5 Tips For Buying and Renting Online Email Lists
By Anna Johnson on November 30th, 2010We generally don’t buy or rent email lists. The margin for error (i.e. wasting money on unqualified leads) is often quite high. In some circumstances, however, it may be appropriate to buy or rent an online list.
So, if you are planning to buy or rent an online list, here are five (5) tips to help ensure you get your money’s worth.
Tip #1: Pay more for a higher quality list.
You’re generally better off paying more for lists that are as qualified as possible and
as recently acquired as possible. The older and more general the list, the less likely you’ll get a reasonable response from your mail-out to the list.
Tip #2: Pay for a list that is as fresh as possible.
Following on from the preceding point, you’ll get a better response to your mail-out, the more recent is the list. Given an industry-standard email ‘decay’ rate of 2.5 percent per month (i.e. around 2.5 percent of the email addresses on any given email list no longer work per month) you can assume that out of a list of 100,000 subscribers acquired a month ago, about 2,500 of those email addresses won’t work. If the list was acquired two months ago, the non-responsive email addresses will be as high as 5,000.
Tip #3: Buy as targeted a list as possible.
You’re much better off buying a smaller, more targeted list than a large, more general
list. Even with a qualified list, you can expect a response rate of 1-2 percent… but if you’re paying for a general list, your response rate may be a fraction of a percent and you may end up wasting your money.
Tip #4: Opt for a ‘multi-channel’ list.
A ‘multi-channel’ list is one where you get a variety of contact details in addition to recipients’ email addresses. Not only does such a list enable you to contact the list in multiple ways, but since people have provided more detailed contact information about themselves they’re likely to be more qualified and responsive to your mail-out.
Tip #5: Only buy a confirmed optin list.
A confirmed optin list is one where the recipients have confirmed their email addresses. Single opt-in lists are notorious for being full of invalid email addresses and low quality leads. With a confirmed optin list, the recipients have had to proactively confirm their email address by clicking on a link sent to their email address. Accordingly, using a confirmed opt-in list improves your chances of mailing to valid email addresses and eliciting a greater response to your email campaign.
