Using BUSINESS Email Lists for Maximum Results

Business Email Lists This overview relates to marketing professional programs to business email lists (business people at their business address) NOT consumer email lists.

Basics of Renting Email Lists When you rent a postal list, we typically would send you the list on a disk, which you in turn forward to your mail house or service bureau. They inkjet the brochures and drop them at the post office.

Unlike postal lists, you don't receive the email list to send out on your own. Instead, you send your message to the list owner and they broadcast it for you. You can specify the date on which it is to go out, but most owners only send one or two broadcasts on a given day. You send your message to an email address we give to you. The list owner or manager will load your message and then send it back to you for your approval. Once you say OK, it goes.

What you control and don't control Usually you can specify what goes in the subject line. It may have a maximum length, for example, of 40 characters. The body copy/text may be limited to 500 words, or one page of html. The list owner may have a "header" at the beginning and end of the message that says the message is "being sent to you as an opt-in subscriber to ABC magazine." Different owners have different "rules."

Some email lists can be personalized, using the person's name in the text copy. In some cases your name can appear in the "From" line. But usually the email message will indicate the list owner's name in that line.

Since different owners have varying "rules", keep these important
guidelines in mind to maximize your campaign test:
1. Try to rent only lists that use a person's name in the "To" field.
2. Try to use only lists that have a person's name (preferably female!)
in the "From" field. A highly recognizable alternative,
like "Wall Street Journal", is second best.
3. Keep in mind that the first 2 or 3 lines of the message
are the most important.
4. Pay attention to what you put in the subject line.

Opt-In versus Opt-Out The best email lists are typically Opt-In, where the recipients have said that they want to receive offers by email. Next best are Opt-Out where business people have the option every time they receive an offer to let the owner know they don't want to receive any more in the future. Compiled email lists that are neither Opt-In nor Opt-Out, essentially don't exist, except as junk or spam.

Cost of Email Rental Lists They aren't cheap. They range from $300 to $400 per thousand emails sent PLUS a transmission charge of about $100 per thousand. Total is $400 to $500 per thousand. Minimum order is usually 4-5,000. And you have to send them all at the same time. Can't stagger and do just 1,000 each week of 4-5 weeks.

Email lists may or may not have additional charges for selections like top management, geography, company size, etc.

Do email lists work? Yes and No. The ONE email list that is guaranteed to work extremely well is your own list. It's free and they want to hear from you. If you don't have a high percentage of email lists, start getting them. Use them for reminders, announce new programs, do surveys, drive them to your web site, link them to brochure pdf downloads.

Rental email lists typically are NOT a good investment in terms of return on investment. Only those targeting IS, IT, Software, Programming, Internet professionals seem to approach being worth it.

Comparing Email to Postal Mail What does the email recipient receive? A brief, fleeting electronic message that requires them to click through, get motivated, spend time, click some more, wait for something to print, etc. It costs an average of $450 per thousand to do that to them.

What does the postal mail recipient receive? All of the program information, registration form, for their own use and to pass along or copy for others. It costs you an average of $175 (list), $125 (postage), $40 (process), $110 (print), and some art costs. Depending on size of brochure, number of colors, it's about $500-550 average per thousand.

Postal direct mail may cost $50-100 more per thousand. Is the difference worth it? You bet. Hands down.

Email and the Web It's easy to get excited about the potential for marketing on the web. But it is still not the answer to populating live workshops, conferences, and professional programs. Please note that the operative word is "live."

If you are offering an online program, and can offer a free demo online, your strategy may very well include rented email lists.

The bottom line is this -- start by focusing on your own in-house list for web marketing. Get a handle on how to do it technically, how to write and develop messages in text and html, and how to track it. Work on your web site to be sure it's the best it can be. Learn how to use traffic monitors and phantom pages for tracking. Once your have your arms around these areas, then consider testing rental email.

For more information on Email or Postal mail rented lists:
Call 941-921-5455 or email us at
infolists@proed.com