Types of Email Marketing Lists

There are three types of email lists used for email marketing. It is important to know what type of list is being referred to or reported on when it comes to performance metrics. It is like comparing apples to oranges and can provide very misleading expectations.

Following are the three types:

• CRM - Current customer database or house file which will always out perform the two mentioned below by very high percentages.
• Third Party - Homogeneous group of people such as readers of a specific magazine like Tennis Magazine or Golf Magazine. This list type will perform decently because of being highly targeted but you can expect to pay premiums to use it.
• Compiled Data – This is aggregated data brought together to build a database from a variety of opt-in sources. Typically this will include publishers, sweepstakes, consumer survey data, retailers, etc… This type of list will not perform as well as the two mentioned above but is good if you are looking for large volumes and can overall with other targeted information like demographics and other behavioral targeting selects. The pricing is much more affordable than a 3^rd party ‘subscription’ type list.

Know what type of list you are using and set expectations accordingly.

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