A list broker is much more than someone who sells you a list of names. They specialize in the marketing world and can track the best approaches to take when starting an email marketing campaign. They work with you from start to finish on your project, while the list suppliers are only there when you buy the list.  You discuss with the list broker what kind of target audience you’re looking to send your emails to. The broker can decide if your plan will benefit your company or not and help you to develop a wider target audience if necessary. The ideal list broker will have already worked with at least one other company that sold products to the same kind of target market as you, so they’ll know which direction you should take and can quickly develop a list of email addresses for you that would best suit your interests.

The list brokers then help you develop your email campaign message and send it out for you. They track everything from the responses, the click-through rate, and any opt out requests the recipients make. They conform to all of the spam laws while getting your service out to a wider customer base. You don’t actually see the email list like you would a direct mailing list, because you’re only renting the list from the broker company, but you’re paying for an efficient service that not only saves you time, but money as well.

How Do I Know If the List Is Good? When buying an email list for leads, it’s no different than buying a used car. You don’t know if the product will turn out to be a lemon for you or a great asset. All too often, marketers have jumped the gun and purchased these lists without taking the time to check it out to see if what they’re buying is going to provide them with good results or not.

Here are some tips to help you make the right purchasing decision:

A Lot for a Little. This is an easy way to remember this tip. If you’re looking to buy a list that will provide mega amounts of email addresses for a cheaper price than the average-sized list sells for, you may end up with a large portion of addresses that are outdated. Some of these suppliers are just out for a quick buck, so choose your list wisely and don’t go for the huge lists just because they’re cheaper.  If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Guarantee of Huge Response Rate. If the list supplier tells you that they guarantee you will get a huge response rate, don’t believe them. No one can tell you what your response rate will be. It’s possible to give you an idea of what your chances might be, based on past experiences, which is usually what a list broker will do.

What Are Their Reviews? Don’t be afraid to check around and research them to see if anyone has bought from them. Find out what kind of experiences others had with this supplier. Check the Internet to see if anyone has mentioned this company’s name elsewhere and see if they talk about them in a satisfactory or unsatisfactory way. These are the best tips to keep in mind when buying lists from suppliers. There’s no guarantee that you won’t still get a bad list, but this will help keep your risk low and your chance of success a bit higher.

Now that you’ve purchased your email list, you want to make sure you use it to your advantage and hopefully get a good return on your investment. First and foremost, remember that these are fresh leads to you - people who haven’t bought your products yet. Don’t jump right into a hard-sale, or else a huge portion of the leads will get a negative impression of you because they don’t know you yet and you’re already aggressively trying to sell them something. Keep them separate until you make your first sale with them. Then you can move them over to the new list. This will help you sort out any bad addresses and will help you collect data from the response rate you get from these consumers in order to plan future email marketing campaigns.

Don’t give up. A lot of consumers take more time to decide if they want your products. Take a look at your response rate and see if you could change the way you’re trying to sell to them.  Using a different approach may work to your benefit, so test the waters and see if you can get a better response rate using a different strategy.  Timing is important in email marketing campaigns. Make your introduction to the fresh leads right away and periodically send them other emails to basically remind them that you’re there and what it is that you do. Waiting too long in between emails can force them to move on to someone else, because they can easily forget about you.

Don’t send too often. Sending them emails daily about your company is only going to drive them to opt out. If you come across as annoying to them, they may feel like you’re a spammer. Don’t send them right around holidays unless you’re just wishing them and leaving out the sales pitch. People are usually too busy to be bothered by these emails when a holiday is right around the corner. Email lists are an effective way to obtain fresh leads in order to widen your customer base. If you use them wisely, they can bring you a positive return on your investment.