Email List Size – One Size Does Not Fit All
In the world of email marketing, the difference between success and failure often boils down to one thing – deliverability.
This year at CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference), a group of conservative email managers and brokers met together to discuss the often overlooked or misunderstood topic of deliverability. The meeting was co-hosted by Mustard Seed Interactive (MSI) and Viguerie Political Lists.
I am part of the Mustard Seed Interactive team that suggested this meeting – it is our belief that MANY that work in this space have similar problems from time to time, and likely employ varying methods (with varying levels of success) to address them.
So our goal was to bring smart folks together to discuss the various solutions we’ve seen work, so that everyone would leave the meeting knowing more than when they walked in.
To help kick things off, David Keene from Viguerie distributed an article he had written on email deliverability. The Mustard Seed Interactive team was impressed with the incredible thoroughness and usefulness of David’s piece, and later asked him if we could share more broadly. He graciously agreed – that article can be found at http://www.politicaldonorlists.com/email-deliverability.
As we heard from the agencies in attendance, one of the most common themes that emerged was the importance of having high-quality, up-to-date lists. Having a huge email list, full of addresses belonging to people that are disengaged, is not only a waste of resources – it will likely cause major deliverability issues when the list is put to use.
It’s often record quality – not record quantity – that will drive the overall success of a client’s campaign or program. So whether a list has just a few thousand email addresses or many millions, the thing to look for is how well the audience is actually engaging with the emails.
Simply stated, how many of those that receive an email open it? How often do those that open click a link? And how often do those that click a link take the next step of buying a product or making a donation?
More often than not, we see that very large lists achieve much lower true engagement compared against smaller, more defined and targeted lists.
For example, let’s say you work for an Animal Shelter, and your goal is to raise funds to build a new facility. And let’s say you have the option of sending an email to 200,000 people that you know nothing about (and who may not open emails that often), or sending an email to 20,000 people that are known animal activists – individuals who have given money to similar causes in the past six months from an email campaign. All other things being equal, you would likely raise much more money from the smaller list.
And that’s why working with a quality list company is so important – they can share with you the most recent data on the engagement level of a list you are considering, as well as detail on what type of people the list is made up of.
If you have questions about which lists you should use to achieve your campaign goals, Mustard Seed Interactive is here to help.
Roger Rayburn is the Operations Director of Mustard Seed Interactive. He can be reached at roger@mustardseedinteractivellc.com.
