Know-How Exchange : E-Marketing

Kathleen,

Very few list vendors allow you to purchase as opposed to rent. I have used Jigsaw from time to time for clients who want to purchase. It's worked fairly well.

Then there's your desire to have the list be "opt-in." In my industry (B2B software), the only place you are going to get an opt-in list is from a publication. I've not run across one yet that allows you to own the list. It's all rental and sometimes requires blind mailings where they mail on your behalf.

I take some issue with these being called "opt-in" lists. While it's true that the contacts on the list agreed to receive mailing from the publisher they didn't opt-in specifically for your message.

In my B2B world, I focus more on ensuring my clients follow opt-out rules and email marketing best practices. Opt-in is a best-practice, but it takes some time to build up a usable opt-in list.

Good luck!

Melissa

Although I do understand that building your own lists can be time-consuming and costly, it is by far the most reasonable long-term approach in creating evangelists for your service. By purchasing or renting lists you enter a very murky area, just like Melissa stated, since these so-called "opt-ins" may have no idea who you are, and these "verified" lists may be real yet uninterested suspects at best who will send your messages to the spam folder, damaging your online reputation in the process.

I'd suggest reading this link:
https://www.b2bemailmarketing.com/2009/02/purchasing-email-lists-is-never-a...

Also, look at www.socialmediaexaminer.com, a site which by purely using social media and word of mouth, garnered 30,000 email subscribers in a few months.

I think what is try to be conveyed here is that list buying is never a good idea. Anyone that will sell you a list is bad news. You can Rent lists but be prepared to pay a lot and for response to be low.

You are better off building a list through opt-in subscribe forms on your site or through promotions with like like sites to garner more subscribers.

Never, ever buy a list, it will kill your reputation as a sender and company.

I don't now of any broker that sells lists. One place you might look to is Callahan's which is a database of about 10,000 credit unions--might be a few prospects in there.

But purchasing email marketing lists (if that's what you're looking for) can be done through a lot of places, ZoomInfo, Salesforce's Jigsaw, Netprospex and so on. All sell their lists and all have list trade programs. I'm assuming you are looking for HR folks, and they have lots of those.

Ah yes, the opt in part. These are not opt ins. You'll have to ask Salesforce where it gets its names, other than its Exchange. The only way to get an optin list worth marketing to, other than renting lists of people willing to get offers (HR people who say "yes" to offers is going to be a subset of an already fairly narrow list), is to do what was suggested, and put up a form on your web site and wait to grow a list. That's a long wait.

One alternative is to challenge the importance of the names being opt in.

First, CAN SPAM does not prohibit sending emails to people you don't know, and who didn't ask you to send them an email. The FCC doesn't prohibit calling or faxing people you don't know (although you can opt out with the Do Not Call registry)/ The USPS doesn't prohibit you from sending a letter to someone you don't know. CAN SPAM is no different.

What it does do is require that your email be honest, accurately signed, and provide a clear way to opt out.

Second point: people of business are always interested in learning about things that will improve their business. That's their job. If you have that kind of message, you should have no shame about delivering it. If you were in an airport lobby and saw the CEO of a wish-list prospect, wouldn't you walk over and introduce yourself? Without permission? If your sales staff read an article about a company that sounded like a prospect, wouldn't they call? Without permission?

Anyway, you might check out the Jigsaws etc., and see if they are what you're looking for.