Question

Topic: E-Marketing

Email List Purchase Vs. Building Our Own.

Posted by Anonymous on 11/16/2009 at 1:14 PM ET 300 Points
Greetings to all,

Really need your help with this multiple part question.
I'm in looking into start advertising some of my and my clients services and offers via E marketing. But I'm facing a few issues like every start up; my current email list consist of only about 150 addresses, I would really like to start with at least 2,000 so here are the questions.
Is there any place where I can buy these email addresses legally? If so, how effective are they in terms of response and junk mail issues?
and finally, what ways can you recommend to built my own list of consumers by neighborhoods?
I thank you in advance and please feel free to ask any questions.

Best regards to all.

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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 11/16/2009 at 1:24 PM Accepted
    You can buy legally. Your response will be awful.

    Do not buy.
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 11/16/2009 at 1:29 PM Accepted
    Most reputable lists sell names for one time use only (so you can't buy the names to use as your list). And they control this very carefully.

    Less reputable will sell the names, but as I-I said, the value of these names is just about nothing.

    Collecting names is challenging. Basically, you need to provide a reason for people to be willing to give you their names. Some do it by offering a contest or free item or other benefit, but these names generally aren't high quality (they are signing up for a reason outside of what your business does, so when you send emails later, you may find many unsubscribe or just aren't interested in your offer).

    Better is to have people provide the names voluntarily because they are interested in what your company has to offer, and wants to get the emails to see the offers.

    Not exactly sure what you are offering to your clients, so not sure which could work for you.
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 11/16/2009 at 1:53 PM Accepted
    Dear igetbiz1,

    If someone were to GIVE me a list of 5,000 names it would be mostly useless.

    The best kind of list is one you create because the people on that list have already opted in—they're interested in what you have to offer. That is, they've already willingly put up their hands and said, in effect "Yes, I want to receive your e-mails".

    If you buy a list, unless it's a list of people who are interested in the products or services offered by your clients, your return on investment will probably be pretty poor.

    You build a list of eager subscribers by offering great value, and by offering great content. Even if at first this means you making a loss. or only just breaking even.

    Or you tap existing clients in similar niches and ask to use their lists in exchange for a percentage of gross profits. Or you form a joint venture, ask the partner WITH an appropriate list if they'd be willing to help you through their endorsement of your product.

    Even if this means giving them a hefty percentage in commissions.

    The commission you pay up front will pay for itself over time if the leads you collect are qualified and if the people on that list become willing buyers of whatever it is you're promoting.

    The true value in the list in in repeat sales, not just one off sales. The life time value of the customer is the thing you need to concentrate on cultivating, not just the one time sale.

    I hope this helps.

    Gary Bloomer
    Wilmington, DE, USA


  • Posted on 11/16/2009 at 2:51 PM Author
    So far great, great answers and fee back, so based on that I would like to be more specific. I want to do weekly emails with diverse offers from supermarkets, legal and medical services, clothing stores and so forth.
    Would raffling away like LCD's and shopping sprees on supermarkets help? I thought of putting specifically, that if they are chosen a winner and their information cannot be confirmed, they will lose the prize.
    Also thought of doing monthly raffles to all subscribers to keep them interested.
    Does this make sense and is it a good strategy?
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 11/16/2009 at 3:12 PM Member
    Dear igetbiz1,

    Your strategy is sound. As long as you pitch it right and
    emphasize benefits, value, and what's in it for your sign ups,
    yes, high perceived value in terms of your offers can pull well in terms of opt ins.

    However, you must make it clear that certain offers will go away on this date or by that time. Scarcity is a great motivator, and for an offer to really pull in stellar results is must, MUST have a deadline.

    And generally, the better the offer, the shorter the deadline ought to be. Urgency and high perceived value added to the risk of loss combined with compelling copy creates a desire to take action.

    The pain of disconnect, the risk of possibly losing out by delaying or even avoiding signing up MUST be made stronger in the prospect's mind than the urge NOT to sign up.

    And you achieve this through the power of your sales copy. You might also want to make it clear that every month, those people who do sign up will be entered in an even bigger prize draw for the top end luxury stuff. You ca then use images of lucky winners receiving their prizes as bait in your other promotions.

    This all acts as vital social proof, which in turn (combined with offers and deadlines) gives people even more reason to sign-up.

    I hope this helps you. Good luck to you.

    Gary Bloomer
    Wilmington, DE, USA

  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 11/16/2009 at 3:27 PM Member
    If possible, the best route would be such that the offer from the super markets, legal services, etc. are good enough that people would want to sign up just to get those. That would make the list the most useful to you, as you would have the best quality people who want to hear about the business offers.

    If they are signed up just for the raffle, it is not as good a quality a list, but still can be decent.
  • Posted by Neil on 11/20/2009 at 7:54 PM Accepted
    I have written a couple of blog posts on list building that might interest you:

    https://blog.streamsend.com/2009/09/how-to-build-good-email-newsletter-list...

    and

    https://blog.streamsend.com/2009/02/7-ways-to-build-your-email-marketing.ht...

    There really are no shortcuts to building a quality list that will yield a high response rate.
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