Email List Acquisition - Avoid Temptation

 

In a recent survey of marketing professionals, 63% of respondents said that they have bought one or more lists to grow their prospect database. 'Buying lists' is a hotly debated topic. Most email marketers will strongly recommend against using anything other than a double opt-in name and most ESP's (Email Service providers) require that you only send correspondence to names that have been acquired via opt-in procedures. Therefore, we recommend avoiding a straight-out list acquisition.

However, where data providers can be very helpful is by augmenting and correcting your existing (opt-in) contacts to help you improve segmentation. For example if your sign up forms collect email, first + last name (and perhaps company), consider using a list vendor to augment additional information that can be used to improve segmentation and audience targeting. This might include basic demographic information like title, gender, company, Industry or number of employees in the company.

Database / Greece email lists vendors can also help clean up and 'normalize' your data. For example, your registration forms might collect recipient's first + last name, and company. The name "Bill" may be entered as Bil, Bill, William, etc. Good list vendors can help clean up your list for consistency.

Other database vendors such as Hart-Hanks, can provide you with information about specific product interests, hardware and software infrastructure installed at a given company and much more - all of which can be used to better target your audience.

More recently, some database vendors can append social contact information. If you provide an email address, they will provide the LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook profile / page.