Question

Topic: E-Marketing

Email Campaign (rented Lists): Reputable Firm?

Posted by ajosef on 12/5/2011 at 10:21 AM ET 125 Points
I head up marketing for a small non profit in the Philadelphia area and I need to hire a company to do monthly email blasts for me. I need qualified email addresses in a defined demographic list of selects including age, income, zip code). I need it launched on their servers. I have the creative and the custom landing site prepared. I have searched the internet far and wide (including past posts here that seem too old) and have yet to find the right support. I have found one or two companies that seem "shifty"...they say they will complete the work (but how do you know if they ever did?)
PLEASE help me!!!!
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  • Posted by arthursc on 12/6/2011 at 7:53 PM Accepted
    I disagree somewhat with stlubahn--there are many reputable email list brokers out there, and I will give you two personal recommendations below.

    It is true that rented email lists will not perform nearly as well as almost any other medium, and the ROI will be harder to find, but it can be done. I think most email lists are still overpriced (though the CPM's have come down over the years). But be prepared to pay $300/m or more (deployed) for a good list with the right selections. For a non-profit, that can be daunting.

    But you MUST vet the lists yourself. I've been in the direct mail and email marketing biz for decades (well, email not that long of course), and I would never let any broker--including people I trust totally--make the final decisions on what lists to use. Turning over that decision making authority can be a bad idea. But once the agency or broker understands your biz and target audience thoroughly, they can make informed and welcome recommendations.

    Note that when you rent an email list, you never take possession of it anyway. No reputable list owner will alllow it. It must be deployed by the agency or broker, to whom you send your creative.

    Speaking of reputable lists, your demo needs might lead you to the path of what we call compiled lists--registries, directories, etc--instead of response lists. Don't do that if at all possible. As low as ORs and CTRs may be with email lists, compiled email lists will almost always perform even worse. A gpod type of response list is one of buyers/customers/paid subscribers. Those are less common than lists of people who have signed up for something free, like an enewsletter, or alerts. But they will work better. In order of effectiveness, then, first is customer/paid subscribers, then enewsletter subscribers, then the directories.

    And be sure that the broker or agent can provide proof that the list is verified opt-in. Not passive opt-out---you want true opt-in. Ask for proof. See the opt-in form. Check out the website. Do the due diligence yourself, or that hard to obtain ROI may prove elusive.

    I guess you don't want to hear that, either, but no agency or broker can replace your own vetting. In plain language, it would be foolhardy to turnover this process completely.

    So your wish to find an outside person/firm/agency to handle it all a-z is certainly understandable, but problematic.

    Here are two list brokers I have worked with for many years, along with contacts. You can mention my name, get better service (I am not affiliated and get nothing out of this except knowing you are in good hands).

    1. AllMedia, in Texas. 800-466-4061. https://www.allmediainc.com/index.html. Laura McLendon is the Prez, and my account exec and all around good guy is Scott Caufield. Talk to either one.

    2.Statlistics. https://www.statlistics.com/. I worked with the Danbury CT office, 203-778-8700. I know the Prez, John Papalia, and a VP, Susan Miles, who I worked directly with. Mention my name to either one, and you will be steered right.

    There's lots more advice and knowledge I can pass on, too much for this message. Happy to share if you want to correspond offline. If so email me at liandro@gmail.com.


    Good luck, friend.
    Arthur Cohen
    eComm Direct

  • Posted by darcy.moen on 12/6/2011 at 9:15 PM Member
    I would have to agree that rented email lists are death. Rented lists typically react to messages from strangers by marking the message as spam. If you haven't generated your own list, you may as well NOT do email marketing.

    People want to have some sort of a relationship with the sender of email. If you have ZERO relationship, you are inviting nothing but trouble. I've used rented lists before, and I'll NEVER use them again because of the poor response, the complaints, and the spam reports we received from it.

    You would be better off standing on the corner of a busy street corner with your hat out than using a rented email list.
  • Posted on 12/7/2011 at 11:14 AM Member
    Totally Disagree with Darcy.
    But do agree that your own house list is the best way to go over time.

    Rented list success depends on the list and the content. I have rented numerous lists over and over and had great ROI. It's all about the content. If the content is targeted and relavant...you stand a good chance of decent response. If it's not then yes...death to the campaign and anger towards your brand. My best ROI's have been from trade magazine circulation.

    Have used these for List Brokerage/Renting
    Statlistics
    DM2 Decision Maker
    Numerous trade publication circulation/subscriber lists

    Have used these as ESP's
    Constant Contact - cheap but gets it done
    ExactTarget -
    StreamSend
    Blue Sky - my favorite
  • Posted by jensprague on 12/7/2011 at 2:16 PM Member
    ajosef - no one has answered your question yet about how you know when a service vendor has completed your email campaign. Simply seed yourself and a good handful of co-workers on the list so that you all receive the email. Your seed list should include some email addresses not affiliated with your organization -- like yours and several home email addresses. Good luck!
  • Posted by arthursc on 12/9/2011 at 5:53 PM Member
    @RudyJ, Thanks for pointing out the potential value of controlled circulation lists. I forgot to mention them in my post in my category of "response" lists. As a former circ director of controlled titles, I know that the renter still should vet the list--unless the circ director (or audience development director as we are now called) takes care in cleaning and updating that list, there can be a lot of junk in the files. When renting, be sure to ask for recency, and ask how the list owner can prove the recency (e.g., is there a time/date stamp on the record).

    I mention that not only because more recent additions to a file will almost always perform better, but because sometimes sloppiness on the part of circ mgmt can result in no recency tracking, as was the case for one controlled circ title I took over. As a result, no list manager would take the file, and rightly so. If there is no recency info for the file, don't rent it.

    I recently took over an email campaign for a client who had already rented a controlled circ list--a magazine in which she was a blogger and was featured on a cover story. (She had no house list.) I thought we had good creative all around, but response was only fair. Generated only 6 solid leads. One got closed, and that showed a small immediate ROI profit, and more in the ongoing relationship. So only one new customer, but that paid off.
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