ALO with SMTP/Mandrill – stuck at 2%

Hello,

I have been facing a bit of an issue in getting the plugin to work and will appreciate your help!

I have completed importing subscribers, setting up a newsletter and published it too. But the newsletter won’t go. The message I see is – On sending queue…Progress: 2.6%. And this does not change at all.
I was earlier using a plugin called Configure SMTP to send emails via Amazon SES. To make sure that it is not a problem because of SMTP relay, I have moved to Mandrill which I believe works via the API.
In both the cases above, regular notification emails are working. Only the newsletter is not.
I have also tried pausing and starting the newsletter again, deactivated the plugin and activated again too but to no avail.
The cron is set up as per instructions too – */5 * * * * GET https://www.sitename.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron > /dev/null

I just checked now by creating a new newsletter. The test send shows a cross mark and the mail does not go.

Is there something obvious I am missing? Is there a log file which I can check?
Do help.

Ajay

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/alo-easymail/