We 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.

It’s probably no surprise that people are more likely to open and click on emails from friends and family than from email marketers. Furthermore, research from Experian Marketing Services’ CheetahMail® also shows that offers sent by friends and family likewise get higher open rates and click-through rates (CTRs) than emails sent by email marketers.

According to Experian CheetahMail’s study, friends-and-family emails outperformed commercial emails in a number of ways, having:

Facebook is rolling out a revamped version of its Facebook Messages application that will allow you to exchange messages with your Facebook friends in the form of SMS, chat, email or Facebook Messages, all from your Facebook account.

Whether you want to communicate via PC or mobile device, Messages will let you choose how to receive messages, communicate in real time, and do it all by simply choosing your Facebook friend’s name and typing in your message.

According to the September 2010 TNS ‘Digital Life’ worldwide survey, Internet users spend more time on social media sites (4.6 hours per week) than reading and writing emails (4.4 hours per week).

The TNS survey also reveals, however, that Internet users use email more often than any other Internet application.

Nearly half (49 percent) of consumers share content online at least once per week. The vast majority (86 percent) do so via email, whilst a significant 49 percent do so via Facebook.

According to a U.S. survey of 1,504 adults by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies, consumers aged 18-34 years old tend to share content via email and social networks to the same extent, whilst 93 percent of those aged 35 and over primarily use email to share content.

New research indicates that by including upsells and cross-sells in routine emails sent to customers after they buy from you – i.e. ‘transactional’ emails – you are likely to boost your overall transactions by another 20 percent. In other words: don’t just send customers a receipt, ask them to buy something else!

Experian Marketing Services has found that, on average, transactional emails that include relevant and related products and services have 20 percent higher transaction rates than those without.

So you sign up to an Internet marketer’s email list… perhaps on the promise of a free video, report or email course… or maybe because you bought something from them… and lo-and-behold they start emailing you marketing offer after marketing offer. Emails asking you to buy this and buy that. Sent to you every few days. Maybe even once or a few times in ONE day.

So, is sending all these email offers to you perfectly okay… or have they crossed some kind of line?

More U.S. mobile Internet users spend more time using email than any other Internet activity, according to eMarketer.

Based on separate studies by Nielsen, the Pew Internet & American Life Project and comScore, eMarketer concludes that, while mobile Internet users are increasingly engaged in social networking, email is used by most mobile users, for the most amount of time.

Recent research by ExactTarget reflects other studies finding that email is the leading marketing medium for reaching consumers. In particular, email beats Facebook and Twitter when it comes to communicating with consumers.

According to ExactTarget’s April 2010 survey of 1,506 consumers who follow brands or actively receive marketing messages:

According to research by CrossView, consumers overwhelmingly prefer email over social media channels when it comes to receiving promotional messages from retailers.

CrossView’s survey of online shoppers in four U.S. states finds that email is the most popular communications channel, with 37 percent of consumers preferring to receive promotional messages from retailers by email. Interestingly, the next popular is direct mail with 23 percent respondents, followed by text messaging (18 percent) and in-store communications (11 percent).