How do I get my emails whitelisted by a recipient's email admin?
Summary
What email marketers say10Marketer opinions
Email marketer from EmailVendorSelection advises that participating in feedback loops with major ISPs can help identify and address deliverability issues, potentially reducing the need for whitelisting.
Email marketer from Quora responds by saying it is important to maintain a consistent sending schedule and volume to establish a reliable sender reputation, which can reduce the need for whitelisting.
Email marketer from EmailOnAcid shares the need to maintain good list hygiene by regularly removing inactive or unengaged subscribers to improve sender reputation. This makes whitelisting less critical.
Email marketer from Wordstream explains that whitelisting improves email engagement, but a better approach is to focus on earning recipient trust through relevant content and consistent delivery.
Email marketer from MailerLite responds by explaining that asking subscribers to whitelist your email address is an effective way to bypass spam filters. Providing clear instructions on how to do so for different email providers can be helpful.
Email marketer from StackExchange emphasizes the importance of sending valuable and relevant content to build a positive sender reputation. If recipients find your emails useful, they are less likely to mark them as spam.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that whitelisting a specific email address without proper authentication can introduce a security flaw, because anyone using that address would be whitelisted. It is safer to only allow senders who are properly authenticated. Suggests an email admin should know this.
Email marketer from EmailGeek Forums states that a simple first step is ensuring the recipient adds your email address to their contact list. Many systems automatically trust emails from contacts.
Email marketer from Reddit suggests focusing on proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) as the best way to avoid spam filters in the first place. Whitelisting is a workaround, not a solution.
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign shares that one way to improve deliverability is to educate recipients to add your sending address to their address book. This tells the email client that the recipient wants to receive emails from you.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks explains it is better to whitelist mail from a particular sender (based on authentication) rather than an untrusted shared IP address.
Expert from Spam Resource, John Levine, explains that the focus should be on good sending practices and authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to ensure inbox placement. Relying on whitelisting is not a scalable or reliable solution.
Expert from Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, explains that to ensure deliverability it is important to use authentication, send wanted content and to build a great sender reputation. This avoids needing to be whitelisted
Expert from Email Geeks explains that if an employee requests mail from a business-relevant entity, the admin knows how to handle it, and the specifics are not important to the employee.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from Microsoft explains how users can add senders to their Safe Senders list in Outlook to ensure that emails from those senders are not treated as junk.
Documentation from Apple explains how to manage blocked senders in Mail on macOS, which can be used to ensure that specific senders are always allowed.
Documentation from DKIM explains the DKIM signatures and DomainKeys Identified Mail, which is crucial for email authentication and can influence whether emails are whitelisted or filtered.
Documentation from RFC explains the technical details of Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records, which are crucial for email authentication and can influence whether emails are whitelisted or filtered.
Documentation from Google shares how to create filters in Gmail to automatically mark emails from specific senders as 'Never send to spam'.