• by January 3, 2001

Though not data related research, our digging has come up with a useful Marketing Memo from Boldfish.com that could be very helpful if direct marketing through email is one of your selected media strategies. Some excerpts from the report are included here, and the address for the entire memo is included.

Develop or acquire the list that fits your target audience by meeting a specific set of select requirements, be it by geographical demographic, income, or profession. Then, an important characteristic of your email list is Opt-in... requested by the recipient.

A variety of organizations offer email lists for rental, and you should research each organization and its collection method for building their lists, which will go a long way in protecting your reputation.

Pros of Renting

Speed - Give yourself approximately a week for the entire process of list order, list approval, and list delivery.

Reach - A rented list may expose your client to a multitude of customers whom you may not have been able to contact otherwise.

Name Acquisition - If a consumer responds to your campaign, you now "own" the name. Make certain that you get their permission to email them again.

Cons of Renting

Limited usage - Email list rental is usually limited to one-time usage, and you cannot keep the names unless one of two things happen: 1. You have permission from the list house or, 2. A recipient responds to your email with an order, inquiry, etc. and gives you permission to email to them again in the future.

Tire kickers - Many of the names contained on rented lists are individuals with no real intent to purchase. They may have registered a product and given broad consent to receive mailings.

Cost - Currently expect to spend significantly more on email lists than on traditional direct mail lists.

And, be sure you have the following items ready when you go to rent your list:

Well-defined target audience - Each vendor provides multiple lists that can be segmented based on all sorts of criteria, including demographics, buying behavior, interests, etc.

Creative - The list owner will need to approve and test your message prior to mailing.

Homework on the list vendor

- How was the list created? - Was this list created via a web site? Trade show? Product registration cards? Telemarketing? Partner Pages?

- What incentive did you give the recipient's for joining your list?

- Is this an Opt-In list? Is this Double Opt-In?

- How easy is it for someone to unsubscribe from your list?

- How targeted of a list can you provide?

- How cold is the list?

- How is the list cleaned?

- What types of information did these recipients elect to receive? What format?

Pros of Building

No waiting for approval or delivery - When you build your own list, the process is shortened significantly.

Quality - By buil