With the ever-increasing volume of spam and the growing sophistication of spam filters, ensuring that your marketing emails actually reach the recipients can be a difficult task. Even email campaigns from reputable companies get sent to the spam folder. So, how can you avoid sending your emails to someone who won’t receive it? This is where email whitelisting comes in.
Email whitelisting refers to the process of adding trusted email senders to a recipient’s approved list, allowing their emails to bypass spam filters and land directly in the recipient’s inbox. By being whitelisted, your marketing emails have a higher chance of being seen and engaged with by your target audience. This ensures improved deliverability and customer engagement.
There are several benefits to making sure that your email address gets whitelisted, such as:
- Increased Deliverability: Being whitelisted helps your emails bypass spam filters, significantly increasing the likelihood of reaching your subscribers’ inboxes rather than being sent to spam folders.
- Improved Open Rates: With a higher deliverability rate, whitelisted emails have a greater chance of being seen by recipients, leading to improved open rates.
- Enhanced Brand Reputation: Being whitelisted signifies trustworthiness and authenticity to both recipients and Internet Service Providers (ISPs), because you build a positive brand reputation and foster trust with your audience.
- Better Customer Engagement: Email whitelisting ensures that your messages consistently reach your audience, enabling you to nurture these relationships and encourage meaningful interactions.
Methods of Email Whitelisting
There are two different ways for an email address to get whitelisted:
Manual Whitelisting
Recipients can manually add email addresses or domains to their trusted senders list or address book. This method gives recipients full control over which senders they trust. As an email marketer, you should encourage your subscribers to add your email address to their whitelist to ensure better, more consistent communication.
Automated Whitelisting
ISPs and email providers often employ automated whitelisting based on predetermined criteria. These criteria typically include recipient interaction (such as opens and clicks), low complaint rates, and sender authentication. As an email marketer, adhering to email marketing guidelines and implementing authentication protocols can increase the likelihood of automated whitelisting.
How to Ask Your Recipients to Whitelist Your Email Address
When requesting recipients to whitelist your email address, it’s important to approach them in a clear and concise manner, highlighting the benefits they will receive by doing so. Here’s a suggested approach:
- Craft a compelling subject line: Start by grabbing the recipient’s attention with a subject line that conveys the purpose and value of the email. For example, “Ensure You Never Miss Our Important Updates: Whitelist Our Email Address”.
- Explain the benefits: Clearly explain the advantages of whitelisting your email address, such as ensuring they receive important updates, exclusive offers, or valuable content directly to their inbox.
- Provide whitelisting instructions: Provide step-by-step instructions on how to whitelist your email address. Keep the instructions simple and easy to follow, using clear language and any relevant screenshots if necessary.
- Assure privacy and relevance: Reiterate that their privacy is important and reassure them that you will continue to send relevant and valuable content that aligns with their interests.
- Include a call to action: Encourage the recipient to take immediate action by whitelisting your email address. You can use phrases such as “Please take a moment to whitelist our email address” or “We would appreciate it if you could add our email address to your contacts or whitelist”.
- Provide support and contact information: Offer assistance by providing contact information or a support email address, where recipients can reach out if they encounter any issues or have questions about the whitelisting process.
You can also use a more subtle approach than sending an entire email asking the recipient to whitelist you. On the footer of the first email they get after they opt-in to receiving emails from you, include a call to action that encourages the recipient to whitelist you.
Best Practices for Email Whitelisting in Marketing
Here are the best practices to keep in mind:
- Obtain Explicit Consent: Ensure that you have obtained permission from recipients before sending marketing emails to comply with anti-spam regulations. Implement double opt-in processes to confirm subscribers’ intent and interest.
- Follow Email Marketing Guidelines: Adhere to industry practices, such as including an unsubscribe link, using a recognizable sender name, and providing valuable, relevant content to your subscribers. Delivering what you promise consistently builds trust and encourages recipients to whitelist your emails.
- Authenticate Your Emails: Implement authentication protocols like SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) to validate the authenticity of your emails. This ensures that your emails are less likely to be flagged as suspicious by ISP spam filters.
- Monitor Feedback Loops: Regularly monitor complaint rates and feedback from recipients. Promptly address any issues or concerns raised by your subscribers to maintain a positive sender reputation.
- Engage Subscribers Regularly: Consistently provide valuable and engaging content to keep your subscribers active and interested. This helps reduce the chances of your emails being marked as spam and encourages recipients to whitelist your messages.
- Test and Optimize: Continuously monitor email deliverability metrics and experiment with different strategies to improve your email performance and avoid being flagged by spam filters. Conduct A/B testing, analyze engagement data, and refine your email marketing approach accordingly.
