How to Whitelist an Email So You Never Miss a Message

Email campaigns give a direct line to your prospects, customers, and subscribers. That won’t matter if your emails keep landing in spam folders. Sometimes it’s not your fault.

Email service providers (ESPs) can have aggressive spam filtering and even flag legitimate emails. That’s when you ask subscribers to whitelist your email. 

Whitelisting isn’t a magic bullet that solves all your deliverability issues. If you’re on the receiving end, whitelisting domains can also lead to vulnerabilities. 

Before learning how to whitelist an email, consider several crucial factors. We’re here to tell you all about them. Let’s get started. 

What is an Email Whitelist?

An email whitelist lists all email addresses and domains that recipients tag as safe. It’s the complete opposite of email blacklists. When a domain is on a whitelist, all emails from that domain bypass spam filters and go directly to the primary inbox. 

Having your email address or domain on a whitelist ensures that prospects won’t mistake your emails as spam or harmful and that crucial messages won’t get lost. By being on a whitelist, you improve deliverability, reduce false positives, and increase open rates. 

Here’s the issue: Recipients have to add you to their whitelist. Cold email marketers will be affected. If you think about it, who would want to risk whitelisting a completely random sender? That’s why it’s essential to set up domain authentications to avoid landing in spam. 

Even if prospects opted-in to your newsletters, emails could still land in spam folders. You’d have to encourage recipients to whitelist your email address and domain.

Risks & Considerations

For people on the receiving end of the email, only add email addresses and domains to a whitelist if the sender already has all the proper domain authentications. This ensures that your email address won’t be susceptible to phishing scams, spam, or other harmful emails.

It’s better to understand why a domain or email account is blocked. If vendors or third-party companies request a whitelist, ensure they’re fully authenticated first. Vendors who set up their DMARC, SPF, and DKIM authentication often get out of spam even without whitelisting.

Remember, it’s all about protection. That goes both ways for senders and receivers. 

How to Whitelist an Email for the Major ESPs

The whitelisting process differs between ESPs. Here’s the step-by-step guide on how to whitelist an email for some of the most popular platforms: 

Gmail

Aside from whitelisting, recipients can ensure that your emails land in their primary inbox by applying a label or marking emails as necessary. For whitelisting, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Gmail account
2. Click on the gear icon in the top right corner and select "See all settings"
3. Navigate to the "Filters and Blocked Addresses" tab
4. Click on "Create a new filter"
5. Type the email address or domain you want to whitelist
6. Click on "Create filter"
7. Check the box that says, "Never send it to Spam"

Microsoft 365 (Outlook)

There are two slightly different ways of whitelisting email addresses and domains in Outlook. One is for the Outlook Website App (OWA), and the other is for the desktop version. 

Outlook Web App (OWA):

1. Click on the gear icon in the top right corner and select "View all Outlook settings"
2. Select "Junk email" from the left-hand menu
3. Safe Senders and Domains: Under the "Safe senders and domains" section, click "Add"
4. Type the email address or domain you want to whitelist and click "Enter"
5. Click "Save" at the bottom of the page

Outlook Desktop App:

1. Click on the "Home" tab, then click on "Junk" in the "Delete" group
2. Select "Junk E-mail Options"
3. Go to the "Safe Senders" tab
4. Click on the "Add" button
5. Enter the email address or domain and click "OK." then click save 

Apple Mail

Apple doesn’t have options for “whitelisting” email addresses. However, you can create “rules” for directly sending an email to your inbox from specific domains or addresses. Here’s how:

1. Launch the Mail app
2. Click on "Mail" in the top menu bar and select "Preferences"
3. Click on the "Rules" tab
4. Click on the "Add Rule" button
5. Give your rule a descriptive name (e.g., "Whitelist [email address]")
6. Set Conditions:
   1. In the first dropdown menu, select "From"
   2. In the second dropdown menu, select "contains"
   3. In the text field, enter the email address or domain you want to whitelist.
7. Set Actions:
   1. In the first dropdown menu, select "Move Message"
   2. In the second dropdown menu, select "Inbox"
   3. Click OK: Click "OK" to save the rule

Yahoo Mail

Like Apple, Yahoo doesn’t have traditional whitelisting. Instead, you can create filters to catch all “whitelisted” emails and send them directly to your primary inbox. To do so, follow these steps: 

1. Click on the gear icon in the top right corner and select "More Settings"
2. Click on "Filters" in the left-hand menu
3. Click on the "+ Add new filters" button
4. Give your filter a descriptive name (e.g., "Whitelist [email address]")
5. Choose the criteria for the filter (e.g., "From" "contains" "[email address]")
6. Set Actions:
   1. Select "Deliver to Inbox"
   2. You can choose actions like applying a label or starring the email
7. Click "Save" to activate the filter

AOL Mail

AOL also doesn’t have a traditional whitelist feature. You can use filters or add addresses to your contacts to ensure that email addresses land in your primary AOL inbox. 

