Whitelisting, also called safelisting, is a security measure that IT administrators take which allows computers or mobile devices to only run approved applications. It also refers to instances when IT administrators set rules that make sure certain email addresses are not caught by the spam filter or when they allow only specific IP addresses to access your website.
In the realm of survey distribution, whitelisting is when a organization’s IT staff members take manual steps to approve the delivery of emails from Sogolytics in advance of their organization receiving those emails. This helps the invitations to avoid getting caught in the organization’s spam filter.
Why would I do it? When should I whitelist?
Whitelisting helps to ensure delivery of your emails to an organization. It’s typically used when sending large batches of emails internally (employee engagement surveys, pulse checks, evaluations, and so on). While one or two invitations might get through anyway, it’s likely that your organization’s firewalls are on the lookout for large batches of emails coming in. Whether it’s an attack, spam, or an invitation everyone’s waiting for, the firewall raises the alarm and shuts down defenses. In other words, nothing’s getting through! This is a great safety protocol, but it’s not great for delivery. To avoid the hold-up, grant permission in advance.
I’m sending it to another company. Can they whitelist?
If you’re sending large batches of invitations to the same domain — perhaps to all employees in your client’s company — it’s a smart idea for them to whitelist Sogolytics. This will help both you and your client to have confidence in the delivery of your invitations.
How do I set it up?
To whitelist Sogolytics in your organization, you’ll most likely need to enlist the help of your IT department. Ask your tech team to follow the steps listed here, and you should be good to go!
Will this affect how I use my Sogolytics account?
Nope! When you whitelist, everything in your account stays the same – but you’ll have the peace of mind that you’ve improved delivery.
What if I can’t whitelist?
If you’re sending to a lot of different participants at different domains, it doesn’t make sense to try to complete whitelisting. However, you can improve email delivery by verifying your sender email address (totally required before sending anyway!) and by completing domain authentication. While whitelisting is done to improve the receiving side of things — where you may not have much control — domain authentication helps on the sending side of things — where you likely have a bit more control. In brief, domain authentication is like a permission slip that allows our platform to send email invitations from your domain. When the invitations go out, the recipient’s servers check the permission slip before deciding to allow delivery. Of course, the smart move would be to take care of all three steps — sender email verification, domain authentication, and whitelisting — but the more you can do, the better!
I noticed that your whitelisting settings recently changed. Why’s that?
Two things: We’ve made the move to a higher-tier data center (Tier IV!) for improved security and performance. This means that the invitations you send are now taking a slightly different route, so whitelisting “approvals” need to be updated. Second: Our latest whitelisting settings require that you whitelist at the domain level, wheras we previously required the whitelisting of IP addresses. The switch to domains allows for dynamic IPs and improved distribution in the future.
I have a white label solution. Do I have to use domain?
If you use a white labelling solution — in which case your clients only see your own custom domain in survey links rather than ours — you may choose to share IP addresses directly rather than sending them our domain. Please connect with our team for details.
For more ways to improve delivery, dive into Email Delivery Best Practices in our User Guide or connect with our team directly.