ReturnPath presents a nice case study that illustrates how Travelocity requests recipients to whitelist their email. It’s a simple addition to an email campaign; but one that will certainly help to keep your messages reaching the inboxes of your recipients.
“…Travelocity takes whitelisting to the next level. It’s a best practice for marketers to have whitelisting instructions in every email message they send. Typically, these instructions are included above the header of the email message so that subscribers can add the marketer’s “from” address to their email client’s address book, thereby making them an approved sender. This helps to increase the marketer’s deliverability into the inbox and overrides the default “images off” setting (standard for most email clients) so that the marketer’s images will automatically render. Travelocity goes one step further by including a link titled “ensure deliverability.” This link takes the user to step-by-step whitelisting instructions for 12 major email clients…” continue reading
Although I like the “Ensure Deliverability” link at the top of Travelocity’s email, the hyperlink grammar bugs me a bit. Perhaps I’m being too picky here, but shouldn’t it be “Ensure Delivery?” I always think of deliverability as an adverb (i.e. deliverability rates). Recently, I’ve started using delivery instead of deliverability just to conserve some letters. I haven’t discovered any context yet where deliverability can’t be replaced by the shorter form – delivery? Please inform me if there are any, so I can stop thinking that deliverability is just a longer, redundant term for delivery.
I also think that some (if not many) recipients would be uncertain if they should click on that link or what it means. I would recommend something a bit more descriptive. Something along the lines of “Click here to improve delivery of our messages” or “Click here to help ensure delivery.”
My personal peeves aside, the idea is good and it certainly is something that you might consider adding to your own email campaigns if continued inbox delivery is important to you.
Here are some whitelisting instructions if you need them.
