Important: Changes to Microsoft (Outlook) Bulk Email Sending

Important: Changes to Microsoft (Outlook) Bulk Email Sending

Dear Marketers,

We want to bring your attention to an important upcoming change announced by Microsoft (Outlook) that will impact users sending bulk emails to Outlook.com, Hotmail.com, and other Microsoft-hosted inboxes. This update focuses on strengthening email authentication to improve inbox security and reduce spam. These measures will help reduce spoofing, phishing, and spam activity, empowering legitimate senders with stronger brand protection and better deliverability.

Microsoft's New Requirements for Bulk Senders:

Microsoft is introducing new requirements for domains sending more than 5,000 emails per day. Starting May 5th, 2025, Outlook will begin enforcing stricter email authentication standards.

Key Changes to Be Aware Of:

  • Mandatory SPF (Sender Policy Framework): Your sending domain must pass SPF authentication. Ensure your domain's DNS record accurately lists all authorized IP addresses and hosts that send emails on your behalf.

  • Mandatory DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): Your emails must pass DKIM authentication. This validates the integrity and authenticity of your emails.

  • Mandatory DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance): Your domain must have a DMARC record in place, and alignment with either SPF or DKIM (preferably both for optimal deliverability).

Impact on Non-Compliant Senders:

  • Initial Routing to Junk: After May 5th, 2025, emails from high-volume senders that do not comply with these authentication requirements will initially be routed to the Junk folder.

  • Future Rejection: Microsoft has stated that in the future, non-compliant emails will be rejected entirely to further protect their users.

Recommendations for Zoho Marketing Automation Users:

As users of Zoho Marketing Automation, especially if you send bulk email campaigns that might exceed 5,000 emails per day to Microsoft-hosted inboxes, it's crucial to take the following steps now to ensure your email deliverability is not affected:

  • Review Your DNS Records: Audit your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records for the domains you use to send emails through Zoho Marketing Automation. Verify that they are correctly configured and accurately reflect your sending infrastructure.

  • Ensure SPF Passes: Confirm that your SPF record includes all necessary sending sources for Zoho Marketing Automation.

  • Ensure DKIM is Implemented: Verify that DKIM signing is properly set up for your sending domains within Zoho Marketing Automation.

  • Implement DMARC: If you haven't already, implement a DMARC record in your DNS. Starting with p=none allows you to monitor your email authentication results before moving to stricter policies.

  • Configure Custom Return PathThis dedicated custom return-path address allows you to receive detailed notifications about email bounces, enabling you to analyze delivery issues and proactively manage your email lists.

  • Follow Email Hygiene Best Practices: While not strictly mandatory yet, adopting the following practices will further enhance your deliverability and sender reputation:

    • Use compliant and valid "From" and "Reply-To" addresses.

    • Include functional and easily accessible unsubscribe links.

    • Maintain clean email lists and manage bounces effectively.

    • Practice transparent mailing practices with clear subject lines and proper consent.

Next Steps for You:

  1. Prepare Now: Review and update your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records immediately.

  2. Help Resources: If you need assistance with setting up SPF, DKIM, or DMARC, refer to Zoho Marketing Automation's help documentation.

This update from Microsoft underscores the increasing importance of proper email authentication for ensuring reliable email delivery. By taking proactive steps now, you can safeguard your email campaigns and maintain strong deliverability to Outlook inboxes.

We will continue to monitor this situation and provide any further updates or guidance relevant to using Zoho Marketing Automation. Keep an eye on our community forums and announcements.

Notes
It's important to note that Zoho Marketing Automation will not impose restrictions on email sending; however, users are strongly encouraged to proactively implement these authentication measures on their end to maximize deliverability

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this, please don't hesitate to reach out to our support@zohomarketingautomation.com or engage in the community forums.

Happy Marketing!
The Zoho Marketing Automation Team

    Access your files securely from anywhere

        All-in-one knowledge management and training platform for your employees and customers.






