Questions to ask before renting a list

We all know that sending your campaigns to your own House List is a great way to grow your relationships with your clients. But there are times that utilising a good quality opt-in rental list makes sense. So, before you go out there and grab any list that’s cheap (definitely not recommended!), make sure you understand what you are getting from the list provider.

1: How and where was the permission collected? Is the list opt-in rather than opt-out?
Opt-in lists greatly outperform opt-out lists. In fact many providers (such as Ezemail) will not let you send emails/SMS campaigns to opt-out lists, only opt-in lists. Using date stamped lists (time and dated to the original point of permission) is ideal.

2: How often do list recipients receive emails?
List fatigue can greatly reduce the success of a campaign. A list with a frequency cap is recommended. If possible, also choose recently added names, as they are fresher.

3: Can you send campaigns to your house list using the same company?
This can save you time and hassle. Many list providers only let you send out emails to their lists, which can be quite limiting, especially once you have grown your own House List.

4: Does the list manager check the messages for potential delivery issues such as spam filters?
The campaign should be sent in Multi-part, so the optimal format is rendered for the recipient. Also, the list manager should view the campaign creative for potential delivery issues and check your content against spam filtering software. Other points to be checked would be code glitches and slow images which can affect email delivery.

5: To what level can you target the audience?
The best performing lists provide you with the ability to segment by demographics, etc to find the right people for your product/service.

6: What are the specific terms and conditions? What kind of tracking is provided?
Although a good list manager won’t give you access to the actual database, you should be provided with access to the statistics of the campaign, such as number of emails opened and link click-through rates.

7: Does the list provider give you the ability to host your images with them?
This is a necessity if you don’t have your own web site, or if you don’t have access to your website and FTP.

8: Does the list manager provide you with the ability to capture opt-ins (i.e. new subscribers)?
Ensure that you have the ability to automatically capture opt-ins (via a provided form) which will then enable you to continue to market to your new opt-in database, as the opt-ins will become part of your house list.

9: What do the headers and footers look like? Is there any third party banners or branding on them?
Many list providers brand or co-brand the campaign with their own logo, headers or footers. This is in addition to a “Powered By” button, which is standard with most email marketing solutions.

10: What does the sender address look like?
Some list owners will send out your campaign using their name as the sender rather than yours.

11: What about attachments?
Does the list provider allow you to include an attachment file if necessary?

12: What about scheduling?
Can the list provider schedule the campaign to be sent at precisely the time of day that you want it to go out?

12: What about viral marketing ?
Does the list provider offer a “forward to a friend” viral marketing facility? If so, how easy is it for the “friend” to then sign up?

Kath Pay is Marketing Director of Ezemail, an innovative company that provides comprehensive email marketing solutions including a fully re-brandable Agency solution. For more information on how easily email marketing can be implemented, please contact Kath at kath@ezemail.com