Permission Email

The List

Your offer may be terrific but if you send it to the wrong recipients it will be unsuccessful…

There are two basic lists of recipients you can use for an email marketing campaign... 1) your own list of contacts that you have collected in one way or another and 2) a leased email list targeted to recipients that you believe would be good candidates for your offer…

Of course the best email lists are generated by your own solicitations where the recipients “Opt-In” to receive your regulars emails… You can collect these email addresses on your own web site typically by offering something of value such as a newsletter or coupon for example… Be creative in your email collection of someone's email address so long as the potential recipients do so willingly, opting in for the offer... A retail store might offer 10% off their next purchase and send monthly specials available only to email recipients... A resturanteurs can include a email sign-up slip with the check asked their patrons to sign-up for a newsletter with recipes and cooking tips…

Your second option is to lease a targeted email list...The problem is that email list leasing is trickier than in those used for direct mail… With traditional direct mail you can examine a standard-format rate card, review demographic data, or get help from an experienced list broker… Mailing addresses don’t change email addresses do… Even if the mailing address addressee changes, the address doesn’t, not so with email addresses… Once an email address is invalid, the likelihood it will ever be valid again is doubtful… Although it is getting better, the email list leasing business has few standards… It is important to make sure you are dealing with a legitimate company with a good track record… Your goal is to find reliable opt-in email list owners or brokers and once you do, stick with them…

First and foremost, stay away from the “Spammers” or bulk email companies who will sell you an email list on CD-ROM for $99.95 or offer to send your email marketing campaign out a millions of people for $500... Spamming will cause nothing but trouble for you and your business…

If you do choose to lease a targeted “opt-in” email list, ask the list owner or broker the source of the list; is the demographic information provided by an email list broker accurate..? How was the list was compiled..? Were the potential recipients added to the list only with their explicit permission by “Opting-In” to receive the type of information in your offer..? Once you have decided on a list, do small “test” emails with a variation on the offer…

Find out all you can about the email addressees on any leased list... Does the list owner have demographic information or survey data from list recipients..? Do you plan to buy advertising in an email newsletter (aka e-zines), if so, what is the topic and target audience of the newsletter..? In either case, make sure that the list's recipients are the right target market for your offer... To do otherwise and you are setting yourself up for failure...

Finding email lists can be quite a challenge... One good place to start is by searching on "Direct Email Lists" or "Opt-in Email Lists" in your favorite search engine(s)...