B2B Email Marketing: Why renting third-party lists is among the worst tactics

I heard an offhand comment the other day from an agency marketer who said most of her B2B clients focused their email marketing on rented third-party lists (despite her advice). I thought to myself, Really? That cant be very effective. I looked at some data and found I was right.

Although 46 percent of B2B email marketers use third-party lists:

• Only 11 percent score the tactic at four or five on a five-point scale of effectiveness, with five being the most effective, according to the MarketingSherpa 2011 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report .
• 57 percent score the tactic at one or two

These numbers almost completely reverse when we look at B2B marketers emailing to a house list. About 95 percent of B2B email marketers send to their own lists.

• 67 percent consider the tactic a four or five in terms of effectiveness on a five-point scale, with five being the most effective.
• 5 percent consider it a one or two

For me, these stats help underline the point that high-quality email databases are workhorses in marketing departments, and that marketers need to steer away from thinking about email marketing as advertising.

Love and Respect Your Audience

To elaborate on a point that Brad Bortone made in yesterdays post, I would like to emphasize that effective email marketing is based on relationships. These relationships hinge on expectations. promises. and trust .

This might sound like fluffy marketing-speak, but bear with me. Specifics are coming.

First, people have expectations when they opt into your email program. You need to clearly set these expectations during the opt-in process by describing:

• The content theyll receive in your program
• How often theyll receive emails

Once they opt-in, youve officially promised to meet these expectations. If you fulfill your promise and only send what theyve agreed to, that will build trust. Subscribers will trust your emails will have something they want. That trust translates into higher open and clickthrough rates and helps build an effective program.

If you move outside of the expectations, you are assuming subscribers want something else. Youre breaking your promise. harming your relationship. and undermining trust. Youre encouraging them to click spam, ignore your emails, or (at best) opt-out none of which are good.

So you cannot assume people want your emails. You have to clearly set expectations. keep your promise. build trust and establish good relationships to get good results.

Email Marketing is Not Advertising

Strong email relationships can only come from your house list. On a third-party list, their expectation is to not hear from you. They never opted-in. Youre assuming they want something theyve never asked for, and youre encouraging them to click spam.

Sure, sending to third-party lists can work. But look at the data above. Youre likely better off investing in your database, segmentation, and relevance .

The mindset that were just going to reach people, even if theyd rather be doing something else, is an advertising mindset. Thats what marketers do on television. Id rather be watching Pawn Stars. but instead Im stuck watching ads.

Advertising is great, but its not good email marketing. Good emails are anticipated by subscribers and are relevant to their needs. This is why a good house list is so valuable. Bad emails arrive out of nowhere and interrupt people when theyre doing something else. This is why emailing third-party lists is among the least-effective B2B email marketing tactic today.

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