My outgoing emails keep going to spam in other people's inboxes

Question

Hi,

I've been having issues with this for a while. For some people, I only have their email address to communicate with them. I recently lost my uni email (graduated) so this is my new email to communicate with people. Even if my messages are simple, they go to spam in other people's inboxes. I tested it with my own gmail account and my email to that account went straight to spam even though it was a one line message with no images or links. I'm worried that when I need to contact people for references, my emails will go straight to spam. How do I stop this happening?

This is a personal Outlook account by the way, not an account for business, but the info I've found online so far has just been for Outlook business accounts.

Answer 1

@Khadijah Hafeji said

I'm worried that when I need to contact people for references, my emails [from a new Outlook.com address] will go straight to spam. How do I stop this happening? This is a personal Outlook account

This is pretty normal for a brand new Personal Outlook.com account. I have had the same problem.

Spammers send a huge number of emails from outlook.com addresses (by creating new accounts by the dozens or using a hacked account). So most email hosting services (e.g. Google) never trust an outlook.com address that they have never seen before.

About all you can do:

Ask your recipient to add your email address to their Safe senders list. See how in Outlook and Outlook.com. For GMail, when you email is in their Spam folder, they just click [Not Spam]

Don’t send emails to people who will probably never read them and might mark them as Spam.

Answer 2

For a personal Outlook.com account, if recipients’ mail systems are treating mail from Outlook.com as junk, that usually can’t be fixed from the sender side alone. One accepted Microsoft Q&A answer states that if the recipient's mail filter is treating mail from Outlook.com as junk mail, only the recipient can fix it.

What can be done:

1. Ask recipients to check their Junk Email folder.
2. Ask them to mark the message as Not spam.
3. Ask them to add the address to their Safe senders list in Outlook:
   • Settings
   • Mail > Junk email
   • Under Safe senders and domains, select Add safe sender
   • Enter the email address or domain
   • Select OK, then Save

Why this can happen:

• Messages can be flagged as spam because of sender reputation.
• Messages can also be flagged because of message content triggers, although a simple one-line message makes content less likely in this case.
• For custom domains, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC matter, but that guidance applies to custom-domain sending rather than a standard personal Outlook.com address.

If the issue is specifically with Outlook.com recipients, Microsoft provides a sender support troubleshooting path for deliverability issues related to Outlook.com addresses.

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• how to assure my outgoing emails are delivered (not sent to spam) - Microsoft Q&A
• Filter junk email and spam in Outlook
• Frequently asked questions - Anti-spam protection
• Sender Support in Outlook.com