My email passes SPF, DKIM and DMARC but still goes to spam - why?

Authentication and deliverability are two different things: SPF, DKIM and DMARC prove the email genuinely came from you, but they say nothing about whether the recipient wants it - and 89% of Australian small-business domains publish SPF and 79% have DKIM^*, so passing those checks is the baseline, not the finish line. Once the records are right, the cause is almost always reputation or content:

• Sender reputation - past complaints, bounces or a cold sending history weigh more than any DNS record.
• Spam-trigger content - link-heavy emails, a single huge image with little text, or shouty subject lines all push you toward the spam folder.
• A cold or scraped list - emailing people who never opted in generates complaints fast, which mailbox providers read as a spam signal.
• Low engagement - if recipients never open your mail, Gmail and Outlook quietly start filtering it out.

Passing authentication is necessary but not sufficient - fix reputation and content next, not your DNS.