How to Profit from Large Email and Address Database?

19 replies
Hi Everyone,

I could do with some help from your all.

I have a large database of customer emails and home addresses which I would like to start turning into profit. The past email shots have produced hardly any results and I am not sure what I am doing wrong.

Majority of email shots have been targeted with the best selling products from the category they have purchased before. But response was almost 0!

Any tips on getting the list active would be appreciated
#address #database #email #large #profit
  • Profile picture of the author DIABL0
    I have been monetizing data for over 16 years. I have some questions.

    How large is the data?
    How old is the data?
    Did you buy the data?
    How are you sending it?
    Do you know the domain make up of the data?
    Do you have seeds accounts for the top domains and test your deliverability?
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    • Profile picture of the author ukmarketing01
      Originally Posted by DIABL0 View Post

      I have been monetizing data for over 16 years. I have some questions.

      How large is the data? - 20k +
      How old is the data? - ranges from 4 years to current
      Did you buy the data? no
      How are you sending it? only few sets of promotions have been sent.
      Do you know the domain make up of the data? Not sure what you mean by this?
      Do you have seeds accounts for the top domains and test your deliverability? - Again need more help on this?
      How large is the data? - 20k +
      How old is the data? - ranges from 4 years to current
      Did you buy the data? no
      How are you sending it? only few sets of promotions have been sent.
      Do you know the domain make up of the data? Not sure what you mean by this?
      Do you have seeds accounts for the top domains and test your deliverability? - Again need more help on this?
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      • Profile picture of the author DIABL0
        Originally Posted by ukmarketing01 View Post

        How large is the data? - 20k +
        How old is the data? - ranges from 4 years to current
        Did you buy the data? no
        How are you sending it? only few sets of promotions have been sent.
        Do you know the domain make up of the data? Not sure what you mean by this?
        Do you have seeds accounts for the top domains and test your deliverability? - Again need more help on this?
        When asked how are you sending it, I meant...autoresponder, smtp, other? I might as well also expand and ask who are you using, if a service?

        By domain make up, I am talking about the break down of the domains in the list. What percentage do the obvious big domains make up. What percentage is hotmail, what percentage is gmail, etc... Then are there any other domains that make up a significant percentage?

        The point of knowing this, is so you know what domains you should at a minimum be seeding. Then you can get seed addresses for those domains and use them to test your mailings before sending, so that you know if you are inboxing or not.

        The first thing you need to know is how well you are inboxing. If your inboxing fine, then you can rule it out as being a problem.

        4 years is pretty old. Whatever their interest was at the time, they could have moved on. Under normal circumstances, if you had been mailing the data for the entire 4 years, you would have been removing users that became unresponsive. Since you have not and only mailed a couple offers, you may just be mailing them something they are not interested in any longer.

        What was your open rate and click through rate?
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        • Profile picture of the author ukmarketing01
          When asked how are you sending it, I meant...autoresponder, smtp, other? I might as well also expand and ask who are you using, if a service?

          It's a bespoke mail program using smtp and company name as the domain name which they should be familiar with.


          By domain make up, I am talking about the break down of the domains in the list. What percentage do the obvious big domains make up. What percentage is hotmail, what percentage is gmail, etc... Then are there any other domains that make up a significant percentage?

          That is a good point but I don't have this information to hand but I will get write a script to get this information for me.

          The point of knowing this, is so you know what domains you should at a minimum be seeding. Then you can get seed addresses for those domains and use them to test your mailings before sending, so that you know if you are inboxing or not.


          I know that AOL and few others reject the email as spam.. It seems they are very sensitive to such activity.


          The first thing you need to know is how well you are inboxing. If your inboxing fine, then you can rule it out as being a problem.

          I could do with tracking this into more detail

          4 years is pretty old. Whatever their interest was at the time, they could have moved on. Under normal circumstances, if you had been mailing the data for the entire 4 years, you would have been removing users that became unresponsive. Since you have not and only mailed a couple offers, you may just be mailing them something they are not interested in any longer.

          I would agree with this. But if they are still getting the emails then I would like to know what would be a good way to get them warm again.

          What was your open rate and click through rate?[/QUOTE]

          Again not been tracked very well, but I will look to implement this..
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          • Profile picture of the author DIABL0
            Originally Posted by ukmarketing01 View Post

            When asked how are you sending it, I meant...autoresponder, smtp, other? I might as well also expand and ask who are you using, if a service?

            It's a bespoke mail program using smtp and company name as the domain name which they should be familiar with.


            By domain make up, I am talking about the break down of the domains in the list. What percentage do the obvious big domains make up. What percentage is hotmail, what percentage is gmail, etc... Then are there any other domains that make up a significant percentage?

            That is a good point but I don't have this information to hand but I will get write a script to get this information for me.

            The point of knowing this, is so you know what domains you should at a minimum be seeding. Then you can get seed addresses for those domains and use them to test your mailings before sending, so that you know if you are inboxing or not.


            I know that AOL and few others reject the email as spam.. It seems they are very sensitive to such activity.


            The first thing you need to know is how well you are inboxing. If your inboxing fine, then you can rule it out as being a problem.

            I could do with tracking this into more detail

            4 years is pretty old. Whatever their interest was at the time, they could have moved on. Under normal circumstances, if you had been mailing the data for the entire 4 years, you would have been removing users that became unresponsive. Since you have not and only mailed a couple offers, you may just be mailing them something they are not interested in any longer.

            I would agree with this. But if they are still getting the emails then I would like to know what would be a good way to get them warm again.

