How to Rent Email Lists to Perfect Your Mailing List Advertising

The decision to rent email lists can be one of the wisest decisions that a marketer could ever make. However, it can also be one of the priciest. Without a clear understanding of how these leads were initially collected, nurtured and then sometimes beaten into email submission it's hard to know if your investment will yield even any tangible ROI.

Most of us at some point have rented email lists from a time or another for marketing . There's nothing wrong with this per se. What's not appropriate, however, is using these lists indiscriminately and then not being disciplined enough to make sure those people who've signed up have actually seen the content your marketing material actually offers them. To ensure you don't end up like this, we have taken the liberty of compiling some tips on how to make sure you don't rent email lists for the wrong reasons...

First, do you work with a list broker? If you are serious about building an effective email list then working directly with a list owner via an email list broker (also referred to as a list broker) would be the smartest move. The main advantage of working directly with the list owner is that you get the advantage of one-on-one marketing experience. List brokers typically charge a fee for their services but the resulting ROI can easily far outweigh the costs involved.

Secondly, before you decide to rent email lists remember that it's best not to get started until you've gathered an appropriate niche. Niche marketing is very important and should be at the top of your list before you begin looking for a list rental service. By niche we mean specific segments of customers. For example, if you are a mortgage broker then it would make little sense to start email marketing to homeowners, unless you specifically cater to mortgage professionals. Similarly, if you are a real estate agent then it would make little sense to target the children's section of an email marketing list.

Once you have decided on a niche and/or segmentation strategy for choosing a list rental service then its time to choose a targeted list. It is best to focus all your efforts on just a few key prospects or target markets, as this will enable you to better direct your emails to these people and get more responses. To rent email lists one of two options are available: buying email lists or looking to build your own list. Many people opt to buy lists as they believe doing so gives them a higher return on investment; however, purchasing lists can also come with a number of disadvantages.

For starters, you must carefully select the recipients of your emails. Buying lists can be tricky and many of us have ended up with the wrong lists either because we were unaware that we were not targeting the right audience or we did not choose our recipients carefully. In addition, many people report that they bought the wrong target audience lists as soon as the first contact was made. The key here is to carefully select those individuals who can actually benefit from what you are selling or services to them. When renting email lists you must remember that the purpose is to rent the list not to make money off of it. There are a number of factors to consider when selecting a target audience:

The first thing to consider when renting email lists is to make sure the list you are renting is indeed targeted. Don't just choose anyone because it's cheap. You need to make sure that the audience you are targeting is actually interested in the type of product and services you offer. If you are renting email lists, make sure you carefully select recipients based on demographics. You should check with the Better Business Bureau to see whether or not that particular list has been reported to the BBB for any complaints.

When you are selecting your target audience, also make sure that you are doing so with an eye toward getting the best results possible. Those who don't have the best intentions can quickly rack up an enormous bill by flooding their opt-in lists with countless marketing emails that are little more than junk mail. This is why it is important to carefully select your subscribers and only rent email lists that are appropriate for your purposes. Opt-in marketing emails with the sole intent to sell something or make money are best left to the companies that really care about getting people to sign up for their mailing lists.