What Marketers Should Demand From an E-Mail List

In this age of declining open and click-through rates, marketers are researching their e-mail test lists more thoroughly. And rightfully so.

So what should you know before you rent an e-mail list?

One thing to understand is the opt-in /opt-out policies of the list owner. Knowing that you are targeting a quality subscriber file can make a big difference on your return on investment.

It’s also helpful to know the projected bounce rate, since they can help you anticipate the actual delivery rate of your campaign. For example, we add an additional percentage of names where possible to cover those projected bounce rates, and deliver the desired quantity for each order.

List orders in this space often have several specific selections associated with each blast, usually within a highly defined universe. The combination of targeted selects and proper research can make a strong impact on the success of your e-mail campaign, translating to more click-throughs and an overall better response.

How your e-mail reads and looks is also essential. The overall creative composition of your promotion should have an immediate call to action, with clear and concise messaging. Use all your resources for advice on improvements. Work in partnership with your list broker and the e-mail list manager to deliver the best possible results.

Marketers should also think about improving their spam scoring. More and more e-mails are being filtered and bounced, due to bad copy or the underlying coding. Becoming more proactive in reducing this number can help.

The subject line is a factor here. Subject lines should be a “teaser” of the content to come. Always be to the point, and keep your e-mail copy simple. Avoid obvious traps like using the word “free” or typing in all caps.

Have your copy checked for spam scoring, as the coding behind your copy could affect the performance of you campaign. Another good tip is to make sure the overall copy file size is around 40K, as anything much larger can trigger filtering and swell your bounce rate.

Turker Hassan is the interactive department manager at Danbury, CT-based list firm Statlistics.