                              Zoho Developer Community




                                                    • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                    • Digest


                                                    • Functions


                                                    • Meetups


                                                    • Kbase


                                                    • Resources


                                                    • Glossary


                                                    • Desk Marketplace


                                                    • MVP Corner


                                                    • Word of the Day


                                                    • Ask the Experts



                                                              • Sticky Posts

                                                              • Marketer’s Space - Automating CRM Actions with Journeys – Part 2

                                                                Hello marketers! Welcome back to another post in Marketer’s Space. In our previous post, we explored how CRM actions in Journeys help marketing and sales teams work together by nurturing CRM leads and pushing only engaged prospects back to sales. If you
                                                              • Introducing automation and utility conversations in WhatsApp marketing

                                                                We’re excited to announce the addition of two new features to our WhatsApp integration: Automation and Utility conversations. These enhancements will allow you to streamline your marketing efforts and engage with your customers more effectively by automating
                                                              • Tip of the week 02 - The art of 'seeing' your leads

                                                                What's the last page that your lead visited before signing up for your brand? What was the page that first convinced your lead to explore more about you? Where are your leads coming in from? Well, these are some perennial questions today's marketers live upon. And, knowing the answers to these questions is crucial, considering the vitality of leads in every business. In the journey of finding lead opportunities, it's important to understand that every detail about a lead is useful. While the channels
                                                              • Zoho Marketing Automation Update: Topics, Contacts, and List Management

                                                                At Zoho Marketing Automation, our highest priority is making it easier for you to use our product to accomplish your business goals. With that in mind, we are updating three of our pivotal features: Topic, Contacts, and List Management.   These existing
                                                              • Important: Zoho MarketingHub is now Zoho Marketing Automation

                                                                Hello Everyone,   We hope you all are doing well. We'd like to notify you that we have rebranded Zoho MarketingHub to Zoho Marketing Automation. We'll discontinue using the term "MarketingHub" from May 26, 2021. However, there will be no changes in the


                                                              Manage your brands on social media



                                                                    Zoho TeamInbox Resources



                                                                        Zoho CRM Plus Resources

                                                                          Zoho Books Resources


                                                                            Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                                                                              Zoho Projects Resources


                                                                                Zoho Sprints Resources


                                                                                  Qntrl Resources


                                                                                    Zoho Creator Resources



                                                                                        Zoho CRM Resources

                                                                                        • CRM Community Learning Series

                                                                                          CRM Community Learning Series


                                                                                        • Kaizen

                                                                                          Kaizen

                                                                                        • Functions

                                                                                          Functions

                                                                                        • Meetups

                                                                                          Meetups

                                                                                        • Kbase

                                                                                          Kbase

                                                                                        • Resources

                                                                                          Resources

                                                                                        • Digest

                                                                                          Digest

                                                                                        • CRM Marketplace

                                                                                          CRM Marketplace

                                                                                        • MVP Corner

                                                                                          MVP Corner









                                                                                            Design. Discuss. Deliver.

                                                                                            Create visually engaging stories with Zoho Show.

                                                                                            Get Started Now


                                                                                              Zoho Show Resources

                                                                                                Zoho Writer

                                                                                                Get Started. Write Away!

                                                                                                Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                                                                                                  Zoho CRM コンテンツ






                                                                                                    Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


                                                                                                        ご検討中の方




                                                                                                                • Recent Topics

                                                                                                                • Multiple Blueprints on different fields at the same time.

                                                                                                                  It looks only 1 Blueprint can run at the same time, it makes sense for many Blueprints on the same field (Eg. Stage). But what about multiple Blueprints on "different" fields? the multiple options must be available. (Eg. Stage, Documents Status, Contract
                                                                                                                • Zia flags the deal as at risk - but leaves my customers figuring out the rest themselves

                                                                                                                  I implement Zoho for many businesses. Team sizes vary, some clients have 3 reps, some have 40. But I keep hearing the same complaint across all of them and I figured it's worth raising here. Zia's deal scoring has genuinely improved over the past year.
                                                                                                                • How do we change system field names?

                                                                                                                  I found some very old discussions, but looking for more recent. Very confused on mapping the addresses correctly, due to different names for some reason between. for example: leads: city, state, zip etc... as normal contacts: Mailing adddress & Other
                                                                                                                • Remove "Subject" as a required field on Quotes

                                                                                                                  Currently, when you create a quote in CRM, the field "Subject" is mandatory. The properties of a system defined field cannot be edited which means we cannot de-select the mandatory requirement. A 'subject' on a quote is a little vague and not something
                                                                                                                • Adding Multiple Products (Package) to a Quote

                                                                                                                  I've searched the forums and found several people asking this question, but never found an answer. Is ti possible to add multiple products to a quote at once, like a package deal? This seems like a very basic function of a CRM that does quotes but I can't
                                                                                                                • SalesIQ Email Delivery Issues to Microsoft

                                                                                                                  Is anyone else having delivery issues to Hotmail, Outlook, and Live inboxes when sending transcripts and replies via email from SalesIQ? We’ve detected that emails sent from SalesIQ to these accounts aren't arriving—they don’t even bounce back; they simply
                                                                                                                • Unattended - Silent

                                                                                                                  How can I hide the tray icon / pop up window during unattended remote access for silent unattended remote access?
                                                                                                                • What is the Potential field for in expense submissions?

