Why are my emails suddenly going to spam in Outlook and Hotmail?
Summary
What email marketers say14Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Reddit explains that sudden spam filtering can occur due to changes in email content or sending practices triggering spam filters, even if previous campaigns were unaffected. They recommend checking for recent changes and reviewing content for potential triggers.
Email marketer from HubSpot explains that common reasons for emails going to spam include poor sender reputation, low engagement rates, spam trigger words, lack of email authentication, and sending to purchased lists. They suggest focusing on building a clean, engaged email list and following best practices for email content and sending.
Email marketer from Neil Patel shares that consistently providing valuable content, segmenting your audience, and cleaning your email list regularly can improve deliverability. Sending irrelevant content or emailing inactive subscribers can negatively impact your sender reputation.
Email marketer from StackOverflow explains that Hotmail may be using more aggressive spam filtering and suggests implementing SPF records to improve sender authentication and avoid being flagged as spam.
Email marketer from Mailjet shares that sender reputation, spam complaints, engagement rates, and email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) significantly impact deliverability. A sudden drop in engagement or a spike in spam complaints can cause emails to land in the spam folder.
Email marketer from Litmus shares that certain words and phrases commonly used in spam emails, as well as poor HTML coding, broken links, and large image sizes, can trigger spam filters. It recommends testing emails with a spam checker before sending.
Marketer from Email Geeks explains that Outlook/Hotmail measures deliverability by engagement and spam complaints versus send volume and suggests checking engagement at Microsoft-managed domains.
Marketer from Email Geeks suggests registering for SNDS to potentially get unblocked after support interactions.
Marketer from Email Geeks recommends analyzing the headers to identify the cause, such as reputation or SmartScreen issues, using the message analyzer tool.
Email marketer from Email on Acid shares that factors like sender reputation, authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and engagement rates significantly impact email deliverability. They suggest that a sudden increase in spam complaints or a drop in sender reputation can cause emails to be filtered as spam.
Email marketer from EmailGeek.net suggests checking your sender reputation by utilising sender score websites, and ensuring proper email authentication practices like SPF and DKIM.
Marketer from Email Geeks says that hitting a spam trap can cause this issue and SNDS will tell you if you did.
Email marketer from Sendinblue explains that improving email deliverability requires focusing on building a positive sender reputation by authenticating your emails (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), engaging with your subscribers, and avoiding spam trigger words. Also, they suggest to monitor your sender score and take action to improve it if it's low.
Marketer from Email Geeks suggests checking if your IPs are on any blacklists.
What the experts say2Expert opinions
Expert from SpamResource explains the importance of maintaining your sender reputation. If your reputation has dropped suddenly with Outlook/Hotmail (Microsoft), they are more likely to send your mail to the spam folder. You can check this via their SNDS tool.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that sudden shifts in spam filtering often result from policy changes at mailbox providers like Microsoft. Understanding specific changes requires digging into their documentation and tools, but generally involve tightening rules around authentication, engagement, and content.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from RFC explains that SPF records prevent sender address forgery. By publishing SPF records, domain owners can specify which mail servers are authorized to send email on their behalf, helping to prevent spammers from using their domain to send unsolicited messages.
Documentation from DKIM explains that DKIM adds a digital signature to email messages, allowing recipients to verify that the message was sent by the authorized domain owner and has not been tampered with during transit. This helps improve email authentication and deliverability.
Documentation from SparkPost explains that temporary deliverability issues can arise from changes in sending volume, content updates triggering filters, or infrastructure problems. It suggests monitoring bounce rates, feedback loops, and blocklist status to identify and address the root cause.
Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools explains that using their tools can help identify deliverability issues. Specifically they suggest monitoring sender reputation, spam rates, and feedback loops to maintain good sending practices, and suggests that a sudden increase in spam complaints or a drop in sender reputation can cause emails to be filtered as spam.
Documentation from Microsoft Support explains that emails can be marked as junk due to various factors, including the sender's IP address being on a blocklist, the content of the email triggering spam filters, or the recipient marking the email as junk. They recommend checking sender reputation and following best practices for email content.
Related resources0Resources
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