How can I improve email deliverability to Outlook for outbound prospecting mail if my campaigns are blocked?
Summary
What email marketers say10Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Reddit advises segmenting your email list based on engagement levels. Focus your outbound prospecting efforts on subscribers who have shown some interest in your content, as these contacts are less likely to mark your emails as spam.
Email marketer from Klenty Blog suggests setting recipient expectations about the emails they'll receive. This helps manage their expectations and reduces the likelihood of them marking the emails as spam
Email marketer from GMass Blog suggests warming up a new IP address gradually by starting with low volumes and increasing them over time. This helps establish a positive sending reputation with email providers like Outlook.
Email marketer from Reddit recommends using double opt-in for all new subscribers. This confirms their interest and helps build a higher quality email list, reducing the risk of spam complaints and improving deliverability.
Email marketer from Campaign Monitor Blog explains that personalizing emails and making them relevant to each recipient greatly increases engagement and deliverability as it signals legitimate communication and builds trust with the recipient.
Email marketer from MailerLite Blog explains removing hard bounces from your email list is crucial. Sending to invalid addresses hurts your sender reputation and deliverability. Immediately remove hard bounces to maintain a clean list.
Email marketer from Woodpecker Blog emphasizes the importance of avoiding spam trigger words in your subject lines and email content. Using words or phrases commonly associated with spam can significantly decrease your deliverability rates.
Email marketer from EmailOctopus Blog explains using list segmentation to send hyper-relevant content to smaller groups of contacts can significantly improve engagement rates, which has a positive knock-on effect on your sender reputation and deliverability.
Marketer from Email Geeks mentions that Return Path certification requires a dedicated IP address and strict adherence to best practices, and that Return Path requires strict best practices, if you break those they drop you anyway.
Email marketer from SparkPost Blog emphasizes the importance of email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) for improving deliverability. Correctly configuring these records helps email providers verify that your messages are legitimate and reduces the chances of being marked as spam.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Spamresource.com suggests to improve cold email deliverability to Outlook, ensure your sending infrastructure is properly configured with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Also, consistently monitor your sending reputation using tools like Microsoft's SNDS program, and immediately address any negative feedback.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that to avoid blocks for outbound prospecting mail, focus on acquiring explicit opt-in from recipients and ensuring that the content is highly relevant to their interests.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that using proper email authentication is crucial to ensure email servers know you are who you say you are. You must use SPF, DKIM and DMARC to authenticate your emails.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that the issue is likely due to outbound prospecting mail being sent from a shared IP address, which is often blocked. Getting a dedicated IP will not solve the problem, as this type of mail is blocked at the IP level when it's not sent through a provider like Google. Return Path will also not certify outbound prospecting mail because they require opt-in.
What the documentation says3Technical articles
Documentation from Microsoft Learn provides details on how Exchange Online Protection (EOP) uses anti-spam policies to filter inbound messages. It advises understanding these policies and adjusting sending practices to avoid being flagged as spam.
Documentation from Microsoft details their Smart Network Data Services (SNDS) program, which provides data about your sending reputation and allows you to monitor your sending practices to improve deliverability to Outlook.com, Hotmail.com, and Live.com.
Documentation from Microsoft Learn outlines sending limits in Exchange Online Protection (EOP), noting that exceeding these limits can lead to blocks. It advises understanding and adhering to these limits to avoid deliverability issues.