How do email marketers effectively deal with Microsoft Sender Support's automated responses and email blocking issues?
Summary
What email marketers say14Marketer opinions
Email marketer from StackExchange explains that it is critical to maintain a good sender reputation by avoiding spam triggers, using double opt-in, honoring unsubscribe requests, and authenticating your email.
Email marketer from Email Geeks Slack Channel states that providing a phone number may lead to a call, but email replies are usually boilerplate and less productive.
Email marketer from Email Geeks Slack Channel shares that Microsoft support is held to a response model and suggests explaining why a response doesn't match the issue to achieve resolution, detailing a multi-step process his team uses.
Marketer from Email Geeks notes that Microsoft might call the provided phone number, but email replies are often boilerplate and unproductive.
Marketer from Email Geeks mentions successfully escalating a Microsoft issue after receiving an initial negative response.
Email marketer from Email Geeks Slack Channel recalls a successful escalation after an initial denial, leading to issue mitigation.
Email marketer from Email Geeks Slack Channel mentions using a script to automatically respond with "Please escalate" to Microsoft's automated email replies.
Marketer from Email Geeks states he has a script that responds to their automated email response "Please escalate".
Email marketer from Email Geeks Slack Channel describes Microsoft's responses as a checklist, where they send responses in sequence to rule out common problems.
Marketer from Email Geeks agrees with Laura, noting that Microsoft support is held to a response model. He recommends explaining why the response doesn't match the issue to get it resolved. He then details a process his deliverability team uses.
Email marketer from Reddit shares that consistent follow-up and clear explanations of the issue, alongside mentioning escalation, can sometimes yield a better response from Microsoft Support, advising persistence.
Marketer from Email Geeks treats Microsoft's responses like a checklist, where they send responses in a specific sequence to rule out common root causes.
Email marketer from Email Geeks Slack Channel details his experience with Microsoft's blocking emails and his need to explain email collection and unsubscribe practices to resolve the issue.
Email marketer from Email Geeks Slack Channel questions if Microsoft Sender Support are real people, citing automated responses that don't align with observed issues.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that using Microsoft's Smart Network Data Services (SNDS) allows senders to monitor the health of their sending IPs, providing insight into complaint rates, spam trap hits, and authentication failures. This can help diagnose deliverability problems with Microsoft.
Expert from Spamresource explains that participating in Microsoft's Junk Email Reporting Program (JMRP) feedback loop allows senders to receive reports of user complaints, enabling them to remove problematic subscribers from their lists and improve deliverability.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that Microsoft Sender Support are real people but are limited by legal policy. She advises explaining the problem in short sentences and specifically requesting the desired action, sometimes including the word "escalation" to get a better response.
Expert from Email Geeks shares his experience with Microsoft (and Apple) blocking emails and the process he goes through to get unblocked, which involves detailed explanations of email practices.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from Microsoft highlights the importance of using the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) to prevent spoofing and ensure mail servers trust your messages.
Documentation from Microsoft explains that to troubleshoot email delivery issues to Microsoft 365, review the 'Fix email delivery issues' documentation, and use the 'Delist Portal' if blocked due to spam policies.
Documentation from Microsoft Support provides instructions to use the delist portal to remove an IP address from the blocked senders list if it has been blocked from sending email to Office 365 or Outlook.com.
Documentation from RFC-Editor explains that Sender Policy Framework (SPF) allows a receiving mail server to verify that mail claiming to originate from a specific domain is authorized by that domain's administrators.