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 Path: This 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

    • 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

      • Recent Topics

      • Set Default Status of Assembly to "Assembled" When Entered in UI

        I've just discovered the new "confirmed" status of Assemblies within Inventory. While I understand the intent of this (allowing for manufacturing planning and raw material stock allocation), it was initially confusing to me when manually entering some

      • How to apply customized Zoho Crm Home Page to all users?

        I have tried to study manuals and play with Zoho CRM but haven't found a way how to apply customized Zoho CRM Home Page as a (default) home page for other CRM users.. How that can be done, if possible? - kipi Moderation Update: Currently, each user has

      • Increase Round Robin Scheduler Frequency in Zoho Desk

        Dear Zoho Desk Team, We hope this message finds you well. We would like to request an enhancement to the Round Robin Scheduler in Zoho Desk to better address ticket assignment efficiency. Current Behavior At present, the Round Robin Scheduler operates

      • Plug Sample #14: Automate Invoice Queries with SalesIQ Chatbot

        Hi everyone! We're back with a powerful plug to make your Zobot smarter and your support faster. This time, we're solving a common friction point for finance teams by giving customers quick access to their invoices. We are going to be automating invoice

      • Enrich your contact and company details automatically using the Data Enrichment topping

        Greetings, I hope you're all doing well. We're happy to announce the latest topping we've added to Bigin: The Data Enrichment topping, powered by WebAmigo. This topping helps you automatically enhance your contact and company records in Bigin. By leveraging

      • Zoho Analytics + Facebook Ads: Performance Alerts for Active Campaigns

        Is it possible with integration of Zoho Analytics with Facebook Ads and set up alerts or notifications for active campaigns when performance drops? For example, triggering a notification if CTR goes below a defined threshold or if other key metrics (like

      • Ability to Link Reported Issues from Zoho Desk to Specific Tasks or Subtasks in Zoho Projects

        Hi Zoho Desk Team, Hope you're doing well. When reporting a bug from Zoho Desk to Zoho Projects, we’ve noticed that it’s currently not possible to select an existing task or subtask to associate the issue with. However, when working directly inside Zoho

      • SalesIQ Chat Owner to CRM Lead Owner Mapping

        There is no proper mapping between the SalesIQ chat owner and the CRM lead owner. When a chat is assigned to an agent, the lead created in CRM is often assigned to a different user, forcing admins to manually change ownership every time. This creates

      • Enhancements for Currencies in Zoho CRM: Automatic exchange rate updates, options to update record exchange rates, and more

        The multi-currency feature helps you track currencies region-wise. This can apply to Sales, CTC, or any other currency-related data. You can record amounts in a customer’s local currency, while the CRM automatically converts them to your home currency

      • Ensure Consistent Service Delivery with Comprehensive Job Sheets

        We are elated to announce that one of the most requested features is now live: Job Sheets. They are customizable, reusable forms that serve as a checklist for the services that technicians need to carry out and as a tool for data collection. While on

      • Any update on adding New Customer Payment Providers who support in store terminal devices?

        Currently there is only one Customer payment provider listed for terminal devices in USA- Everyware. They charge a monthly fee of almost $149 minimum. Will you add other providers - like Zoho Payments or Stripe or Worldpay that would allow integrated

      • Getting Subform Fields to Display Top to Bottom

        I have a form where the fields are all in one column. I want to insert a subform where the fields are stacked in one column as well. I have built both the form and subform but the subform displays the fields from left to right instead of a stacked column. This will cause a problem displaying the subform correctly on mobile apps. How can I do this please?' Here is my form with subform now. As you can see the subform "Follow Up Activity" is displaying the fields left to right. I need them to go top

      • How do i move multiple tickets to a different department?

        Hello, i have several tickets that have been assigned to the wrong department.  I am talking about hundreds of automatically generated ones that come from a separate system. How can i select them all at once to move them to another department in one go? I can select them in "unsassigned open tickets view" but i can't find a "move to another department" option. I also can't seem to assign multiple tickets to the same agent in that same view. Could somebody advice?

      • Zoho CRM Layouts

        I have customised all our modules, Leads, Contacts and deals, and within them, I have created lots of different layouts depending on the type of Lead or contact, for example. Since the new Zoho UI came out, they have all disappeared. I have gone into

      • How to Convert NSF to PST Format Effortlessly? - SYSessential

        It is highly recommended to obtain the error-free solution of the SYSessential NSF to PST converter to convert NSF files from Lotus Notes. Using this professional software, it becomes easier to convert all NSF database items, including emails, journals,

      • Can't connect to POP and SMTP over VPN

        I use Thunderbird to access Zoho Mail via POP and SMTP. I have configured an app-specific password for Thunderbird to use. Everything is properly configured and works correctly — until I enable my VPN. I'm using a paid commercial VPN service (Mullvad).

      • my zoho mail is hacked

        my email is sending my username and password to people i dont know

      • Suministrar accesos

        Asunto: Enable UPLOAD_RULE for API Attachments Mensaje: Hola, Necesito habilitar la capacidad de subir attachments vía API en Zoho Mail. Actualmente recibo el error: "UPLOAD_RULE_NOT_CONFIGURED" al usar el endpoint: POST /api/accounts/{accountId}/messages/attachments

      • how to change the page signers see after signing a document in zoho sign

        Hello, How can I please change the page a signer sees after signing a document in Zoho Sign? I cannot seem to find it. As it is now, it shows a default landing page "return to Zoho Sign Home". Thanks!

