Building and Warming Your New Email List

So, you're thinking about emailing your prospects in North America and your not sure where to start.  Perhaps you've considered purchasing email marketing lists.  Purchasing email marketing lists means different things to different people and has different consequences for improper use.  Purchasing Email Lists can be a slippery slope as American's like to say.
But assuming you do decide to move forward, where do you begin and what is good conduct for doing so?

THE GREAT EMAIL LIST DEBATE
There are many different ways to build your email database, but one of the ones most commonly done by companies entering the North American marketplace is purchased lists.  There are many forms of purchased lists that you can consider.  A few of the more common ones include:

• Acquisition.  This may be a dangerous area for you to consider and we do not recommend it.  Outright acquisition of lists often seem to good to be true.  Often the offers come sounding something like “buy 1,000,000 emails for $199 USD.” Don’t do it.  Beyond the CAN-SPAM laws clearly prohibiting these practices, these types of lists are commonly sold and resold, are rarely relevant to the specific audience you are trying to reach and may send you straight into potentially legal and if not certainly logistic troubles with American SPAM filters.  Oh, and don't think your company isn't subject to our laws outside of the US borders because our government has already begun prosecuting non-citizens.
   
• Email Advertising.  This is a GREAT way to introduce your product/service to North America.  Find the publications or Ezines that hit right into your target market and advertise in their email blasts.  You won't have access to the actual lists, but done correctly, you can build up your own in-house lists from those individuals who click on your message and register on your Web site or landing page.  There are many factors to consider when you go down this path and AmeriStart has services that can help you properly execute on this to make sure you don't waste your budget experimenting with this.
   
• Email Appending.  In North America, this type of process is becoming more common.  This is the process of adding email addresses to your existing postal record file.  It really applies when you have already collected a database of North American contacts that only has postal and possibly telephone contact information.  Service providers can take your list and suppress it against their database.  Expect 20-50% matches on B2B lists and  15-35% on B2C lists.  Watch out when doing this type of email acquisition, there are many factors to consider when doing so.  Again, while I'm not trying to sound too much like a pitchman, you should definitely consider seeking trusted advice on this by contacting AmeriStart and their marketing team.

WARM THEM UP TO YOU
Thanks to my new friend Jon Morrow who inadvertently reminded me to cover this in my blog today. 
So you have the list, now its time to warm it.  Warming a list is the process of slowly and cautiously building a relationship with the individual contacts on your new email list.  Lets face it, in North America, if they don't know, trust and/or love you, you may get a lot of complaints and damage your actual ability to further market and generate sales.
Typically, when you are trying to warm up a list, you don't pitch them on your product.  You either...

• Offer something of value at no charge
• Try to get feedback from them
• Send relevant news that would be of interest to them

When done correctly, you can build up a rapport with the new audience and ultimately you will gain their trust.  Be sure to ask them to "white list" you in their email program to help your reputation.
BOTTOM LINE
The bottom line for you when considering email as a primary form of marketing in your North American expansion may be the most cost effective, but it can also be a Pandora's box.  You need to remember that SPAM is anti-American in most people's eyes and we are all sick of it.  Don't get that reputation by engaging in activities that brand you as a spammer.  It's not easy to do it the right way, but it does pay off.