Email is one of the most popular internet services. However, it’s also the most susceptible to spam. As a result, email service providers are constantly fighting spam and hacking attempts. Knowing this, it’s not uncommon that in order to protect their users from these threats, email service providers like Gmail, Outlook/Hotmail and Yahoo among others, block unrecognizable or suspicious domains from their mail server.
No one wants to see their email messages go ignored or blocked by the recipient, but this often happens if you don’t practice good email habits. A number of providers maintain blacklists based on spam placements, dropped and blocked emails -this usually leads to low email marketing results. This can happen with any email service provider, even the less recognized ones.
If your open rate for campaigns to Outlook inboxes suddenly goes down it’s time to investigate what could be causing this problem- chances are you’ve been blocklisted.
How to know if you’re listed in Outlook blocklist?
When you sign up for a new email account and add your email address to the service, the email provider will usually have you verify your email address and other details. The best way to verify if your domain is in a blocklist is by looking it up with a checker like MX Toolbox’s.
You can also read the Outlook rejection notice which has essential information about their policy reasons for blocking you.
Reasons for Hotmail to block you
There are many legitimate reasons why Hotmail might block specific domains from sending emails to their users. Some of these reasons include:
- You send campaigns with spam like characteristics
- Your campaigns give error messages and/or contain images that don’t load correctly
- High bounce rate
- Frowarding spam or phising content to their users
- Low reputation
- You keep sending emails to users that have marked your campaigns as unsolicited emails
- Your DNS might not be correctly configured
- You’ve received complaints
- If you deliver unauthenticated smtp email from dynamic ip’s
Another reason could be if your email volume is too high. Your users could get annoyed if they received too many promotion campaigns and mark you as spam.
How to remove your IP from the Hotmail blocklist
First, you need to understand that it’s not always possible to remove IP addresses from a blocklist since it depends on whether your removal request is accepted or not by the service provider.
Before you submit your removal request, make sure that you’ve determined why you were blocklisted in the first place and the issue is fixed.
Also having a good sender reputation is a plus and will make this process easier for you. You can check your Sender Score at your profile dashboard in the MailMonitor App.
[et_pb_image src=”https://www.mailmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Mailmonitor-App-Dashboard-Reputation-Management-1.jpg” alt=”Mailmonitor App Dashboard – Reputation Management” title_text=”Mailmonitor App Dashboard – Reputation Management” _builder_version=”4.17.4″ _module_preset=”default” width=”70%” module_alignment=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]To start the blacklist removal process you will need to fill in a Support Request Form.
After you’ve provided all the necessary information, the support team will evaluate your request and make a decision. If your domain is clean and you fixed the issues that put you in the blocklist and are not actually sending spam, you can be sure that your domain will be removed from 2 to 3 days.
We can help you do this easier and quicker with our managed services tool. Just schedule a deliverability assessment call and one of our deliverability experts will guide you through the whole process and help you understand all the important details to keep in mind.
How to keep out of blocklists
If you want to keep your email address from being blocklisted, then you need to keep your email address clean of anything that’s likely to get blocked by email service providers.
- If you’re sending emails that link to your website, you need to make sure that it doesn’t have spammy content.
- Make sure your links and images don’t show errors
- Send a reasonable volume of emails per week
- Remove contacts that bounce your campaigns
- Don’t send campaign to users that didn’t opt in to your newsletter
- Maintain a high sender score
- Make sure your DNS and domain settings are well configured
- Setup authentication protocols like DMARC, DKIM, SPF or BIMI to protect your domain
- Don’t buy email lists
Conclusion
While you can remove yourself from a blocklist, it’s also worth keeping your IP off of it and you need to be aware that this isn’t always possible.
If you want to keep your email address safe, then it needs to be free of broken links, typos or anything that could get an email service provider’s attention. Doing so won’t affect sender score ratings and will protect your domain along protocols like DMARC or SPF.
Follow the best practices mentioned before and you won’t have to deal with being blocklisted and will also help you maintain a good sender reputation and inbox placement.
