Best Prac+ce Guide
Personal Whitelis.ng:
How Subscribers Can Contribute to Deliverability
GET MORE INFO
rpinfo@returnpath.net Deliverability of permission‐based email has been significantly improved by
sender accredita+on programs and monitoring of sender reputa+on. But there’s
1‐866‐362‐4577
one poten+al partner in deliverability who is oQen neglected: the subscriber.
Your customers have a significant impact on whether your email gets delivered.
If they complain about your email, you can be blocked by ISPs. (You can prevent
that by sending only expected messages to those who have given you permis‐
sion). But subscribers can also have a posi+ve impact on your delivery rates.
They hold the ul+mate key to delivery approval: including you in their email
address book.
People who have opted‐in to receive your mailings can take an ac+ve role in
assuring that they get them, simply by adding your sending address to their ad‐
dress books. By doing this, email recipients in effect create their own personal
whitelist of companies and publishers they want to hear from.
There are two ways that inclusion in a subscriber’s address book can affect your
email performance:
1) Many ISPs will allow commercial email to be delivered to the inbox without
spam filtering or blocks if the sender’s address is listed in the subscriber’s ad‐
dress book.
2) With the latest versions of AOL, MSN, and other email readers, HTML im‐
ages and links in your emails will only work correctly when the email is sent to
someone who has either replied to you previously, or has included you in their
address book.
For more informa+on please call 1‐866‐362‐4577 or email rpinfo@returnpath.net. © 2008 Return Path, Inc. www.returnpath.net | v090908

Personal Whitelis+ng: How Subscribers Can Contribute to Deliverability
Case Study
Here’s how you can establish yourself in your customers’ address books, boost your
email deliverability and improve your campaign ROI.
Gecng Into the Address Book
Not many people list their favorite retailer, bank or airline among their address book contacts. To get into customer ad‐
dress books, you need to educate your consumers so they understand that their address book plays an important role not
only in what they send but in the email they receive.
The best way to educate subscribers and get consumers so they
will add you to their address book is to use repe++on: every
chance you get, tell them how they can help receive your email.
Take these seven steps to encourage whitelis+ng:
Don’t waste effort:
Use the correct “From” address
1. Promote whitelis.ng at sign‐up. Reach subscribers as
soon as they’ve registered to receive your email. Use
your email confirma+on and thank you pages to ask Gecng into subscribers address book
subscribers to add you to their address book. Explain means nothing if you do not use a con‐
why they should and provide a link to a page with more
sistent “From” address to send your per‐
informa+on. Sample copy might read:
mission‐based emails.
“Thank you for signing up to receive our email For example, if the user adds “email@
newsleger. To make sure that your email provider
bank.net” and then you start using
delivers our newsleger to your inbox, please add our
sender informa+on to your email address book. For “news@bank.net,” your efforts to help
instruc+ons on how to do this, please click here.” delivery have been voided.
While some ISPS may focus solely on the
A free tool called CleanMyMailbox (hgp://www.
cleanmymailbox.com/whitelist.html) automa+cally domain name in determining whether
generates instruc+ons by mail reader that you can put an email address is listed, this is not nec‐
on your website. essarily the case for all email providers.
2. Include whitelis.ng instruc.ons in the welcome Best prac+ces have changed; it used to
message you send to new subscribers. This can be a
be best to use a different address for
simple call to ac+on to whitelist which then links back
to the page on your site with specific instruc+ons.
each mailing. New spam filtering tech‐
nologies and rule sets have changed that
3. Include a request in all of your outbound email
reality.
communica.ons. All outbound emails should include
copy reques+ng that users add your email “From” We recommend using one consistent
address to their address book. Hopefully, they will do “From” address for all email communi‐
this when they receive your first email, but in case they
ca+ons.
don’t, all emails should prompt them to do so with a
footer at the bogom of your emails. Sample footer
copy might include:
For more informa+on please call 1‐866‐362‐4577 or email rpinfo@returnpath.net.
© 2008 Return Path, Inc. www.returnpath.net | v090908
Page 2 of 3

Personal Whitelis+ng: How Subscribers Can Contribute to Deliverability
Case Study
“To make sure you receive this email you requested, please add our informa+on to your online address book. This
will minimize the chance that your email provider will inadvertently block our emails to you. For instruc+ons on
how to do this; please visit our email preference center.”
4. Add whitelis.ng instruc.ons to the text link you include at the top of your HTML emails. Including a link to the
web version of your email is important if the recipient’s email reader does not allow graphics, either for all emails
or select ones. This link can easily promote address book inclusion, too. The copy should read something like,
“Make sure you always get these emails by adding our company to your address book. Learn how now. If you
cannot view this email message, see it on the web.”
5. Send a one‐.me email to exis.ng list members, similar to the welcome message, that encourages them to
whitelist you and includes instruc+ons. It’s a good idea to repeat this exercise for your full list once or twice a
year.
6. Add instruc.ons to your site FAQs. Customers might come to your FAQ sec+on to determine why they have not
received an expected email. This is a good place to inform them of the ISP blocking issue and include instruc+ons
on address book inclusion. Similarly, your customer support team should have informa+on on how to walk
customers through the process of adding your domain to their address books.
7. Ask AOL customers to reply to one of your messages. If a recipient on AOL 9.0 replies to your message, you are
automa+cally added to the whitelist for graphics and links. This does not guarantee delivery, however. For that
the user must proac+vely add you to the address book.
Personal whitelis+ng does not guarantee deliverability. If your IP address is on the ISP’s blacklist, or if your email scores
high on the filters’ spam scale, your email will be blocked, no mager how many address books you’re in. Maintaining good
prac+ces around reputa+on and deliverability monitoring is crucial to keeping your inbox placement high.
Bogom line: your email rela+onship with your customers is heavily dependent on whether they welcome you into their
address books. By focusing on your customers’ role in email delivery, you increase your chances for having sa+sfied cus‐
tomers, higher delivery rates and beger response rates.
Would you like help increasing your email delivery rates? Find out how Return Path can
improve your email performance. Email rpinfo@returnpath.net or call 866‐362‐4577 for more
informa.on.
For more informa+on please call 1‐866‐362‐4577 or email rpinfo@returnpath.net.
© 2008 Return Path, Inc. www.returnpath.net | v090908
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