Precisely Targeted E-Mail Lists

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"How difficult is it to obtain e-mailing lists for Utah and Idaho persons who are or may be interested in home ownership?" -- Ken Stone, Security-Quest Financial Services

Two approaches you might consider:

1. E-Mail List Company. You could contact a company that has collected millions of permission-based e-mail addresses such as PostMasterDirect (www.PostMasterDirect.com) or yesmail (www.yesmail.com). Yesmail's basic rate is 18¢ per e-mail address, and an additional 1/2¢ for sorting by ZIP code. You would look for interest categories that describe your target audience among their 50 top level and 700 sub-level interest categories. Send out some test e-mailings of 2,500 to 5,000 address to see which interest categories give you the best results, and then roll out a full-scale e-mailing. Of course, the number of Utah or Idaho residents on such e-mail lists who are actively interested in home ownership may not be a very large number.
2. List Broker. List brokers, such as Direct Media, Inc. (www.directmedia.com/), work with many different companies that rent their lists for postal mailings or e-mailings. For example, they may know of real estate websites that rent lists, as well as lists developed from periodicals or mail order houses. Generally, list owners register the availability of their lists in catalogs that list brokers use to find just the right lists for their clients.

Expect one of these companies to do the e-mailing for you -- you typically won't have the e-mail addresses in your possession. Just be careful to find out just how permission was obtained for any lists you use. For too many companies their "opt-in" procedure is non-existent, which could affect both your campaign's results and your company's reputation with the recipients.