Definition:
A whitelist, in email marketing terms, refers to all those emails, IP addresses and domains that you consider acceptable to send mail to your domain, asopposed to a blacklist, which blocks the receipt of emails.
All emails from addresses on a whitelist will be marked as sending from safe senders and therefore should not appear in the spam folder. Let’s remember that spam is unwanted bulk email. That is, an email that is sent to a multitude of people without prior approval, with the aim of promoting a product, service or even a particular scam. (Find out in our digital glossary where this term comes from.)
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What are white lists for?
A Whitelist is a way of having a set of recipients to whom you can send emails with which you can inform them of promotions, products or simply provide content of interest. It is essential for those companies that want to develop effective email marketing campaigns, mainly to avoid blocking or banning of the target server. It also favors brand image and attraction marketing. Whitelisting helps companies to get closer to their consumers and their tastes and interests. In this way, companies will be able to assess what they are most interested in and can offer to consumers. This generates stronger ties between the two parties and thus greater loyalty.
How to be whitelisted
In the email marketing strategy it is essential that all the communications of a company are included in the white list of its customers. Otherwise, your campaigns will not get the desired results. To ensure that the messages of a company do not go directly to the spam folder, you have to have a series of considerations:
- The first, and most important, is to have previously obtained the users’ permission to receive the newsletters. This, in addition to being recommended, is currently a legal requirement to comply with the regulations.
- Facilitate the process of unsicing or modifying data. Like the previous point, it is required by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
- Segment the contact list and personalize emails (for example, with your name). If a user repeatedly receives content that they don’t find interesting, they will end up sending the sender to the blacklist.
- Send clear and valuable information to the receiver.
- Do not bombard users with repeated messages. In most email marketing strategies, one newsletter a week is enough.
Blacklist Vs Whitelist
Unlike whitelists, blacklists are places where it is not desirable for the company’s advertising to appear. They are lists that may have been inherited from one campaign to another because each new campaign may detect pages that are disliked for offering fraudulent or inappropriate content.
Despite this, the blacklist is not always negative and can be an ally to optimize campaigns. It may happen that there are media that do not work at all well for the objectives that the company has set itself and prefers to leave them on the blacklist so as not to appear on them.
Frequently asked questions about WhiteList
What does WhiteList mean in digital marketing?
WhiteList refers to the concept described in this glossary entry: Definition: A whitelist , in email marketing terms, refers to all those emails, IP addresses and domains that you consider acceptable to send mail to your domain, as opposed to a blacklist, which blocks the receipt of emails. All emails from addresses on a whitelist will be marked as sending from safe senders and therefore should not appear in the spam folder. It gives teams a shared vocabulary for analysing digital projects.
When should teams pay attention to WhiteList?
Teams should review WhiteList when it affects acquisition, measurement, user experience, content, automation or campaign performance. The important step is to connect the definition with a real decision.
How is WhiteList used in a digital strategy?
WhiteList is used by translating the concept into practical checks: where it appears in the funnel, which data or channel is involved and whether it needs optimisation, monitoring or documentation.
What is a common mistake when interpreting WhiteList?
A common mistake is using WhiteList too broadly. It is better to verify the context, the tool or the metric involved before making strategic or technical conclusions.