• by Jess Nelson , January 19, 2016

Some 10% of marketers admit to buying third-party marketing data and emailing lists, according to a recent Yesmail study.

Although acquiring email lists may at first seem counterintuitive in an opt-in marketing campaign, there are several benefits to data acquisition that email marketers should consider when forming a strategy on how to expand their email subscribers list.

Kitty Kolding, CEO of marketing data acquisition company Infocore, compares marketing data acquisition to media buying.

“Our expertise comes down to being able to find the right data sources, vet them, and understand the nature of their types of data sets,” she says.

When looking for third-party email lists to acquire, Kolding says it is critical to understand local legislation, such as Canada’s Anti-Spam laws, and abide by the set criteria for each region.

Since legislation can change from country to country, marketers should take a look at the law and know what the nature of consent means in every region. 

Kolding explains how there are opt-in markets such as Germany that are much more difficult to acquire third-party data for because all marketing messages must have been voluntarily received by the consumer -- in contrast to the United States, where it is assumed a consumer has opted-in to receive a message unless otherwise stated.

However, there is a somewhat little known middle road that marketers can take if a consumers may have opted-in to receive third-party messaging when they signed up for an email marketing list, or if a company is willing to send third-party advertisements to their email lists.

Another added benefit of data acquisition is how precise and targeted lists can be. “It will probably shock you on how precise we can get with this type of marketing, particularly in the United States,” says Kolding. “There is no other place with as much data with as much precision and with as much depth.”

In the United States there may be an average of 200 records per capita, says Kolding, which far exceeds burgeoning markets in the United Kingdom and Brazil that may have 10 or 12 data records per capita.  

It's not just about the right people receiving the right message at the right time, says Kolding, but about the right people who have been qualified to receive the right message at the right time.