                                                                                                                  I'm trying out Zoho Expense in Zoho Project so I can record project expenses which aren't time related. On the expense form there is an option called Potential but I don't understand what this is for. When I click the dropdown it just shows the name of
                                                                                                                • Pasting Images in Zoho Desk ignores cursor location

                                                                                                                  My team has reported an issue which started recently where when we paste an image into a new or existing reply or comment, the pasted image seems to ignore the current cursor location instead paste itself at the last character present in the reply/comment,
                                                                                                                • Control Fields on Mobile App

                                                                                                                  On the mobile app, how do we control which fields appear on the screen for records that have a related list? In the example below I want the Inspection Stage and Inspection Type fields to appear, not the record owner (Dev Admin). I changed the Inspections
                                                                                                                • Unable to switch existing AWS RDS connection to DataBridge after moving RDS behind VPN

                                                                                                                  Hi everyone, I’m facing a problem with an existing Zoho Analytics setup and would like to know the best migration path. Originally, my Zoho Analytics connection to AWS MySQL RDS was configured using direct public access to the RDS endpoint. Everything
                                                                                                                • Hotmail

                                                                                                                  I am sending an email to a hotmail, and this guy does not receive the email, either in his SPAM nor inbox. Can you help me? thanks!
                                                                                                                • No Ability to Rename Record Template PDFs in SendMail Task

                                                                                                                  As highlighted previously in this post, we still have to deal with the limitation of not being able to rename a record template when sent as a PDF using the SendMail Task. This creates unnecessary complexity for what should be a simple operation, and
                                                                                                                • how do i add more than one google my business location?

                                                                                                                  they are connected to one account, but while connecting social channels it makes me pick one location. I have 3 and growing.
                                                                                                                • Updating Sales orders on hold

                                                                                                                  Surely updating irrelevant fields such as shipping date should be allowed when sales orders are awaiting back orders? Maybe the PO is going to be late arriving so we have to change the shipment date of the Sales order ! Not even allowed through the api - {"code":36014,"message":"Sales orders that have been shipped or on hold cannot be updated."}
                                                                                                                • Need to make a specific canvas my default view for contacts

                                                                                                                  Need to make a specific canvas my default view for contacts How do I do it?
                                                                                                                • How do I change the Subject header when I reply please, it contains Re which I want to remove.

                                                                                                                  Hi Zohodesk, When a customer logs a call we have amended the Acknowledge on new Ticket template so the subject header has "Ticket Id" at the start of it.  When we reply the customer gets Re: and then the Id and I can't see a template for this? Can you
                                                                                                                • Zia Agent built in ChatKit UI does not render markdown

                                                                                                                  Hi, You have a major shortcoming in the Zia Agent UI. The test UI that is embedded in agents.zoho.com allows you to test the agent has full support for rendering markdown, but your ChatKit UI does not have support for rendering markdown. If I embed it
                                                                                                                • Automated entries past the current month in a calendar report

                                                                                                                  Hi all, I have an automation problem. I have a form which on successfull entry adds either 5 or 10 more of these entries with a slight change so our customers can see it throug a calendar report on the webiste. The entry put in manually shows up perfectly
                                                                                                                • [Bug] WebAuthn passkey registration blocked on rpIds with TLDs longer than 6 characters (.accountant, .technology, etc.) — isValidDomain regex too strict

                                                                                                                  Hi, Filing on behalf of an enterprise customer where Zoho Vault is deployed across the company. The Chrome extension blocks WebAuthn passkey registration on legitimate sites whose Relying Party ID (rpId) has a TLD longer than 6 letters. This affects every
                                                                                                                • Get Files Associated to Data Template via API

                                                                                                                  I have a data template with multiple files associated to it, and trying to write a Deluge script that will fetch files associated with this data template. I created the script below based on the WorkDrive API documentation, one request uses the data templates
                                                                                                                • ZOHO CRM User management or role

                                                                                                                  I need guidance regarding Zoho CRM licensing and user management. I want to purchase one Zoho CRM license and create multiple team users under the same account with the following hierarchy: Super Admin User Manager User Executive Users (with limited access)
                                                                                                                • Tip #72 - Exploring Technician Console: Setup Unattended Access - 'Insider Insights'

                                                                                                                  Hello Zoho Assist Community! You joined a live session, diagnosed the issue, and got the user back on track. Fix delivered, user happy, session closed. But you know this machine. It needs a follow-up. A cleanup, a patch, maybe a deeper maintenance run.
                                                                                                                • #1 New to Zoho Invoice? Do this First!

