Why are emails from Gmail or Gsuite accounts landing in spam when replying in threads with Microsoft accounts?
Summary
What email marketers say10Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Sender explains that certain words and phrases can trigger spam filters and negatively impact deliverability. Suggests using more natural language, avoiding excessive use of exclamation points and capital letters, and providing value to subscribers in emails.
Email marketer from Reddit responds that Microsoft's spam filters are notoriously aggressive and sometimes inaccurate. They may be flagging emails due to various factors like content, sender reputation, or even the presence of links.
Email marketer from ZeroBounce emphasizes the importance of regular email list cleaning to improve deliverability. It includes removing invalid, inactive, and spam trap email addresses from your list.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that Microsoft has been known to act unpredictably with email handling, including folder placement. Suggests that someone's email signature or a link to their website in replies might be triggering Microsoft's safelinks reputation module.
Email marketer from GlockApps recommends using email placement testing tools to identify and fix deliverability issues. These tools can help determine whether emails are landing in the inbox, spam folder, or being blocked altogether.
Email marketer from Neil Patel explains that several factors can impact email deliverability, including sender reputation, email content, and authentication. He suggests checking sender reputation, improving email content, and implementing email authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC).
Email marketer from Mailjet shares that deliverability issues can stem from various problems, including blacklisting, spam traps, and poor email content. Recommends monitoring sender reputation, cleaning email lists, and avoiding spam triggers in email content.
Email marketer from EmailToolTester shares advice for improving deliverability. Includes authenticating your domain (SPF, DKIM), using a dedicated IP address, cleaning your email list regularly, and monitoring your sender reputation.
Email marketer from Litmus emphasizes the importance of email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) in preventing emails from landing in the spam folder. They also recommend using a clean email list, avoiding spam trigger words, and monitoring deliverability metrics.
Email marketer from HubSpot shares tactics to improve deliverability. Recommendations include using a consistent sending frequency, segmenting email lists, personalizing email content, and avoiding purchased email lists.
What the experts say3Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that Hotmail/Microsoft's filtering is often idiosyncratic and can be frustrating for senders. They mention possible reasons include IP reputation, content filtering, and user-specific settings, and they're known for being aggressive.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that Gmail and Google Workspace are significant sources of spam. Says Microsoft filters are not very good. Also suggests that Microsoft is simultaneously more aggressive and less accurate in their filtering.
Expert from Spam Resource explains that Outlook.com and Hotmail blocking can be related to the sender's IP address being listed on a blocklist, poor sender reputation (complaint rate), or not implementing proper authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC).
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from Google Workspace Admin Help explains the sender guidelines for sending emails to Gmail accounts. It focuses on proper authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), avoiding sending unwanted mail, and providing easy unsubscribe options for recipients.
Documentation from Microsoft Support explains that several factors can cause emails to be marked as junk, including sender reputation, email content, and user settings. Suggests adding senders to the Safe Senders list, checking junk email settings, and ensuring that email content does not trigger spam filters.
Documentation from DMARC.org explains that DMARC helps email senders protect their domain from spoofing and phishing attacks. It provides instructions on implementing DMARC and monitoring DMARC reports to improve email deliverability and security.
Documentation from RFC explains what DKIM is and how to implement it. DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) lets an organization take responsibility for a message by associating its domain name with it. Responsibility is asserted by affixing a digital signature to the message, which can be validated by recipient systems.
Documentation from RFC explains how to create an SPF record for a domain. SPF prevents spammers from sending messages with forged From addresses from your domain and is used to protect your reputation and improve email deliverability.
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