Email Reputation Can be More Important than Being on an Email Whitelist

Many of our customers come to us concerned about one thing above all else: getting on an email whitelist. However having a good email reputation is actually much more important. But lots of people still talk about trying to get whitelisted, and they are looking for information about how to get on an email whitelist. And indeed, getting whitelisted used to be the holy grail of email deliverability.

Did you catch that?

Used to be.

Why Email Reputation Trumps Just Being on a Whitelist

Here’s the thing: Getting on a whitelist and getting your email delivered to the inbox today is no guarantee that it will be delivered to the inbox tomorrow. Senders remain on a whitelist at the receiver’s leisure. And if you tick them off, such as by taking advantage of being whitelisted, or even just getting sloppy, or hey, because of the alignment of the planets or their toast this morning was burnt, you’ll find yourself off the whitelist faster than you can say “But I’m CAN-SPAM compliant!”

And, getting back on a whitelist once you’ve been kicked off is far harder than getting whitelisted in the first place.

On the other hand, if your email reputation is good (and especially if it’s excellent) your email will most usually go right into the inbox, even if you aren’t whitelisted.

In fact, the big picture of your full email reputation profile (which includes your general email reputation, and your domain and IP address reputation) is primarily on what most inbox providers will decide whether your email is inbox-worthy or should get dumped into the spam folder.

And that, of course, is where we come in. Because with our Get to the Inbox by SuretyMail deliverability services, and being on our Good Senders List (GSL), you’ll have a great email reputation. In truth, the Good Sender List is one of the closest things to a universal email whitelist that there is.

Plus we work directly with you and advocate for you with the ISPs and spam filters to build and manage your email reputation, and to get you delivered to the inbox because your email deserves to be delivered to the inbox. Not because you are on some whitelist from which you could be dropped at any time.

And if your email reputation needs rehabilitation we won’t just take your money and hope that you don’t notice that you’re still being junk-foldered. We’ll work side-by-side with you, fixing what needs to be fixed in order to build that good reputation for you.

Now, does this mean that you shouldn’t bother with getting whitelisted at all? Hey, if the whitelist is there, and you qualify, by all means, apply for it. But it’s no panacea, and, most importantly, it’s no guarantee of delivery.

So the next time someone tries to impress you with the fact that they are whitelisted, ask them the questions that really count: How is your email reputation? And how is your delivery to the inbox?