Create a filter:

• Go to "Settings" > "More Settings" > "Filters"
• Click "Add new filters"
• Create a filter that looks for emails from the specific address or domain
• Set the action to "Deliver to Inbox"
• Save the filter
• Mark emails as "Not Spam" (if found in spam folder)

Adding sender to your contacts:

• Click on "Contacts" in the left-hand menu
• Click "Add Contact" and enter the email address you want to prioritize
• Save the contact

Troubleshooting Whitelist Issues

Even after whitelisting, emails could still end up in spam. It could be a sign of underlying issues or something that can be solved with a simple fix. If that happens, try these troubleshooting tips: 

• Check Spam Filters: Ensure other filters or rules aren't accidentally redirecting emails. This might be common for ESPs without whitelisting features, like Apple.
• Contact Support: If the issue persists, contact your email provider's support for assistance. They can help diagnose and resolve any technical problems.
• Sender Reputation: Remind senders to follow best practices to maintain a good sender reputation, which can influence deliverability.
• Alternative Solutions: If whitelisting proves ineffective, explore alternative solutions like adding the sender to your contacts or creating a filter to label their emails as important.

There are also cases where anti-spam filters block emails with attachments, messages, or links. That’s why cold email marketers prefer plain text emails over HTML. 

How to Get Whitelisted

It’s up to your recipients to add you to their whitelist. The manual effort required to set up a whitelist might even be enough of a deterrent. To improve your chances of getting whitelisted, here are some strategies to consider: 

Setup Proper Domain Authentications

Domain authentications, like DMARC, DKIM, and SPF, are industry standards. They provide safety mechanisms for all email users. If you plan on email marketing, especially cold email, these should be properly set up. 

Get a BIMI Authentication

BIMI offers an extra layer of authentication on top of the fundamentals like DMARC, DKIM, and SPF. Think of it as an email version of the verified check marks on social media platforms. 

BIMI lets you add custom logos when emails arrive in your recipients' inboxes. Once your domain is DMARC compliant, you can add a new DNS with a BIMI TXT record. 

When ESPs supporting BIMI check your DMARC and find the BIMI record, it’s a golden ticket to the primary inbox. But not every ESP has BIMI support just yet. 

Here’s a list of ESPs that already have BIMI support:

• Gmail: Available 
• Microsoft: No BIMI Support
• Apple Mail: Coming soon to Apple Mail on iOS 16
• Yahoo: Available
• Netscape: Available

Follow Email Marketing Best Practices

Always follow email marketing best practices like scaling sending volume with domains, warming up email accounts to improve deliverability, and lead segmentation. 

If you have a newsletter, ensure the recipients opt-in. That way, even if you ask subscribers to add you to their whitelist, there’s already a level of trust since they opted in themselves.

Ensure each email is verified when creating an email list, whether for a newsletter or cold email marketing. Sending unverified emails will negatively affect your deliverability.  

Whitelisting Vs. Other Email Deliverability Strategies

Whitelisting improves deliverability, but only if recipients take the time to add you to their list. Let’s be honest—not every recipient is going to do that. To improve deliverability, try the following: 

Maintain a Good Sender Reputation

Your sending reputation is like an email credit score. The more emails you send that get opened and replied to positively, the better your sender's reputation. 

Building a good sender reputation takes time. However, you can easily destroy it by running campaigns with unverified email lists.  

Write Engaging and Relevant Email Content

Your email copy must be engaging, relevant, and personalized to your recipients. This applies to all emails, whether cold emails, product recommendations, or newsletters. 

To ensure emails stay relevant, use lead management software to segment prospects. You can also streamline segmentation by using lead finders with advanced search filters. 

Ensuring List Hygiene

A massive email list could harm your sending reputation if the majority don’t open your email. Businesses with newsletters often experience this. 

Track analytics. Remove leads or subscribers who don’t engage with your emails. The more people don’t open or reply to your emails, the more hits your sender reputation gets.

How Instantly Boosts The Chances of Getting Whitelisted

Instantly knows what it takes to get the highest possible email deliverability rate for every campaign. That’s why we built tools and features to improve deliverability and boost the chances of having your domain and email addresses added to a whitelist. 

DFY Domain Authentications

Not all marketers are tech-savvy or have the time to set up domains. That’s why Instantly offers a DFY (done-for-you) email domain authentication setup. We’ll handle everything from buying primary and alternate domains to authentications and forwarding.

We finalize authentications and propagate the DNS records in 24 to 72 hours. To monitor the setup progress, go to the Emails tab on your dashboard.

Personalized, Automated Email Copy

You can use B2B Lead Finder to create a segmented email list that fits your ideal custom profiles, matches previous clients, or targets a specific demographic. 

Then, you can use AI prompts to enrich those lead lists with custom variables to create hyper-personalized emails. 

Before running a campaign, ensure that the email copy passes deliverability tests. You could do this with a single click with our deliverability score checker. 

Unlimited Email Warmups

Maintaining a good reputation means following email best practices. The best one for deliverability is warming up sending accounts, which you can automate with Instantly. 

You can add unlimited email accounts and warm up each one without extra costs. You can keep them warm for as long as you want to maintain a good sender reputation. 

Maintaining Email List Health

It’s essential to ensure subscribers have easy access to unsubscribe options. You can easily do this with List-Unsubscribe headers. 

These appear when recipients see your emails and unsubscribe them from your lists with one click. To add this to your emails:

• Head to the Campaign Options Tab
• Click on Advanced options
• Check the box that says, “Insert unsubscribe link header” 
• Save the changes

Key Takeaways

An email whitelist lets domains and addresses bypass even the most aggressive spam filters. But before adding an email to a whitelist, consider the following:

• Ensure that the email address has the proper domain authentication
• The email should be from a sender that you trust 
• Spam filters might be blocking attachments, not the email address

For senders, being added to a whitelist significantly improves deliverability. But the best way to ensure deliverability is following email marketing best practices. Instantly helps with just that.

Try Instantly today and use all the features to improve your sending reputation and email deliverability.