Upon program launch, every email marketer faces the decision as to how they will acquire or build an email list of recipients. A solid email marketing strategy includes a thoughtful creative strategy based on your target market, and an equally thought out list acquisition or building strategy. Lets talk about what each is and when to choose which - list approach that is.
Build a List Organically.
It is best to build a list of loyal, opted in email recipients, one by one via your online campaigns like search marketing, web site sign ups, blogs and other social media efforts. Also, take advantage of the many traditional media opportunities to collect addresses, like direct mail lead cards, trade show booth sign ups and retail location POS collection.
You will need to evangelize the value of email addresses in some corporate environments where often physical addresses are still the sought after consumer data.
Acquiring a List
Shortly said, acquired lists can be expensive and you don't always get a quality list. The list seach requires time and research, so choose carefully and talk to list holder references, get 3 bids, you know the drill.
Also, some email senders will not even accept most acquired lists. So know your sender's list policies before you decide your list route. The reason is "you never really know what you are going to get". The addresses on many acquired lists are old, include non-opted in names, and sometimes come with no proof of opt in at all. The best thing to do if you have the budget to acquire a list is to get the seller to scrub it for you, or scrub it like crazy once you have it. And this means sending a "resubscribe" invite to the subscribers to make double sure (thus "double opted in") that they still want to hear from your company. This may shrink a list but a small and mighty list (mighty = high responding) is much better then an expensive to mail to large list.
A Note about Deliverability
A positive deliverability reputaion is paramount to ongoing success in email marketing. Deliverability is risky game, even when you know exactly who you are mailing to. Consider that you have once chance to gain a good reputation with ISPs and if you blow that chance getting black listed is not fun and even always possible to recover from. So, waiting a few months to build your own organically grown list, and spending that time, instead of the dollars acquiring a list that you may not know much about is often the safer route.
Whichever route you travel, you are sure to enjoy great cross sell, branding and offer results with email marketing. For a free copy of our list qualifying questions, email us.
