Email Whitelisting

Prospects and Customers Are Not Receiving Your Mail...

I've had several occasions where someone swears they've sent and email and though I searched high and low, through folders and spam, I couldn't find it.

Were they lying to me?

The truth is, probably not.

What is likely happening is that your email provider is deciding that your incoming emails are spam, and they are deleting them before you even see them.

Here's why it happens...

According to Talos Intelligence, the average daily spam volume for October 2021 was 94.02 BILLION emails. Per DAY.

So it's understandable why some legitimate emails get mis-filed into the sin bin.

Fortunately, there are things you can do to "whitelist" specific people or businesses so their mail arrives at your inbox.

What is "Whitelisting"?

"Whitelisting" is a process of telling your mail service provider that they are not to block emails from specific senders - EVER.

It's a fairly simple process but each email provider has a different procedure. We've listed the intructions for the most common ones as of Nov 5, 2021

Email Service Provider Whitelisting Instructions

Gmail – Whitelist instructions

Click on the Settings cog in the top-right corner and go to “Mail settings”.

Select the “Filters” tab.

Click on “Create a new filter”.

In the “From” field, add the e-mail addresses or names of people or companies you never want to land in your spam folder, wring the word “OR” in capitals between each address/name.

Click on “Next Step” when you have finished entering the information.

Check the box next to “Never send it to spam” and then click “Create Filter”.

Whitelists can include:

A specific e-mail address, like “name@thebusinescatalyst.com”.
An entire domain name like “@thebusinesscatalyst.co.uk”.
A contact’s name, like “Lisa Catto”.
A nickname used by your contact, like “BizCat”.

Apple Mail – Whitelist instructions

Apple Mail doesn’t have the option to whitelist like some other email providers do. Instead, all you can do is mark something as “Not Junk” and it will be sent to your inbox. Here’s how:

Open your Mail app and go to the Mailboxes screen.
Select the Junk folder.
Find the email you want to whitelist and swipe left to see options.
Tap the More button.
Tap the Mark button.
Tap the Mark as Not Junk button.

Outlook – Whitelist instructions

Sign into your Outlook.com account from a computer
Select the Settings icon (gear icon) at the top-right corner
Select “View” all Outlook settings
Select “Mail”
Select “Junk email”
Under the “Safe senders” and “Domains Header,” select “Add”.
Enter the “Sender Email Address” then press the “Enter” key on your keyboard
Select the “Save” that appears in the bottom-right corner
Messages sent from that safe email address will now end up in your inbox.

Outlook Mobile – Whitelist instructions

On Outlook mobile, you can add senders to your focused inbox to ensure delivery of their emails. Here’s how:

Open the email you want to whitelist.
Tap the three dots in the top right of the screen (not the dots inside the email).
Tap Move to Focused Inbox.
In the popup box, tap the radius button for “Move this and all future messages” then tap MOVE TO FOLDER.

Yahoo – Whitelist instructions

Tap the hamburger menu (three stacked lines) in the top left.
Tap Settings and scroll down to Filters.
Select the email account you want to add a filter for.
Tap the + icon to add a new filter.
Name it anything you want (such as “Whitelist”), then either:
Add the exact email you want to whitelist OR;
Add the @domain.com you want to whitelist to get deliveries from every email at that domain.
Click the ✓ icon in the top right to save the filter.