Why are my emails to Hotmail going to the junk folder and how do I fix it?
Summary
What email marketers say12Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Email Geeks recommends checking the IP reputation, especially if it's a shared IP, as other senders' actions can impact deliverability.
Email marketer from Medium.com shares that to improve your sending reputation, ensure that your IP address and domain aren't blacklisted. Use tools to check if you are on any blacklists and take steps to get removed if necessary.
Email marketer from EmailGeek explains that new IPs and domains require a 'warm up' period. During this time mailbox providers like Hotmail will be more sensitive to junk placement. Send low volumes and increase it overtime.
Email marketer from SendPulse suggests avoiding spam trigger words in your subject lines and body text to prevent emails from landing in the junk folder.
Email marketer from Mailjet shares that emails can land in the junk folder because of low engagement rates. To fix this, segment your audience and send targeted content to improve engagement.
Email marketer from Reddit user says to ensure your email content is relevant and valuable to your subscribers. Irrelevant or poorly written content can lead to low engagement and increased junk mail placement.
Email marketer from EmailBestPractices.com explains that providing a clear and concise 'From' name and email address helps recipients quickly identify the sender and reduces the likelihood of your email being marked as spam.
Email marketer from Email Deliverability Blog mentions that maintaining a consistent sending frequency helps establish a positive sender reputation with mailbox providers. Sudden spikes in email volume can trigger spam filters.
Email marketer from Email Geeks suggests that with the volume of emails being sent, the sender is likely using a shared IP, which matters to Microsoft.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Kings Forum suggests monitoring bounce rates and immediately removing invalid email addresses from your list to maintain a healthy sender reputation.
Email marketer from Email Geeks shares that large mailbox providers like Microsoft measure recipient engagement to determine if emails are wanted. Focus on contact quality by ensuring subscribers know what they're signing up for and making unsubscribing easy. Also, ensure message quality with relevant, beneficial content.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum recommends that you use a double opt-in process to ensure that subscribers genuinely want to receive your emails. This helps reduce spam complaints and improves deliverability.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks explains that because the domain and mailing list are new, it's still in the warmup phase, and Hotmail needs to learn that the mail is wanted. Advices telling subscribers to check their bulk folder and mark the welcome message as not junk.
Expert from Word to the Wise responds that proper authentication setup including SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is crucial, but also shares that it is not enough to ensure inbox placement. You must ensure your emails are wanted.
Expert from Word to the Wise shares that sudden increases in email volume (list bombing) can trigger spam filters. Gradual list building and segmentation are key to avoiding junk folders.
Expert from Spam Resource explains that using feedback loops helps to identify and remove subscribers who mark your emails as spam, improving your sender reputation.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from Microsoft shares that to solve emails going to junk, check your blocked sender list, ensure your sender address is in the safe sender list, check your email rules and review the junk email filter settings.
Documentation from DomainKeys describes implementing DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) which provides an email authentication system designed to verify the DNS domain of an email sender and the integrity of the message.
Documentation from SparkPost shares to improve Hotmail deliverability, authenticate your email with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC; monitor your sender reputation using SNDS; maintain clean mailing lists; and provide easy unsubscribe options.
Documentation from Microsoft explains that to help ensure that Outlook.com users see your email, review the Outlook.com Postmaster guidelines, use the Smart Network Data Services (SNDS) to check your IP reputation, and join the JMRP (Junk Mail Reporting Program).
Documentation from RFC explains implementing Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records which helps prevent email spoofing and improves email deliverability by verifying that sending mail servers are authorized to send email on behalf of your domain.