E-Mail Mailing Lists - worth the money?

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I'm sure you receive daily promises of e-mail lists with millions of e-mail addresses on them. They all promise to be "clean" e-mail addresses, of course. Some may even say that they can target your audience. Are they worth the investment? Probably not. Most of these companies "glean" e-mail addresses from existing websites. One might think that was a good thing if the site is from a particular market. The truth is that most of the e-mails at websites are "aliases" - they point to another e-mail address. This could be the address of a customer service person, administrative assistant, sales person or other non-decision maker.

There are only a few industries where the e-mail addresses shown at websites are useful: those that need to reach the webmaster and those that need to reach sales personnel. Typically, these are the two main recipients of website generated e-mail. If your industry needs to reach engineering, plant maintenance, company executives, etc. don't buy one of these lists.

So where do you find a good e-mail list? Start with your current customer base. They know you and will be more receptive to receiving e-mail from you. Next, add an "opt-in" area at your website. This is just a small form that is completed by a site visitor - at their option - where they voluntarily give you their e-mail address. Only someone who has a sincere interest in your product or service would bother to complete such a form.

Is there a way to "capture" someone's e-mail address when they visit your site? I'm asked this often. The answer is "no" - not unless they voluntarily submit it to you. The web browser they are using to view your site and the e-mail program they use to view their e-mail are two separate programs (even though they may be linked). The e-mail address is not among the available information sent when someone comes to your site. You can capture the browser they're using, their operating system, IP address, ISP (Internet Service Provider) and monitor settings - but not e-mail addresses. Operating systems and monitor settings are embedded in the browser setup, the IP address is where they are coming from and the ISP is the domain they are using to connect to the Internet. E-mail address is not required for the browser to work or to access the Internet. In fact, e-mail is stored on a different type of server, a POP server, not a regular Internet server. It is the POP server that your e-mail program visits to send and receive messages.

Web-Kare can setup an opt-in e-mail form at your site if you would like to build a prospecting database. We can also manage your list for you, if you'd like. Please contact us if you have an interest in building and maintaining an e-mail database.