Can I rent e-mail lists?
Elaine Geyer, Rancho Penasquitos

Sending promotional mailings to lists of people who match your customer profile can be a good way to expand your bottom line, assuming your business is scalable and positioned to absorb large waves of potential customers.

And just like with direct mail, it’s possible to rent (not buy) e-mail lists for sending out promotional mailings electronically. Such lists are available to match almost any customer profile.

The rules of engagement change a bit from direct mail to e-mail. Here are a few things to consider when you’re renting e-mail lists:

• Caveat emptor. ‘Nuff said.

• Rent through a legitimate list broker.

• Renting legitimate e-mail lists will cost as much — or more than — direct mail lists. World Data mailing lists shows these average costs per thousand e-mail addresses as of this past December:

Business to Consumer (b2c) - $110
Business to Business (b2b) - $284
International - $408

• You’ll pay more when renting lists with proven effectiveness. You should be concerned if someone wants to sell you access to a mailing list for a really low price.
• Review a datacard to know where the names came from. Visit the source online and check for prominent opt-in language to ensure the sign-ups are legitimate.

• The list’s owner should send your content to protect his list. If you’re expected to send the mailing, that’s a big red flag.

• Test the list with a minimum rental — usually 5,000 — to see how the audience responds. Good results? Rent more.

• Know what response you need to make your mailing successful. Figure an 11 percent open rate and 3 percent click-through rate to determine profitability.

• Use Barracudacentral.org to research reputation and deliverability of the IP address sending your e-mail. The list rental house should provide that address prior to your signing a list rental agreement. If they won’t...red flag.

• Request make-goods from clean IP addresses (to prevent blacklisting) if deliverability isn’t what was promised.

Following these rules won’t prevent all your e-mail marketing problems, of course, but they should get you 90 percent of the way to your goal.

With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.

Mr. Marketing has experience with every type of marketing tool you’re likely to encounter. Contact him with your questions at www.askmrmarketing.com.