So what do we mean by that? Of course the source matters for marketing lists. You don’t want to have marketing lists that were scraped from places like Craigslist or forums since these are basically spam fodder and will have almost no value whatsoever. However, even within legitimate marketing lists, there are different ways of obtaining those lists and where the list was obtained matters to your future success as a marketer.
The Worst Kind of Marketing Lists
As we noted previously, you don’t want marketing lists that are scraped from sites like craigslist or forums. The reason is twofold: first, these people are the least likely to make a purchase from you of whatever product you happen to have for sale. Second, by using such marketing lists, you are basically asking to be sued under the CAN SPAM Act. It can and does happen on a regular basis and can break a small company if you use such shoddy materials.
How Most Marketing Lists Are Gathered
Okay, now that we have the obligatory mention of the crap lists out of the way, let’s talk about how most marketing lists are developed. The way it works for most such lists is that people will sign up at a website for a newsletter or other Email service and they’ll get some kind of a free product, be it a video or an eBook or something else in exchange for signing up. These kinds of lists are legitimate marketing lists and you can certainly use them for your Email campaigns.
The trouble however is that such lists are still largely the modern equivalent of cold calls. You have a list of potential leads, but that’s all you have. Therefore, your sell through rate is going to be pretty low and you’re not going to make as many sales through such a list as you might through other marketing lists.
Personal Marketing Lists
We’re calling these personal marketing lists for lack of a better term. This is where a person has done more than just download a free eBook. They’ve interacted with a company and spent real money with them, buying a product. Or, if they haven’t done that, they’ve at least spent time at the website and have actually shown real interest.
These kinds of relationships are stronger for the company that built the list but not so strong for you. The way you make marketing lists like this strong for you is to trade on the name of the company that they already have a relationship with.
You would in essence rent the marketing list from the company and have them send out an Email blast on your behalf with your name and your website link in the Email. The owner of the list would refer to you as their “good friend” and they would endorse your product. The nice thing is that you don’t have to build your own list and you have a much better chance of a sell through with marketing lists like this.
Your Own List
Finally, you have your own marketing lists. These lists are built from a variety of sources, including those who responded to lists you purchased or to lists you “rented” as well as people who signed up directly on your website for your products and services. Ultimately however, we recommend starting with one of the options above so that you can eventually build your own marketing list up and make sales to it.