What to do with 12.5 Million leads? (these are not purchased leads)

First think about where you're going to handle mailing on a list of that size. I recommend your own server.

I do own my own server Thanks

I could certainly be interested in renting some of that list from you. How much would you charge for that?

John Burton

you need to let the list know what is happening, and that you are taking over the company, start letting them know about the excting new changes

If you can break that list up into demographics, and they're opt-in, I would be interested in a bulk mail.

DONATE them to warrior forum dedicated members.
Why not?

Find a way to segment (ie- target) the list and break them down into categories to be mailed on a regular basis by interest. A 12.5 million e-mail list is VERY powerful. It'll be even more powerful if you can segment it so as to sen out more targeted e-mails more frequently to people looking for specific type of info.

Some of the replies to this thread, honest to god make me cringe.

Definitely inform them of the changes happening to the company, changes perhaps you'll be making in the future, who you are, what you do, how you're gonna improve the quality of service they recieve.

mm365,

The most important part of having a list is let them get to know you. Write an email telling them about you the new owner. People respond better to someone they know.

The first thing that occurs to me is that this list doesn't sound like it is very targeted. So when you say "vetted", I am very skeptical.

First off, I am no expert. I am just saying this from things that I have learned and or read on this forum. You state that she mails out to a half million twice a month. I am not sure if that means 250K twice a month for a half million, or 500K twice a month for a million. But either way, you state that she grosses $5K per month from doing this. If the list was a decent list, they from what I have read, she should be making $1 per list member. And you are telling us that she is grossing a penny, I think.

Did I misread your post? Am I wrong with the $1 per member? I don't know, but that is what I have been led to believe. Don't know what you are paying for this business, but I hope that you have run the numbers and are not being taken advantage of. Frankly it sounds to me like a lot of the members of this list are dead wood. But I could be way wrong.

Kind of makes one wonder why you would buy it without having a plan in place for what to do with it. It's not like she let it go for a song if she was making that kind of money with it.

You might be right Jill. I thought it was per month, but I am not sure. Either way, it seems to be falling way short.

I agree with those that have said that the OP should have figured this out way before agreeing to the sale. I fear a high probability of buyers remorse if he goes through with it. There may well be a gem in all of this, but it looks to me, from the little information we have, that it is going to need some real work to get it nice and shiny to produce the income it should be producing.

Thank you all for your comments.

Yes, you can say I should have thought about the database (DB) more, but I was more interested in the business as it is earning on autopilot already. The DB is simply a "perk" in the deal - so to speak.

I should have also mentioned that the 12.5million consumer DB isn't ALL from the company I am buying - she has a list which has been built through a number of different businesses she owns... however I made her a deal which means I get her full DB.

I know there is money to be made in having such a large list (even if I was to sell it on myself)... which is why I made the deal to include the DB. However I just wondered if any of you knew the places to go with it...

list brokers? any experience?
bulk email software? reviews?

But most importantly... what steps should I take in order to get them all to opt-in to my list without spamming them in the first place?

Thanks

Daniel

And in addition to my last post:

She also said in her last email that they (the database) are ACTIVE records ("active" meaning the ones she's now emailing, having known the DB is good). She averages a 85-95% deliverability.

I then asked: "are any of the mailing addresses old?"

she states: oh yes, the DB was over 60mm before I bought the companies that compile the data. I've pulled out over 20mm in the last 6 months and I'm about to finish shaving off the rest of the fat. The ones you receive, however, should not be, no. I'll write this into our purchase agreement

So I am confident that the DB I get will be good leads.

I just need to know what to do with it!

Daniel,

first of all: I am not a lawyer. This post is solely based on common sense and my own experiences as subscriber of lists. Please don't take it as anything else.

Does she always send to the same 500k? Or does she alternate? In the first case, most of these people haven't gotten an email from her for quite a while. Even in the second case, they haven't gotten more than one or two emails per year.

So: How many active and interested subscribers are really on that list? And how might they react to getting what might be a lot more emails than before?


Will you get the segmenting information as well? Or just one big bulk of email addresses? (disclaimer: don't know if it's legal to sell this kind of information -- please check!)

Now, from a subscriber's point of view:

• I signed up for the mailing list of company X a couple of years ago.
• The subscription page promised infos on home-brewing.
• I got a few emails, but not much or nothing recently.

• Now I get an email from company Y, seemingly unrelated to company X, which welcomes me to their business/mailing list and promises to send me interesting information on homeschooling.

Hm. Guess what I would do?

From my personal standpoint (again, not a lawyer): You are taking over one of her companies (do you keep the company name?). All of the other email lists are bought from other companies (btw, do they count as purchased leads in a legal sense??).

The nicest intro would be, if the old owner could send them an note like "I am retiring from this business, but Daniel XX is taking over, and he is so competent because, and he will continue to send you even more valuable information on TOPIC_YOU_SIGNED_UP_FOR, and I'm so happy on both your and my behalf for that deal.

Then, you'd introduce yourself again and explain them what you plan for that newsletter. And of course, send them the promised info.

Also, keep in mind that a lot of subscription pages promise people that their data would never be sold or shared...

Again, I am not a lawyer. But if I'd be a subscriber to one of those lists, I'd be much more likely to accept such an approach than simply getting a bulk email from a company or guy I've likely never heard of. (Don't forget possible spam complaints when you run your own server!)

Hope these thoughts help,

milkyway

Wow, nice deal you got there.

I think it's only right for you to start by introducing
yourself to all of them.

You're a marketer... you know how to warm them up
to yourself. Simple - give them a free digital product
once or twice and then start offering something for
sale.

They'll love you.

Asher

To be honest,

I think it would be too big of a headache to use the list myself - I mean, I already have my own built up list of 140,000, which I have built up through the traditional way (sales page visitors and product buyers) and that for me is sufficient.

Most experts in the online world of IM know that it's much better to have a smaller list of people who KNOW ME and KNOW MY STUFF than it is to have a much larger list of people who simply have no idea who I am nor what I sell.

So having thought about it - I believe I will look into going down the route of renting the list out. However I have no idea (yet) of how this is done.

Therefore, if anyone here has experience in that field - I am all ears!

Thanks,

Daniel

Hey Daniel,

You have a list of 140,000 people so I'm guessing you know how to treat your subscribers. You know how to take care of them and nurture them.

With that being said, I'm guessing that there are MAYBE a handful of people here (not including myself...I'm a newbie to lists, but I know what I want in my emails) that know how to handle a list of 12.5 million people.

If she was getting 5K out of 500,000 subscribers, I think it's safe to say that you're not dealing with a very responsive list of people. I have my doubts about this list.

Call me a skeptic, but I have a hard time believing she at one point had a list of over 60 million people. I can't imagine how much a list of 60 MILLION people is worth!!

Regardless, treat them well. Be up front and honest with them. Give them what they expected when they first subscribed and more! Get them excited about their new list owner.

Just my $.02