintech - Rent Collector.
- Challenge
Promotional-tab placement at Gmail, residual spam placement at Microsoft and Yahoo.
- Solution
Template rebuild, Infrastructure segmentation, Dedicated-IP warmup, List cleaning and validation, DMARC hardening, Engagement-based segmentation.
- Outcome
No more promotional or spam placement; open rate up 70%.
- Duration
9 months.
50M emails / month
Inbox Placement
Unique Opening Rate
IP / Domain Reputation
GetFlex (Flex) is a consumer fintech app that lets renters split rent and bill payments into two installments while building credit history.
At 50M+ emails/month through Iterable, an audit found content filtering, limited segmentation, and insufficient control over sending infrastructure behind Flex's promotional-tab placement at Gmail and residual spam placement at Microsoft and Yahoo.
GetFlex's case is a content and infrastructure control gap, not a blocklist or authentication failure:
• Content filtering: templates and formatting were triggering mailbox-provider content filters, pushing mail toward Gmail's Promotions tab rather than the primary inbox.
• Limited segmentation: critical account emails weren't clearly separated from riskier manual and re-engagement sends, exposing important messages to the same risk profile as bulk campaigns.
• Insufficient control over sending infrastructure: no dedicated, controllable path for high-priority email, and a database carrying an estimated 4–5% risky addresses with no validation at sign-up.
The concrete result: an inbox placement rate of 75% — already reasonable, but capped by Promotions-tab and residual spam placement — with a unique open rate of just 30%.
MailSoar rebuilt Flex's priority templates in clean HTML and progressively tested content, subject lines, and footer elements.
Key emails were separated from the riskier manual, re-engagement sends, and marketing traffic were migrated to two new sending subdomains, and the team reviewed moving Iterable to a more controllable SMTP infrastructure.
The entire reachable database was cleaned after risky addresses were identified, and validation was added at sign-up.
Dedicated IPs were warmed through Mailgun's hybrid warmup process, automations were migrated gradually starting with low-volume, high-engagement journeys, manual campaigns were segmented by recent engagement, and inactive users were re-engaged before being sunset.
DMARC was tightened from p=quarantine to p=reject once authentication checks passed, with BIMI considered as a further visibility layer.
With critical account emails protected from riskier sends and inbox placement restored across Gmail, Microsoft, and Yahoo, Flex's payment reminders and account communications now reach users when they matter — supporting both the core split-payment product and the credit-building value proposition it depends on.
Open rates are up 70%, with sender reputation now upgraded from Medium to High.
What we did
How MailSoar has helped this fintech app escape Gmail promotions and spam placement?
In 5 steps
-
Content and template overhaul
Priority templates were rebuilt in clean HTML, with content, subject lines, and footer elements tested progressively to reduce content-based filtering.
-
Infrastructure segmentation
Key emails were separated from riskier manual and re-engagement sends, marketing traffic was migrated to two new sending subdomains, and the team reviewed moving to more controllable SMTP infrastructure within Iterable.
-
List hygiene and validation
The full reachable database was cleaned after an estimated 4–5% of addresses were found to be risky, with validation added at sign-up to prevent new risky addresses from accumulating.
-
Warmup and controlled automation migration
Dedicated IPs were warmed through Mailgun's hybrid warmup process, automations were moved gradually starting with low-volume, high-engagement journeys, manual campaigns were segmented by recent engagement, and inactive users were re-engaged before being sunset.
-
Authentication hardening and visibility
DMARC was tightened from p=quarantine to p=reject once authentication checks confirmed it was safe, with BIMI considered as an additional way to improve brand visibility in the inbox.
We were facing issues with email deliverability and Pierre and his team were able to help solve them.
The results
Measurable improvements in email performance and deliverability.
Frequently asked
Why do emails land in Gmail's Promotions tab even when the sending domain isn't blocklisted?
Promotions-tab placement is typically driven by content and infrastructure signals — templates, formatting, and how cleanly different email types are separated — rather than blocklisting. Rebuilding templates in clean HTML and separating critical emails from riskier sends was what moved GetFlex from 75% to 99% inbox placement and lifted open rates by 70%.