                                                                                                                  "Zoho Invoice has made our company's tax invoices look more elegant and professional. It is effortless to raise an invoice and track payments with it", says Arunkumar Balakrishnan, Director GA Technologies. Generating professional invoices usually begins
                                                                                                                • Mastering Zia Match Scores | Let's Talk Recruit

                                                                                                                  Feeling overwhelmed by hundreds of resumes for every job? You’re not alone! Welcome back to Let’s Talk Recruit, where we break down Zoho Recruit’s features and hiring best practices into simple, actionable insights for recruiters. Imagine having an assistant
                                                                                                                • Automation Series #5: Supervisor Rule vs Schedule in Zoho Desk

                                                                                                                  Supervisor Rules vs Schedules: Choosing the right time-based automation This post is part of the "Desk Automation Series," Chapter 1. Through this series, we will help you choose the right automation type in Zoho Desk by comparing commonly confused automations
                                                                                                                • Error when changing user permission from read only to user.

                                                                                                                  Hi there, Ive tried to change one of my users to be able to edit, however i kept getting the error user license exceed.
                                                                                                                • Add Zia matching jobs on the main screen of candidates module

                                                                                                                  It will be good if it is added in the main screen as a column so that we can quickly hover over and see if they match for any job openings. That will save from two additional clicks
                                                                                                                • Insert Template not inserting

                                                                                                                  I have been using the "Insert Template" feature for years and I use it every single working day. Yesterday it was working fine. Today, on two different browsers (Chrome and Edge), I can select "Insert Template", select the template I want to insert, but
                                                                                                                • Need Help Preventing Overselling in Zoho Inventory

                                                                                                                  Hi fellow Zoho Inventory users, I'm reaching out for advice on managing inventory control in our growing business. We've recently encountered situations where sales orders get confirmed despite insufficient stock, creating operational challenges. Our
                                                                                                                • Conditional Layouts On Multi Select Field

                                                                                                                  How we can use Conditional Layouts On Multi Select Field field? Please help.
                                                                                                                • Smart Feature Compatibility Indicators for CRM Field

                                                                                                                  Zoho CRM offers a wide range of field types and advanced customization options. However, several field types have feature-specific limitations that are currently documented only in help articles. For example, while configuring a Rich Text field, admins
                                                                                                                • Deactivate Zoho CRM for everyone

                                                                                                                  We would like to deactivate Zoho CRM for everyone. How can we do that?
                                                                                                                • Best sales insights for target accounts?

                                                                                                                  Question for all the sales power-users out there: I would like to gain insights from Zoho CRM for a rotating list of target accounts. Each Outside Salesperson has 5 target accounts, and they can change these targets quarterly with management approval.
                                                                                                                • Building extensions #2: Publishing and sharing Zoho Sprints extensions using Sigma Cloud Editor

                                                                                                                  Welcome to a new post on Zoho Sprints extension development! In our last post, we explored how to create, test, and edit an extension for Zoho Sprints. In this post, we'll take a look at how to publish and share an extension. Publishing and sharing extensions
                                                                                                                • Custom return paths

                                                                                                                  How do I delete a custom return path subdomain created in error?
                                                                                                                • How do you paginate in schedule function

                                                                                                                  How does someone paginate in schedule function in deluge is there an ideal way to do this apart from hardcoding max pages
                                                                                                                • Mail bounces due to bad reputation

                                                                                                                  Good evening. I'm seeing these errors from both hotmail/outlook and yahoo, as well as hard bounce from Virgin Media and talktalk for some time now. Bounce category: Connection issues Reason: uncategorized-bounce Message: 4.7.650 The mail server [136.143.188.237]
                                                                                                                • What is a realistic turnaround time for account review for ZeptoMail?

                                                                                                                  On signing up it said 2-3 business days. I am on business-day 6 and have had zero contact of any kind. No follow-up questions, no approval or decline. Attempts to "leave a message" or use the "Contact Us" form have just vanished without a trace. It still
                                                                                                                • Calendar in Global View

                                                                                                                  When you are working with multiple projects, staying on track with all project activities requires a centralized view of all your project activities. Especially in a work environment, users tend to miss out on their day-to-day activities when it doesn't
                                                                                                                • Next Page