Why are email open rates dropping for Hotmail and Live accounts?

Key findings

• Widespread impact: Many email marketing agencies and senders, not limited to specific platforms, have reported a sudden and significant decline in deliverability and open rates to Microsoft's Hotmail and Live email clients.
• Microsoft's filter changes: The primary cause points to updated and more aggressive spam filtering algorithms by Microsoft, which started around March 2023. These changes are impacting mail previously considered acceptable.
• Not platform-specific: While some early reports questioned if specific sending platforms were at fault, evidence suggests the issue extends beyond individual Email Service Providers (ESPs), indicating a broader Microsoft-side problem.
• Impact on sender reputation: The new filters are more likely to target senders whose practices might have been less than perfectly clean, even if they weren't explicitly on a public blocklist (or blacklist).
• Monitoring is key: Tools like Microsoft's SNDS (Smart Network Data Services) are crucial for gaining insight into IP and domain reputation status directly from Microsoft.

Key considerations

• Contact Microsoft support: File a ticket with Microsoft support and request escalation if necessary, as many suggest this is the most effective immediate action.
• Review sending practices: Even if your email program was previously 'clean,' re-evaluate content, list hygiene, and sending frequency. The new filters might be catching patterns previously overlooked.
• Monitor official announcements: Keep an eye on status pages and community discussions from major ESPs or industry bodies, as they often report widespread issues affecting inbox rates at various email clients.
• Adapt to new metrics: As open rates become less reliable indicators of engagement due to privacy changes and filtering, focus on other metrics like click-through rates, conversions, and subscriber retention. You can learn more about rethinking email marketing metrics.

Key opinions

• Widespread decline: Many marketers, including those from Danish email marketing agencies, have observed a significant drop in deliverability to Hotmail and Live accounts, leading to a big decrease in open rates. This affects multiple accounts and countries.
• Dramatic drop: Some users have experienced a drastic reduction in inbox rates, from as high as 95% to less than 20% overnight for Microsoft domains, highlighting the severity of the issue.
• Not exclusive to specific ESPs: Despite some initial concerns, the problem is not limited to customers of any particular Email Service Provider (ESP), indicating it's a broader issue originating from Microsoft.
• Varying impact: Some marketers have reported not seeing a significant impact on their Microsoft deliverability, suggesting that the issue might be specific to certain sending platforms or types of email campaigns that trigger the new filters.
• Seeking solutions: Marketers are actively seeking insights and advice, often turning to industry forums or communities to understand the root cause and potential remedies for the sudden drop in open rates.

Key considerations

• Verify impact: Confirm whether your specific email program is affected. Not all senders are seeing the same level of impact, suggesting nuances in Microsoft's filtering.
• Monitor non-platform sends: If using an ESP, compare deliverability of emails sent through the ESP versus those sent from your own internal servers (if applicable) to see if the issue is isolated.
• Engage with Microsoft: If affected, the primary advice is to engage directly with Microsoft support, providing details of your sending patterns and observing any specific error messages.
• Review email content and practices: Consider if recent changes to your email templates or sending practices might be inadvertently triggering Microsoft's new, more aggressive filters. Pay close attention to Microsoft's sender requirements.
• Seek community insights: Participate in email marketing communities to gather insights from other senders facing similar issues, which can help in identifying patterns or shared solutions. This is often where collective troubleshooting efforts begin.

Key opinions

• Microsoft-side issue: Experts confirm that the significant drop in inbox rates at Outlook, Hotmail, and Live starting around March 10, 2023, is an issue on Microsoft's side globally and is under investigation.
• Aggressive filters: It is widely believed that Microsoft has made a change, resulting in more aggressive filters. These filters are now more capable of targeting certain types of mail that previously might have gone undetected.
• Sloppy sending caught: Senders experiencing these drops might not have been as 'squeaky clean' as they believed. The new filters are designed to catch sloppy sending practices or content that now meets the spam decision threshold.
• User feedback matters: Microsoft has mechanisms to solicit user feedback on email filtering (e.g., 'Is this mail good?' or 'Is this mail spam?'). This feedback can influence whether aggressive filters are maintained or rolled back.
• Freemium model impact: Some experts observe that clients without a freemium model seem less affected, suggesting that the problem might be more prevalent among senders whose business models attract higher volumes of potentially lower-quality traffic. This can also relate to Microsoft email engagement.

Key considerations

• Utilize SNDS: Sign up for Microsoft's Smart Network Data Services (SNDS) to gain direct insights into your IP status and identify any reputation issues that Microsoft is tracking.
• File and escalate tickets: If experiencing significant issues, file a ticket with Microsoft support and diligently follow up, requesting escalation until a resolution is achieved. This proactive approach is currently the most recommended remedy.
• Analyze content changes: Review your email content and sending practices in light of potentially more aggressive filters. Ensure your mail is not inadvertently triggering spam flags due to formatting, links, or specific keywords. This relates to why your emails fail.
• Observe filter rollbacks: Monitor whether Microsoft dials back the aggressiveness of its filters, which can happen if they receive substantial negative feedback from users about desired mail being blocked. This can also indicate changes to bulk email restrictions.

Key findings

• Evolving open rate reliability: Documentation from Microsoft and other industry sources indicates that email open rates are becoming less accurate over time due to privacy changes and modern email client behaviors, making them an unreliable metric for email performance.
• New bulk email restrictions: Microsoft, alongside Google and Yahoo, has implemented new restrictions for bulk email senders (typically those sending 5,000 emails or more per day). These apply specifically to Outlook.com domains, including Hotmail.com and Live.com.
• Focus on engagement: The industry trend is shifting focus beyond open rates to more meaningful engagement metrics like click-through rates (CTR) and click-to-open rates (CTOR), which offer a clearer picture of subscriber interaction.
• Security and spam prevention: Recent updates from major mailbox providers are strengthening security and spam-prevention policies, which can result in more aggressive filtering for senders who do not fully comply with new standards.

Key considerations

• Comply with new rules: Bulk senders must adhere to Microsoft’s new requirements, which typically include strong email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), low spam complaint rates, and easy unsubscription mechanisms.
• Adapt email metrics: Marketers should adapt their reporting to rely less on open rates and more on actionable metrics that reflect true engagement, such as clicks and conversions, in response to the changing privacy landscape.
• Review technical setup: Ensure your email sending infrastructure and authentication records (like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC) are correctly configured and aligned with Microsoft's increasingly stringent requirements to prevent deliverability issues.
• Proactive engagement management: Prioritize sending to highly engaged subscribers and regularly clean your email lists to remove inactive users. High engagement signals to ISPs that your mail is wanted, which can help navigate stricter filters. This can reduce email deliverability issues.