            What was your open rate and click through rate?
            Again not been tracked very well, but I will look to implement this..[/QUOTE]


            I know there is a way to use use excel to calculate what percentage each domain makes up. Just don't remember the process. I built a custom program to do it.

            You said aol is getting rejected as spam and some others. You really to know what others, it could possibly be a big problem.

            Do you know what the error code is from AOL?

            This concerns me, you may have some setting problem somewhere or a reputation issue.

            You really need to be able to test and check your deliverability.

            You also really want to know your open and click rate, as that will also shed a lot of light on the situation.

            Did you clean the list of bounces prior to mailing / do you know what your bounce rate is?
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  • Profile picture of the author John Kirby
    Just to reiterate on what Diablo said:

    If you bought the data, then you can realistically expect it to be garbage. These lists are resold hundreds if not thousands of times. They are often old and inaccurate. I think you can probably buy 100k-500k for around $300USD depending on the source.

    In comparison, for me to send one (1) email to one of my vendor's list, I pay $20CPM ($20 per 1,000 names) to send out an email. So for a list of 100k, I'm paying $2,000.

    $300 for 250k Names vs $2,000 for a single email.

    Those lists are garbage.


    If you collected this list yourself selling your own products, and haven't emailed them or kept a relationship alive, then after a 120 Day period (YMMV) they are pretty much brand new customers to you. In this event, you'll need to scrub the list and slowly re-iterate them into a high deliverability sending address. This takes awhile and you'll never get a "quick buck" out of them.
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    • Profile picture of the author DIABL0
      Originally Posted by John Kirby View Post

      If you bought the data, then you can realistically expect it to be garbage.
      There is such a big misconception that purchased data is garbage. That is so far from the truth. It all comes down to using the proper monetization and sending strategies for the type of data it is. You can buy fresh/targeted data real-time and under 24 hours old that can be very responsive. You can also buy data that is old and cheap. However, with aged data you need additional tools/resources to clean it up and identify with in it, which will likely be the most responsive.

      Obviously older data will be less responsive than fresh / targeted data, but again, it all comes down to using the right strategies that will make it cost effective. Additionally, you always want to be collecting your opens / clickers, so that your building a smaller, but very responsive list, so that eventually you will send less and make more each mailing.
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  • Profile picture of the author naveenselvak
    Banned
    That's the mindset many marketers find themselves in when they're on the phone with a list-purchasing company: We need new people to email to feed our sales organization. Acting on that moment of desperation, however, can cause them more long-term (and short-term) harm than good.
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    • Profile picture of the author ukmarketing01
      Originally Posted by naveenselvak View Post

      That's the mindset many marketers find themselves in when they're on the phone with a list-purchasing company: We need new people to email to feed our sales organization. Acting on that moment of desperation, however, can cause them more long-term (and short-term) harm than good.
      Not sure what you mean? This is not a purchased list and we have not been on the phone to anyone to purchase a list in desperation. It's a list we have built through purchases.
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  • Profile picture of the author ukmarketing01
    Thank you for your quick reply.

    I think the best way to you move forward is to get a campaign in place and get the results you have suggested..

    I have been overloading my brain and I think I have come up with something..

    Let me know your thoughts guys and girls.

    It's school holidays in the UK and I would imagine most of the customers on the list will have kids or know someone who has kids.

    So it makes sense to warm them up with a nice free blog post on 'Top 10 Tips to Keep your Kids Busy Through The School Holidays'

    - I could either find some articles online, and use them with a reference to the site or come up with my own content.

    If you guys or girls know of any sites where this type of activity is welcome please do let me know.

    I would think offering them something of benefit for free without selling would get them warm and back on the site.

    Then following this, I could do a Post on 'Top 10 Tips For Parents To Stay Fit Through The Kids School Holidays'

    Following this another blog post with a call to purchase something..

    I look forward to your thoughts..
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  • Profile picture of the author Matthew Iannotti
    Have you bothered to validate any of the emails prior to sending? If your IP reputation tanks, even valid emails you are able to send to will land in the junk folder.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jack Russell
    Have you tried a win back/past customer re-activation campaign with an awesome discount and maybe a bonus or two?
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    • Profile picture of the author Froggys
      Originally Posted by Jack Russell View Post

      Have you tried a win back/past customer re-activation campaign with an awesome discount and maybe a bonus or two?
      Reactivation campaign could actually go well.
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  • Profile picture of the author ukmarketing01
    Thank you for your replies.

    I have tried discounts, special offers but the return was less then 0.01%.. Which I personally think is very low for such list.

    I think I need to get the customers more involved with the company by offering them some value for free prior to trying to sell to them again.

    Anyone have any idea on how to achieve this?
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  • Profile picture of the author Devin@veriAS
    I have tried discounts, special offers but the return was less then 0.01%.. Which I personally think is very low for such list.
    Do you know what your bounce rate was?
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  • Profile picture of the author ukmarketing01
    The overall site bounce rate is around 60% to 70%...

    Why do you ask?
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    • Profile picture of the author DIABL0
      What he was asking is...What is the bounce rate (undeliverables) of the emails you are sending?

      I asked you this before, but you probably missed it.
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      Free Proven Blueprint: http://emailmonetize.com/blueprint/

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  • Profile picture of the author siyaab
    Book, Tape, and Video Buyers
    Seminar Attendees
    Business Executives and Entrepreneurs
    Health Care Professionals and Educators
    Alternative Health, Psychology, and Spirituality Buyers
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  • Profile picture of the author DominickLo
    Your email list must be healthy and database that you have should be relevant to specific industry or country wise as you do business with them. One o the most important fact in email marketing you must write useful content and title so, that your email can easily reach everybody's Inbox not Spam.
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