How to prevent emails going to spam or other folder

We're using Outlook/Office 365 and our internal emails, test emails and notifications keep ending up in the spam folder. What can we do?

The system sends a lot internal notification emails, and occasionally, these may be flagged as spam by mail servers due to their high volume and their similarities. For the same reason, test and preview emails can also trigger spam filters.

To prevent test emails and internal notifications from going to the spam folder, we recommend the following:

• • 1. Whitelist these IP addresses and domain used by the system for sending notifications and preview emails:

       • • Notifications/VisitorID

         • Domain to whitelist: marketingautomation.services

         • IPs to whitelist: 167.89.36.85, 167.89.41.201

         • Preview Emails

         • IPs to whitelist: 168.245.0.8, 168.245.16.11

    2. Mark these emails as "Not spam" to move them to inbox. This will train your mail client to recognize these emails as not spam and automatically place similar emails in your inbox.

    3. Turn off Automatic Filtering in your Junk folder in Outlook

       • • • In your Outlook app, navigate to Home > Junk > Junk E-mail Options > Options > set to No Automatic Filtering

    4. Check your active plugins

       • • • In Outlook, navigate to File > Options > Add-ins > Go >  and uncheck any antivirus plugins

    5. Check whether your company's domain/sender email address is added to Blocked list

       • • • In Outlook, navigate to Home > Junk > Junk E-mail Options > Blocked Senders

    6. Check whether you have any rules in Outlook which may move emails to Junk

       • • • In Outlook, navigate to Home > Rules > Manage Rules and Alerts

**Please note that different versions of Outlook may have distinct navigation panels. Please refer to Microsoft's documentation on how to find these settings.

Scenario #1: We include team members when sending our email campaigns. We noticed that these emails always end up in spam.

Scenario #2: We enabled Focused Inbox in our Outlook and noticed that our emails always end up in the 'Other' folder and never in the Focused Inbox.

What can we do so that our emails will not end up in the same folder WITHin our contacts' mailboxES?

Scenario #1: Spam folder

There are many factors that determines whether an email will end up in the inbox or the spam folder. Three of these play an important role: Sender Reputation, Engagement and Authentication. 

• Sender Reputation

  • • Positive Reputation: Email service providers (ESPs) evaluate the sender's history and behavior. A positive reputation, earned by sending relevant and wanted content, increases the likelihood of emails reaching the inbox.

    • Negative Reputation: Consistently sending emails that recipients mark as spam or having a history of suspicious activities can harm the sender's reputation, leading to emails being filtered into spam folders.

• Email Engagement

  • • High Engagement: If recipients regularly open, click, and interact with your emails, it signals to ESPs that your content is valuable. This positive engagement is a strong indicator that your emails should be delivered to the inbox.

    • Low Engagement: On the other hand, low engagement, such as recipients ignoring or marking emails as spam, can negatively impact deliverability. ESPs may interpret this as a lack of interest, potentially leading to future emails being filtered as spam.

• Authentication

  • • SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance): These authentication mechanisms help verify the legitimacy of the sender. Properly configured authentication signals to ESPs that the email is genuinely from the claimed sender, reducing the likelihood of being marked as spam.

    • Lack of Authentication: Emails lacking proper authentication are more likely to be treated with suspicion and may be filtered into spam folders. Spoofed or phishing emails often fail authentication checks.

For more information, please check our Email Delivery Best Practices

Scenario #2: Other folder

If you have Focused Inbox enabled, Outlook decides which emails to place in the Focused Inbox. The "Other" folder holds emails that Outlook algorithm thinks you don't need to act on right away. However, this doesn't mean that these emails are marked as spam. 

These are the common factors that Outlook uses to determine if the email will go the Focused Inbox:

• Previous action on similar emails: For example, if you move an email from a sender to the Focused Inbox, future messages from the same sender will appear in the Focused Inbox automatically. Select Always move to Focused inbox if you want all future messages from the sender to be delivered to the Focused tab.

• Emails from contacts you have have emailed in the past: If you send numerous messages to a contact, messages from this contact will  automatically appear in the Focused Inbox.

• If contact is in your Outlook Contacts: Emails from your Outlook Contacts will appear in the Focused Inbox.

You can guide your contacts and advise them to do the recommendations above to ensure that they will get your emails in their inbox.

!Please note that if you're using a shared mailbox, Focused Inbox won't work. Please refer to Microsoft's documentation.