Sending Recruiting Emails with Microsoft in 2025

Recruiters often need to send emails to many people when sharing job opportunities, collecting updated candidate information, or reaching out to potential clients. However, using Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft 365 to send a large volume of emails can present real challenges. Let’s talk about the limitations and best practices for safely and effectively sending recruiting mail with a Microsoft account.

Understanding Microsoft’s Limits

The most important restriction to understand are Microsoft’s limits on the quantity of emails that you can send with Exchange and Microsoft 365. Here are the key limits recruiters should know about:

As of January 2025, only 2000 external recipients per 24-hour period can be emailed from an Exchange Online account.

techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/exchange/exchange-online-to-introduce-external-recipient-rate-limit/4114733

Recipient Limit

The maximum number of individual email recipients you can send to in a 24-hour period. This limit is currently 10,000 recipients total, but only 2,000 of those recipients can be outside of your own domain. This is a new change taking effect as of in January 2025.

The maximum number of recipients allowed allowed in the To:, Cc:, and Bcc: fields for a single email message. This is customizable up to 1,000 recipients.

Rate Limit

This determines how many messages a user can send within a given time frame. This limit is currently 30 messages per minute.

Exceeding these limits can lead to your account being temporarily blocked from sending emails. Microsoft may even prevent your company from setting up additional accounts, domains, or subdomains in an effort to skirt these limits.

If you are using PCR’s Sequencing with Microsoft 365, you may want to rate limit your emails to 10 per hour.

Best Practices for Recruiting Email Delivery

When sending emails, particularly in bulk, it’s crucial to ensure they don’t get flagged as spam. We’ve covered bulk email sending guidelines in depth before, but here are some best practices to follow:

• Maintain a clean email list: Regularly clean your email lists to remove invalid email addresses and those that have bounced. High bounce rates can damage your sender reputation and increase the likelihood of your emails being blocked. If you’re using PCR’s email campaigns, most incoming bounces will be automatically blocked from future mails.
• Use a dedicated subdomain for bulk emails: Avoid using your primary email domain for bulk emails. Instead, consider setting up a subdomain specifically for mass mailings (e.g., jobs.yourcompany.com or news.yourcompany.com). This can help protect your primary domain’s reputation and allows for better management of your email streams. With PCR’s email aliases, you can select from multiple outgoing addresses when sending.
• Authenticate your domain: Email authentication protocols such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for your domain are imperative. These protocols help verify the authenticity of your emails and reduce the chances of them being marked as spam.
• Personalize your emails: Generic cold emails are more likely to be flagged as spam. Try to personalize your messages whenever possible, even if it’s just a simple greeting or reference to the recipient’s role. Use the Insert Fields on your PCR Form Letters to add details from the Name or Company.
• Craft compelling subject lines: Avoid using spammy words or phrases in your subject lines and stick to clear, concise, and relevant subject lines that accurately reflect the email’s content.
• Provide an unsubscribe option: Make it easy for recipients to unsubscribe from your emails! It’s always better to lose a contact than to be marked as spam. Remember that Microsoft also owns Outlook.com, Yahoo, and AOL, so if you’re being marked as spam by users on those services Microsoft will count that against you. If you’re using PCR’s email campaigns, the Unsubscribe header will automatically be added, but you should also insert it into the footer of the email with your contact information.

Build a Strong Reputation

Email warm-up is essential for new email accounts, new domains, new IPs, or those that have been inactive for a long time. It involves gradually increasing your email sending volume to establish a positive reputation with email providers, who may see a sudden burst of mail from a new source as suspicious.

It’s also worth noting that, if you are using Microsoft’s servers rather than a dedicated bulk mail system, any changes from the normal sending patterns for your domain or users could throw up “anomalous sending pattern” flags and lead Microsoft to scrutinize your domain.

Start slow.

Send a small number of emails each day, gradually increasing your volume over several weeks. High-volume mail services often include ‘warm up’ settings that gradually ramp your quantities for you. Warm up your account by sending actual content to actual recipients; services that artificially warm up your use of a new domain or IP by sending mail with recipients, contents or patterns different than you plan to use after you reach target volumes can have a negative effect.

Send to engaged recipients first.

Focus on sending emails to people who are likely to open and interact with your messages. This can include colleagues, friends, or family members. After those with a history of engaging with your content have been sent to, gradually ramp up with the less engaged.

Encourage engagement.

Ask recipients to reply to your emails, mark them as important, or add your email address to their contact list. Positive interactions help build your sender reputation.

A proper warm-up process can take 8-12 weeks to reach maximum deliverability potential, however, ongoing engagement and monitoring are crucial for maintaining a good sender reputation.

Bulk Mail: The Right Tool for the Job

Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft 365 are fantastic for everyday email communication, but they are not designed for high-volume sending and are getting ever more more aggressive about preventing abuse. For recruiters who regularly send large volumes of emails, a dedicated bulk email service like Twilio SendGrid or Mailgun is a more appropriate solution. These services offer:

• Higher sending limits: Bulk email services are designed to handle large volumes of emails, allowing you to reach a wider audience without running into caps.
• Advanced deliverability features: These services employ sophisticated deliverability tools and techniques to maximize inbox placement and avoid spam filters.
• Detailed analytics and reporting: In addition to the recruitment email analytics in PCR, bulk email services provide additional tools for performance and data-driven decision-making.

Sending emails from Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft 365 can be safe and effective if recruiters understand the limitations and follow best practices. However, for large-scale email campaigns, dedicated bulk email services offer a more robust and reliable solution. Choosing the right approach ensures that your emails reach their intended recipients and help you achieve your recruiting goals.