Question

Topic: Strategy

List Research - Do People Still Do This?

Posted by kmccarty on 6/29/2015 at 11:57 AM ET 250 Points
I work with a few product managers who seem to still be stuck in the early 90s when it comes to building prospect lists. I'm constantly being sent links to directories of people and asked to have someone on my team research the names - appending email, phone, etc. I know this isn't best practice, nor is it effective. Plus, our email system doesn't allow us to contact people who aren't opted in. However, I have a hard time pushing back on this. Even when I show that these "names" rarely convert into customers. Does anyone else run into this? If so, how do you respond? Are there metrics, best practice docs, etc. that you can site?

Hope this makes sense - thanks!

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RESPONSES

  • Posted by mgoodman on 6/29/2015 at 12:12 PM Moderator
    As hard as it is, you probably need to tell the client that this is not ethical (and could be in violation of some privacy policies), and that you can't, in good conscience, be party to the project. Perhaps when they see how strongly you feel about it they will come to realize that they shouldn't be asking you to lower yourself ... and that they shouldn't be thinking this way either.

    They may respect you even more when you decline to participate in their unethical scheme. Just be sure to do so in a way that doesn't "rub their nose in it" too much. As you point out, they don't mean any harm; they are just stuck back in a previous era. If they are smart, they'll thank you for keeping them from making a serious error.
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 6/29/2015 at 7:56 PM Accepted
    Your client is misinformed. Scrapes of lists for this kind of information are frowned on. You're better off creating simple landing page sites that have an opt in form on them and that are key phrase specific to the need at hand.
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