      • Introducing real-time document commenting and collaboration in Zoho Sign

        Hi, there! We are delighted to introduce Document commenting, a feature that helps you communicate with your recipients more efficiently for a streamlined document signing process. Some key benefits include: Collaborate with your recipients easily without

      • Polish signer experience to compete with docusign

        I would like to suggest that someone spend the little bit of time to polish the signer experience, and the email templates to more of a modern professional feel. They are currently very early 2000s and with some simple changes could vastly improve the

      • Ticket Loop from Auto Responce

        We’re seeing an issue where a client’s help desk triggers a ticket loop. When they email us, our system creates a ticket and sends the acknowledgement. Their system then creates a ticket from that acknowledgement and sends one back to us, which creates

      • validation rules doesn't work in Blueprint when it is validated using function?

        I have tried to create a validation rule in the deal module. it works if I try to create a deal manually or if I try to update the empty field inside a deal. but when I try to update the field via the blueprint mandatory field, it seems the validation

      • How to make rule to filter out some emails from receiving the notification "Receiving a new ticket"?

        Good Morning, We are currently using the "Receiving a new ticket" notification rule to provide that auto reply template to a customer that emails us for support. However, there are some emails we don't want to receive this auto-reply. Where can I set

      • Zoho Signatures Missing

        In the past after collecting signatures from two different PDFs I would merge them by calling an api and the signatures would appear in the combined PDF. Recently the signatures have disappeared whenever I combine the PDFs together. Why did this randomly

      • Stop the Workarounds: We Need Native Multi-Step Forms

        After over 17 years of community requests, I'm hoping the Zoho team can finally address the lack of native multi-page form support in Zoho Creator. This has been one of the longest-standing feature requests in the community, with threads spanning nearly

      • Metadata API Access to Functions

        I think it would be incredibly helpful to have api access to every function's code. Our team primarily uses deluge functions to update fields across modules according to business logic. I would like to create a visual dependancy model for our CRM, but

      • Filter button in the Zoho Sheet Android App doesn't toggle on

        I am a new Zoho Sheets user and experiencing a specific issue with the filter functionality in the Android mobile application. Detailed Issue Description: The filter icon appears correctly in the toolbar. Upon tapping the filter icon/button, the toggle

      • Automate pushing Zoho CRM backups into Zoho WorkDrive

        Through our Zoho One subscription we have both Zoho CRM and Zoho WorkDrive. We have regular backups setup in Zoho CRM. Once the backup is created, we are notified. Since we want to keep these backups for more than 7 days, we manually download them. They

      • Exciting Updates to the Kiosk Studio Feature in Zoho CRM!

        Hello Everyone, We are here again with a series of new enhancements to Kiosk Studio, designed to elevate your experience and bring even greater efficiency to your business processes. These updates build upon our ongoing commitment to making Kiosk a powerful

      • Reply to Email for SO/PO

        Hello, We are new to Zoho Books and running into an issue. Our support@ email is our integration user. When our team is sending out PO/SO's we are updating the sender email, but for some reason many of our responses are coming back to our support@ email

      • New activity options for workflows

        Greetings, We are excited to announce the addition of two new dynamic actions to our workflow functionality: Create Event and Schedule Call. These actions have been thoughtfully designed to enhance your workflow processes and bring more efficiency to

      • Remove the “One Migration Per User” Limitation in Zoho WorkDrive

        Hi Zoho WorkDrive Team, Hope you are doing well. We would like to raise a critical feature request regarding the Google Drive → Zoho WorkDrive migration process. Current Limitation: Zoho WorkDrive currently enforces a hard limitation: A Zoho WorkDrive

      • Important Update: Google Ads & YouTube Ads API Migration

        To maintain platform performance and align with Google's newest requirements, we are updating the Google Ads and YouTube Ads integrations by migrating from API v19 to the newer v22, before the official deprecation of v19 on February 11, 2026. Reference:

      • Kaizen #228 - Process Large-Scale Migrated Data Using Catalyst Solutions

        Howdy, tech wizards! This week’s Kaizen explores how Catalyst Solutions in the Zoho CRM Developer Hub help import large volumes of data into Zoho CRM while improving data quality and simplifying the migration process. Why Catalyst Solutions? Catalyst

      • Zoho Expense Import Reports Won't Work Because Default Accounts Already Exist

        Im trying to import reports from another Zoho expense account to mine and im getting errors that won't allow the import to happen The account name that you've entered 'Ground Transportation' already exists. Enter another name for the account and try again.z

      • Inactive License for free account.

        I recently upgraded my Cliq subscription not my team (on the free version), are unable to login to their accounts. The error message received is Inactive License Looks like you have not been covered under the current free plan of users. Please contact

      • 2026 Product Roadmap and Upcoming Features

        This is your guide to what is coming in Zoho Vertical Studio throughout 2026. We’ll update this post throughout the year as items move from development to release, and as and when new initiatives are added. Once a feature is released, it will be reflected

      • Please, make writer into a content creation tool

        I'm tired of relying on Google Docs. I'm actually considering moving to ClickUp, but if Writer were a good content creation tool instead of just a word processor, I would finally be able to move all my development within the Zoho ecosystem, rather than

      • Syncing zoho books into zoho crm

        I was wondering how I can use zoho books in crm as I have been using them separately and would like to sync the two. Is this possible and if so, how? Thanks

      • Next Page