Microsoft 365 Mailer is one of the best service providers for email exchange. Microsoft 365 offers microsoft Exchange-based hosted emails. it has features like push email and widespread compatibility. Email marketers can integrate WordPress with Microsoft 365 to ensure better email delivery, regardless of how many they send.
Read this blog to learn how to connect and send WordPress emails with microsoft 365.
What is a Microsoft 365 mailer?
Microsoft 365 Mail provides you an email address, an inbox service, and a tool to improve your email delivery. You are not required to log into your WordPress admin area, as they do this through an API. Microsoft offers free service to everyone. It can send up to 1,000 emails per minute, much higher than the limits on most other mailers.
Why should you send WordPress emails with Microsoft 365?
WordPress is a content management system, not an email service provider. So sending emails is not its main functionality. This is the main reason why WordPress users face a lower email delivery system. The process of sending emails via WordPress is as:
- WordPress plugins use the PHP-based `wp_mail()` function for email transmission by default.
- WordPress passes your email request on to your provider’s server using PHP mail().
- PHP commands your server’s email router and your hosting provider’s mail server to deliver emails.
- The problem is that most hosting providers don’t have sufficient infrastructure to support email.
- Most hosting servers block PHP emails by default.
- Therefore, you should avoid sending emails using WordPress’s default mail function.
- The easiest solution to this problem is to install the Post SMTP plugin.
- The Post SMTP plugin lets you route your emails through the SMTP server of your choice.
If you want to send WordPress emails using your preferred email services, like Microsoft Office 365, Gmail, Amazon SES, Brevo, PostMark, or MailGSparkPost —you can use the Post SMTP plugin. SMTP is the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, the global standard for email transmission over the Internet.
The Post SMTP plugin is a very easy-to-use and reliable SMTP WordPress plugin for improving WordPress email deliverability.
Prerequisites for Configuring Microsoft Office 365 for WordPress Emails
The Microsoft 365 setup process is more complex than other mailer options. There are some requirements before setting up Microsoft 365 as your mailer service.
- Your site is required to have SSL (HTTPS) enabled.
- While Microsoft 365 setup does not require any paid Microsoft services, they will require your credit card details to reduce spam signups.
- A Microsoft 365 account with admin privileges is needed to grant your application SMTP access. The global administrator needs to configure the admin consent workflow to set up this mailer without admin privileges.
How to configure WordPress to send emails using Microsoft 365
- Create a microsoft account
If you don’t have a Microsoft account, first create one. This account, which you are going to use, sends your site emails. You can use the paid or free version of Microsoft, you can use both for WordPress emails.
- Install the SMTP Plugin on Your WordPress Site
Install and activate the SMTP plugin on the WordPress site where you want to use Microsoft 365 for emails. This is because you’ll need to copy a value from the plugin’s settings when you’re setting up your app in Microsoft Azure. Once you activate the plugin, you need to locate the redirect URI for Outlook/Microsoft 365, as you’ll need this piece of information when setting up your Azure app in the next step.
- Create Your Web App in Microsoft Azure Portal
Open Azure Portal
You can use your existing Microsoft account in Azure; there’s no need to create a separate account just for Azure.
Create a New App Registration
Now, you’ll create your app registration for your email-sending application.
To open the relevant dashboard, search for “App registrations” in the search box on the top menu bar. Then, select the app registration result in the live search suggestions.
- Connect SMTP to Your Azure App
You should now have created your app in Azure and safely stored the following two pieces of information: the client ID, which you obtained from your app’s Overview page in Azure, and the value of the client secret, which you obtained from the Certificates & Secrets section of your app’s Azure dashboard. Now, you’ll use these two pieces of information to connect SMTP to your app and enable email sending:
- Open your WordPress dashboard.
- Go to SMTP → Settings.
- Select the Integrations tab.
- Click the gear icon next to Microsoft 365 / Outlook to open its settings.
- Enable Microsoft 365 / Outlook As Your Site’s Default Sending Service
- Send a test email
- Monitor Your Site’s Emails Going Forward
- Enable microsoft 365 as your Site’s Default Sending Service
Now, your site is connected to Microsoft 365, but it’s not your active email-sending service yet. To enable it as your site’s primary email-sending service, you need to toggle the integration tab of SMTP. Once you enable the toggle, you should see the text change from “Configured” to “Connected.”. You should also see a “Primary” label next to the Microsoft logo.
- Send a test email
To make sure that it’s working properly, SMTP includes a feature that lets you send a test email to any email address.
- Monitor Your Site’s Emails Going Forward
To help you monitor your site’s emails, Gravity SMTP also includes a built-in logging feature that lets you track the content and technical information of every email that your site sends.
It can be a good idea to check the log periodically, as you’ll be able to quickly catch any issues with your site’s emails, such as emails that have failed to send.
You can view the log by going to SMTP → Email Log.
Microsoft 365 service with lease packet
Get your work done whenever and wherever you like. With the Lease Packet, Microsoft 365 is available 24/7. Benefits of microsoft 365 –
Remote Accessibility
With the tools and apps provided by Microsoft 365, your team will be able to interact productively no matter where they are located—at the office, at home, or on the move.
Seamless Integration
The Office platform allows for the editing and reading of any document, even those that were created offline. The system makes it easy to share and amend documents, and it also helps retain a record of the work that has been completed.
Higher Productivity
The Microsoft Office 365 suite was developed specifically for use in day-to-day activities. The suite includes approved tools that make it easier for a team to streamline operations and keep tabs on those same operations. This not only boosts production but also reduces costs.
Conclusion
As we previously discussed, not every WordPress website will benefit from using Microsoft to send its emails. We advise utilizing a specialized email-sending provider like Lease Packet if your email-sending requirements are mission-critical and/or high volume. But if you’re sending emails to yourself or aren’t sending them to many other people, Microsoft can be a fantastic free alternative with above-average daily sending limits.