Whitelisting?

[ola]

Hi all,

My organization primarily sends emails to healthcare orgs, which often have stricter spam filters and firewalls. Is there any sort of best practices for sharing information on how to whitelist Marketo emails?

[Vinay_Kumar · Accepted solution]

Here are some best practices for accomplishing this:

• Dedicated Whitelisting Page: Create a dedicated webpage on your organization's website that hosts detailed whitelisting instructions for Marketo emails. This webpage should be easy to find and accessible to healthcare organizations.
• Include in Initial Email: In your first email to healthcare organizations, include a brief message or section explaining the importance of whitelisting and provide a direct link to the dedicated whitelisting instructions page.
• Clear Step-by-Step Instructions: On the whitelisting instructions page, provide clear, step-by-step instructions for whitelisting Marketo emails. Use plain language and include screenshots to make it as user-friendly as possible.
• Highlight the Sender Address: Clearly specify the email addresses or domains from which your Marketo emails will be sent. Instruct healthcare organizations to whitelist these addresses or domains.
• Different Email Clients: Recognize that different email clients (e.g., Outlook, Gmail) may have slightly different whitelisting procedures. If possible, provide instructions tailored to the most common email platforms.
• Benefits of Whitelisting: Explain to healthcare organizations the benefits of whitelisting your emails. Emphasize that they will receive important updates, valuable content, and critical information without any deliverability issues.
• Offer Support: Provide a contact email address or a support phone number for healthcare organizations to reach out to if they encounter any difficulties or have questions about whitelisting.
• Regularly Update Instructions: Keep the whitelisting instructions page up to date. If there are changes in your email sending infrastructure or if you switch to a different email marketing platform, ensure that the instructions reflect these changes.
• Engage IT or Email Administrators: Establish direct communication with the IT or email administrators of healthcare organizations whenever possible. They can provide valuable insights and facilitate the whitelisting process.
• Test Deliverability: Regularly send test emails to yourself or a colleague within healthcare organizations to ensure that they are not being marked as spam. Adjust your content or sender details as needed.
• Compliance and Best Practices: Ensure that your email marketing practices comply with relevant regulations (e.g., CAN-SPAM, GDPR) and industry best practices to maintain a positive sender reputation.
• Follow-Up Communications: Periodically remind healthcare organizations to whitelist your emails in subsequent communications. Repetition can reinforce the importance of whitelisting.

By following these best practices, you can improve the chances of healthcare organizations successfully whitelisting Marketo emails, ultimately ensuring that your important messages reach their intended recipients in this sector with stricter email filters.

[Darshil_Shah1]

The healthcare industry is stricter than other industries in terms of allowing marketing email sends because of the sensitive nature of the information being shared. Patients' health information is considered to be protected health information (PHI), and there are strict regulations in place governing how it can be used and shared. 

Following the email send best practices would let people trust you with their PII, and would also make a strong case for them to whitelist your emails (i.e., mark them safe) so that they’ll be placed in the primary inboxes of recipients. Remember, just including instructions/creating a page asking people how to whitelist your emails isn’t enough. You have to make sure people find your content relevant enough that they’re willing to whitelist your emails. 

Here are some of the best practices for healthcare marketing emails to ensure good deliverability and engagement:

• Get explicit consent from recipients before adding them to your email list. This can be done by having them check a box on a form. No sending emails to the purchased list, of course.
• Closely monitor your reputation and deliverability metrics. Remember, maintaining a good reputation across all major ISPs and spam filters is crucial to ensure your emails land in the primary inbox of recipients.
• I’d also recommend using Google Postmaster Tools to help you ensure that your emails are delivered and engaged.
• Use a double opt-in process for people belonging to countries that require it.
• Use clear and concise subject lines that accurately reflect the content of your email. This will help to increase the chances that your emails will be engaged.
• Personalize your emails as much as possible. This means using the recipient's name, location, and other relevant information in your message.
• Avoid using spammy or misleading language in your emails. This includes using words like "free," "guaranteed," and "secret."
• Segment your email list so that you can send targeted messages to different groups of recipients. This will help to improve your deliverability and engagement rates.
• Track your results and make adjustments to your campaigns as needed. This will help you to optimize your campaigns for better results. Most users overlook this, but this is crucial as it helps ensure the right people, i.e., the ones who show an interest and intent in your services/products are being sent emails than the ones who aren’t engaging/showing an interest.
• Avoid sending promotional emails. Instead, focus on providing educational and informative content that is relevant to your target audience.
• Be transparent about your privacy practices and how you will use the recipient's data.
• If you have a legal team, get approval from them before sending any marketing emails/making updates to your preference center.

I hope you find this helpful. Let us know if you have questions.

[ola]

Thanks for all this - great info.

However, I was looking for specific instructions... Like, where do I find the corresponding IPs and send email information within my Marketo account to share with these folks as far as whitelisting goes?

[Darshil_Shah1]

You should check out this comment from Sandy where he rightly mentions why one should ask their customers/prospects to whitelist based on DKIM-signed messages from a specific domain instead of From/Reply-To which can be easily forged by people who are not authorized to use your domain or based on IP address.