Newsletter marketing often gets started because someone realizes that the existing customer base is an excellent market for add-on sales. In this case, email list building is not hard because customers have a vested interest in sharing their email addresses. But what if you don’t know who your customers are? What if you are a retailer who wants to try internet marketing, but don’t have an email list? How are you going to build one? Where are you going to get the names and email addresses? Going forward, one answer is you will ask for the names and email addresses from in-store customers and visitors to your website. This is not hard to do. Customers like your products now, and they will surely want to know about the products you add in the future. But building a list of names and email addresses from in-store customers takes time, and if you want to get started with an online newsletter campaign right now, you have no choice but to buy a email list. The question is where is the best place to get one? If you have been on the internet for any length of time, you have undoubtedly gotten numerous email offers for email lists sandwiched in among ads for Viagra, a life’s experience PhD and other spam. Some of these spammer email advertisements offer list rental rates – e.g. $450 for 1,000,000 names – which are hard to turn down. But our advice to you is, avoid spammer email lists like the plague. There are good reasons: 1. Some of these email addresses may have been stolen from websites by hackers, and by using them, you may make yourself liable for both civil and criminal penalties. 2. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Ultra-low list rates usually means ultra-low list quality and a low quality list means your list server will be getting loads of “bounce backs,” the email equivalent of “Return to sender. Addressee unknown.” in snail mail. 3. Since no one on the spammer list gave you permission to email them, you too will be spamming. That could result in your legitimate email being rejected by AOL, Mindspring, and other large ISPs and your web service being terminated by your own ISP. The safe and effective alternative to the spammer email list is an “opt-in” email list from a legitimate email list vendor. Okay, but you may ask, “how do I know that they are legit?” Well, some ways to be sure that you are dealing with legitimate email list vendors are: 1. They don’t spam you. 2. They have an address and a telephone number. 3. Their telephones are answered by people and not by a machine. 4. They have legitimate and verifiable email list resources. Legitimate email list vendors get their lists from the publishers of magazines and newspapers and from e-commerce websites. The people on the email lists are subscribers and customers, and the term “op-in” means they have given their permission to receive email about certain products or services. There are many benefits to opt-in email lists, among them: 1. The email addresses have been acquired legally, and the email list vendor can prove it. 2. The email addresses are real and stable and that means fewer bounce backs. 3. Even if you forget to, the list vendor will put a “wrapper” on your email advertisement or newsletter (a) that reminds recipients that they have agreed to receive email on this topic and (b) that offers them a mechanism for removing their name from the list. This means that no one will accuse you of being a spammer. 4. The email list vendors often have other legitimately acquired information about the subscribers or customers on the list, information that will enable them to sort the list and select a sub-list that will address your precise market. 5. Since people on the list expressed an interest in getting email on new products and services like yours, they are more apt to buy. The rates for opt-in email lists vary from $.10 to $3.50 a name, the rates being roughly proportional to quality of the list. One is always tempted to go with the cheapest alternative, but there are several reasons why expensive lists may be a better alternative: 1. They better match your market – in order to get a good match the vendor has to know more about each recipient and has to do more sorting. 2. They contain only recipients who have been pre-qualified. 3. The recipients have a higher disposable income, a history of purchasing high margin products or in some other way represent a bigger business opportunity for you For more information on opt-in list vendors or for help in selecting a vendor that would be right for your business, call Jeff Mesnik at 617-924-4400 x204