e_Marketing

Most online marketers agree that building a prospect Email list is a very important part of your overall marketing plan. Maybe the most important part. But not all Email lists are created equal.

Why buying lists is not a good idea

If you are familiar with traditional advertising techniques such as old fashioned direct mail (postal mail) you may just assume that Email advertising is similar - that it is done by buying a list and sending out a bunch of messages to the addresses on the list.

Buying or renting lists is common practice in old fashioned direct mail advertising. And consumers generally accept the practice as well. Even though a small percentage of people get up in arms about receiving unsolicited "junk" mail, most people tolerate it. More importantly, the post office encourages it because it brings them much needed revenue.

But Email is quite a bit different. The companies that actually distribute Email - internet service providers - do not generally get paid for doing it. In fact they view Email distribution as a necessary evil that eats bandwidth and causes other sorts of headaches. In internet circles unsolicited bulk Email is considered "spam" and is officially frowned upon. So most of us involved in internet marketing are not eager to be labelled "spammers."

Where do purchased Email lists come from?

Companies that say they will send your Email message to thousands or even millions of addresses are using lists they have aggregated from many different sources. Some of these companies even attempt to categorize the addresses. For instance, they may claim you can send to 50,000 dentists, or 125,000 camera enthusiasts.

But where have these addresses come from? Could it possibly be true that the people behind these addresses have "all said they want to receive your messages" as the promotions for these services often claim?

Not likely. Real people will almost never give out their Email address to someone who says "We will be sharing this address with anyone who is prepared to pay us for the privilege." Instead these address collectors run websites that say something misleading like, "You may occasionally receive a promotional message from an affiliated or member company." Saying "OK" to this is like giving them carte blanche to sell your address as often as they can.

Other outfits use automated methods to scour websites and pull out Email addresses. And others simply buy lists from wherever they can - companies, organizations, marketing agencies - wherever they can find someone prepared to sell them a list.

As a marketer wanting to play by the rules do you really want to use lists like this?

Are purchased Email lists effective?

The big problem with these lists is that the people behind the addresses have not given you permission to send messages to them. That makes it "unsolicited Email." Spam.

Even if you see nothing morally or legally wrong with sending unsolicited Emails, the question remains whether it is effective. Or more to the point, could it be effective for your business.

For the vast majority of businesses, the answer is "No. It is not effective.

Just think about your own business. Who are your most likely prospects - the people most likely to buy from you? As virtually every successful internet marketer will tell you, your most valuable prospects are people who want your product. If you sell camera equipment, they are people who want camera equipment. If you sell condoms, they are people who want condoms. If you sell web design they are people who want web design.

And no purchased list will ever get at these people. (There is one major exception to this - using lists developed by other people selling the same product you do - but I will discuss that in a different segment.)

So if you want to do Email advertising (and you should!) your objective should be to develop a unique list of your own. It should contain the names and addresses of people who are interested in your products and who have expressed an interest in receiving information about it.

But how do you develop a list like that?

We'll discuss that important question in the next few posts.