Microsoft’s Outlook.com or OLC (Outlook Consumer) email platform, the mailbox provider formerly known as Hotmail, can be a tricky one when it comes to managing and mitigating deliverability issues. There’s not always a clear and easy path to solve for spam folder/junk email folder issues, but here’s what I do know and what I think you should do if you’re not making it to the inbox reliably.
The path to recovering from Microsoft spam folder placement is going to involve these five steps.
Get the technical bits right. Email authentication matters here, significantly so. You need to be able to stand out as yourself, not just authenticating as some shared resource client with a random email marketing automation tool. SPF, DKIM and DMARC must be properly implemented and you need to achieve DMARC alignment, meaning that either your SPF domain (the return-path domain) or DKIM signature domain must match your visible from address domain. DKIM is effectively best here. (Fellow email nerds, I grant that this is a bit of a simplification.)
Sign up for JMRP and SNDS. Make sure you (or your sending platform, if you’re an ESP/CRM customer) are signed up for Microsoft’s JMRP (Junk Mail Reporting Program, the Microsoft version of an email spam feedback loop) and SNDS (Smart Network Data Services), Microsoft’s IP reputation portal.
Focus on engagement and good data. Microsoft doesn’t spell this out as clearly as Google does, but it still matters; sending wanted mail (only) to people who signed up for it (only) is always going to be your best bet when it comes to developing a good and positive sender reputation, a necessity to get email reliably delivered to the inbox. That means: that permission matters. First party data only. Opt-in only. No bought lists. Engagement is always lower and complaints are always higher, with purchased data. It also means that you likely need to suppress inactive subscribers – continuing to mail uninterested users forever is a drag on engagement and by extension, is a drag on your sending reputation.
Contact Microsoft Sender Support. Find the form here. This may not lead to an immediate reprieve. You’re likely to be told “we don’t see anything stopping mail from being delivered” and you’ll have to explain that yes, you know, but mail is being delivered to the junk folder, not the inbox. They will also then sometimes explain that it’s all due to Smart Screen and that there’s nothing to be done. They may or may not be correct here. That’s where the focus on engagement is really important. But you’ll likely want to try and see what they say.
Ask your ESP or CRM platform for help. Are you sending from a shared IP or dedicated IP? If it’s a shared IP, can they move you to a different one? What are they doing to police their shared pools, addressing issues caused by other senders? (Microsoft can be quick to block shared IPs that are being abused by other customers of that ESP.) See what insights they can share with you, related to Microsoft-specific deliverability issues.
Some platforms also provide consulting services or enhanced tools for monitoring and improving deliverability. But at the end of the day, if you send good and wanted mail, spam folder delivery issues are likely to self-resolve after a period of time – meaning, focus on engaged subscribers and good data, and wait it out. It will take longer to resolve at Microsoft compared to Gmail, but it likely will clear up. IF (and that’s a big IF) you’re sending wanted mail.
Microsoft’s Outlook.com or OLC (Outlook Consumer) email platform, the mailbox provider formerly known as Hotmail, can be a tricky one when it comes to managing and mitigating deliverability issues. There’s not always a clear and easy path to solve for spam folder/junk email folder issues, but here’s what I do know and what I think you should do if you’re not making it to the inbox reliably.
(If you’re being blocked, seeing email messages rejected, when sending to Microsoft OLC, click here for that other guide that I’ve published previously.)
The path to recovering from Microsoft spam folder placement is going to involve these five steps.
- Get the technical bits right. Email authentication matters here, significantly so. You need to be able to stand out as yourself, not just authenticating as some shared resource client with a random email marketing automation tool. SPF, DKIM and DMARC must be properly implemented and you need to achieve DMARC alignment, meaning that either your SPF domain (the return-path domain) or DKIM signature domain must match your visible from address domain. DKIM is effectively best here. (Fellow email nerds, I grant that this is a bit of a simplification.)
- Sign up for JMRP and SNDS. Make sure you (or your sending platform, if you’re an ESP/CRM customer) are signed up for Microsoft’s JMRP (Junk Mail Reporting Program, the Microsoft version of an email spam feedback loop) and SNDS (Smart Network Data Services), Microsoft’s IP reputation portal.
- Focus on engagement and good data. Microsoft doesn’t spell this out as clearly as Google does, but it still matters; sending wanted mail (only) to people who signed up for it (only) is always going to be your best bet when it comes to developing a good and positive sender reputation, a necessity to get email reliably delivered to the inbox. That means: that permission matters. First party data only. Opt-in only. No bought lists. Engagement is always lower and complaints are always higher, with purchased data. It also means that you likely need to suppress inactive subscribers – continuing to mail uninterested users forever is a drag on engagement and by extension, is a drag on your sending reputation.
- Contact Microsoft Sender Support. Find the form here. This may not lead to an immediate reprieve. You’re likely to be told “we don’t see anything stopping mail from being delivered” and you’ll have to explain that yes, you know, but mail is being delivered to the junk folder, not the inbox. They will also then sometimes explain that it’s all due to Smart Screen and that there’s nothing to be done. They may or may not be correct here. That’s where the focus on engagement is really important. But you’ll likely want to try and see what they say.
- Ask your ESP or CRM platform for help. Are you sending from a shared IP or dedicated IP? If it’s a shared IP, can they move you to a different one? What are they doing to police their shared pools, addressing issues caused by other senders? (Microsoft can be quick to block shared IPs that are being abused by other customers of that ESP.) See what insights they can share with you, related to Microsoft-specific deliverability issues.
Some platforms also provide consulting services or enhanced tools for monitoring and improving deliverability. But at the end of the day, if you send good and wanted mail, spam folder delivery issues are likely to self-resolve after a period of time – meaning, focus on engaged subscribers and good data, and wait it out. It will take longer to resolve at Microsoft compared to Gmail, but it likely will clear up. IF (and that’s a big IF) you’re sending wanted mail.Good luck and I wish you much inbox success!
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