How to do Email List Rental the Right Way

Despite being declared “dead” by many in the industry, email marketing has never been so alive.

With growing budgets assigned this year and impressive ROI per £1 spent (average of 2500%!) , email marketing has gained much deserved attention from marketers. In fact, a report by Oracle Eloqua indicates email marketing as the primary concern for marketing decision-makers in 2014, with relevance and speed being the main challenges. The DMA has also found maturation of lead generation to be a concern for 44% of marketers.

If you’re looking into options for improving your email marketing activities, you’ll probably come across the usual suspects:

• Email platforms
• Marketing automation platforms
• Email list rentals

The first two options require uploading lists that you managed to grow organically, a highly recommended long-term process that should ensure good open rates, low bounce rates and unmatched ROI.

The third option can prove its value if you don’t have an organically grown list at your disposal.

Reasons to use rented email lists

Whether you’ve only just started your business, recently entered a new market segment, expanded into another country or simply looking to promote a one-off product, time is not on your side when it comes to gathering new prospects.

In this case, a good quality rental list might just be the solution.

Email list rental is looked down upon by many clients. Partly the bad image has been due to many fly by night operators peddling cheap lists sourced dubiously at throw away prices. In addition to that most of the big name email software vendors also frown upon rented lists due to the high bounce rate associated with poor quality rented lists. All of this has given a bad name to list rental as such.

However, list rental does not have to be all bad press. There are plenty of sales and brand awareness opportunities that list rental can provide to complement other strategies.

A good quality list can deliver great benefits to its user:

1. Immediate access to prospect data;
2. Access to a high number of quality contacts;
3. Low acquisition cost compared to other channels;
4. High conversion rates compared to other channels;
5. Email sending facilities are usually provided by the list owner, liberating you from the hassle of sending the emails yourself.

Now that you are savvy about why email list rentals make sense for your business, here are some top tips to guide you through selecting the right provider.

Email list rental best practices

The major concern regarding email list rentals is identifying the quality of the list. Therefore, to ensure you’re opting for a high quality email list, check the following with its provider:

1. Email data has been legally sourced;
2. Which data collection method the supplier use (see our blog on lead generation strategies to avoid);
3. An unsubscribe link is available for the recipients to unsubscribe at any time;
4. The header/footer clearly mention the sender details and why the recipients are receiving this email communication;
5. The data is segmented as per interests of subscribers. This is imperative because sending relevant messages to subscribers will result in better response rates;
6. The frequency of campaigns received by the recipients. You don’t want to use a list which overwhelms its subscribers thereby creating a bad name for your brand;
7. The supplier follows email best practices;
8. Are there any hidden charges?

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