from passive filtering to active enforcement . Authentication protocols like SPF and DKIM are now the floor, not the ceiling. And best practices like regular list cleanup are about to become survival tactics for all senders who rely on inbox visibility.
If you send thousands of emails a day, your business depends on those messages arriving. That means you need more than a DNS record set up: you need a system to ensure that every address you send to is real, recent, and ready to receive.
What to Do Before May 5 (And Continue Doing After)
If you’re not yet in compliance with list hygiene, now is the time. Here’s a list of things to do to avoid being targeted by Outlook:
Check your authentication settings : SPF, DKIM and DMARC must be set correctly and ideally aligned with each other.
Clean your lists regularly : At a minimum, quarterly. Ideally, before each major send.
Monitor bounce and complaint rates : These are now difficult signals that influence deliverability.
Make it easy to unsubscribe : A buried or broken unsubscribe link is a death wish for deliverability.
Use a testing service like Bouncer : Find problems before your ESP or Microsoft does.
Final Thoughts: Compliance is Just the Beginning
Outlook’s new rules may seem like just industry email list another layer of red tape, but they’re a sign of something deeper: Email providers are watching everything . Not just whether your DNS records are correct, but whether you act like someone worth listening to.
Email marketing isn’t just
about reaching people. It’s about respecting their inbox. And there’s no faster way to show that respect than by verifying your list, weeding fax list out dead weight, and keeping your deliverability pristine.
Bouncer helps you do this, quietly, efficiently, and missing xml sitemap without the guesswork.
Because when Outlook draws a line in the sand, you don’t want your campaigns to be on the wrong side.