What are the benefits of purchasing email lists?

I agree with George, I personally have never had success with list rental. It always delivered the most expensive and least qualified leads.

However, I have seen some successes with in-house list building, in other words, doing your own research. You define your ideal prospect profile and use online databases to find prospects and their contact details. You will have to ask for their permission before adding them to an email list though, but at least you know you've added the right people to the list, rather than people who have too much time on their hands and signed up for opt-in lists.

But given the choice, I would suggest building your list organically, for example through events together with partners, creating compelling content (such as webinars), promotion through social media, etc.

Jep is on the money, you need to own a list, not rent it. Outside their comments, you have to look at the e-mail channel first. How effective is your current e-mail platform? What is your deliver-ability/click/sale ratio right for e-mail right now? You could purchase the best list in the world and have the best message/product/offer out there but if you can't get mails into in-boxes then it is a moot point. Past deliver-ability, you must be confident of your conversion process, is it sound?

To answer your questions.
Have you found success from purchasing opt-in email lists? Yes, but I am a fickle customer who has built a relationship with my list vendor. He knows what I expect. I have a deal whereby I only pay for prospects I do not already have and based on CPA.

If you do purchase lists, what metrics do you keep an eye on? Kinda hard to answer, but it comes down to propensity to act in the way you want them to. If you are in the widget business then you want to by a list of deliverable e-mails and accompanying information for existing widget users/buyers or those who are of the qualified to buy demographic.

hope this helps and best regards!

JW

Being a higher caliber lead generation and lead management provider, we have tested all methods of the industry. I can tell you that we do not provide email list generation to our customers because of its low success rate. There are endless companies that specialize in email lists but talk is cheap when dealing with them. Almost all will guarantee a bounce rate of no higher than 20% and any bounced emails over that will be refunded. Typically after implementing the list, your realistic bounce rate will be between 30 - 50%. In the long run it is cheaper for them to simply refund the extra bounces. Keep in mind a good number of customers won't even bother going through the refund process.

Having said that, there are more exclusive email list companies out there however you will find yourself paying upwards or $1.00 per lead. This can get very pricey very quickly.

Email contact should be part of a marketing plan, not a stand alone strategy. Including direct mail, telemarketing, mobile marketing and other advertising will increase your impact.

I agree completely that "organically grown lists" are the best . . .

. . . I also believe that both "inbound" and "outbound" marketing strategies should be considered an integral part of your demand generation "ecosystem".

Injecting "fresh prospects" from external sources into the pipeline is very "organic".

I like to use both "outbound" (i.e. direct mail & email to rented lists are among these techniques) and "inbound" marketing strategies (blogging, tweeting, commenting on a variety of social sites, etc).

When it comes to using outside lists, getting accurate selectivity from the rented list is key (i.e. if you want women, or households with toddlers, or businesses with Mexican suppliers, or HR directors in companies with 1,000+ employees) -- you need to be confident that you're getting precisely that . . .

My advice to you is this: Be very specific with your prospective list providers -- ask about data sources and recency. Always ask for access to the actual data capture form(s) they use. If the prospective vendor can't/won't talk in specific terms about where their data comes from and how often -- move on to a vendor who will.

NOTE: if the vendor is appending/overlaying data that they're using for your selections -- you might want to consider going directly to that source.

. . . there are plenty of very good data/list providers out there who will be very upfront about their data . . .

Once you've got your list(s) in order, think long and hard about the offer.

Generally (depending on what you're selling) don't try to get a sale from a rented list with a one-off email or direct mail communication -- you'll be disappointed.

Try to get the prospect engaged for online communications (i.e. an opt-in, enter to win, registration, etc) -- test a variety of techniques until you find something a control offer, then keep on testing other offers to beat the control.

Also consider dialing up your "Inbound Marketing" efforts -- compelling comments on social sites, blogs, tweets, etc. are capable of generating opt-ins at a VERY low cost.

Some assortment of Inbound techniques along with direct mail & eMail (I suspect) will be your winning combination.

Good luck!