Marketing Profs

Email address appending has been in use since the late '90s, and if my inbox is any gauge there's a rebound in its use.

I've recently received emails from catalogers, publishers, and major marketers with which I've done business in the past, asking permission to send me emails. And that's the first key to successful appending, since it is meant only for existing relationships.

Most marketers have email addresses for less than half their customers and prospects. If this is the case for your company, it might make sense to explore email appending.

Let's first look at the process, and then we'll examine how one publisher implemented its communication plan.

How the Process Works

Many companies offer email appending services. The larger services have 70-90 million records with name, address information, and email address. You provide them with names and addresses of customers or prospects, and they match your file against their database.

You should use fairly tight match criteria and match on an individual-name—not on a last-name or household—level.

Match rates for business-to-business will be in the 10-15 percent range and consumer marketers can expect 25-30 percent.

Some appending companies will send the first email for you, and others will simply provide you with all the matches for you to send. The first email is called the "permission pass."

You'll want to wait at least a week after the permission pass to collect any bounces or opt-outs. Typically, you'll see low opt-outs, normally in the two-percent range.