Comments on: Email non-viable for acquisition http://blog.wordtothewise.com/2008/05/email-non-viable-for-acquisition/ Spam, delivery, email and more Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:38:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Word to the Wise » Recent comments http://blog.wordtothewise.com/2008/05/email-non-viable-for-acquisition/#comment-14348 Word to the Wise » Recent comments Tue, 27 May 2008 05:00:24 +0000 http://blog.wordtothewise.com/?p=143#comment-14348 [...] my Email non-viable for acquisition post, Josh disagreed. He says I think saying that “email is not viable for customer acquisition” might be too broad [...] [...] my Email non-viable for acquisition post, Josh disagreed. He says I think saying that “email is not viable for customer acquisition” might be too broad [...]

]]> By: Joshua Baer http://blog.wordtothewise.com/2008/05/email-non-viable-for-acquisition/#comment-13760 Joshua Baer Wed, 14 May 2008 14:08:33 +0000 http://blog.wordtothewise.com/?p=143#comment-13760 I agree that purchased lists are a bad idea and extremely difficult, if not impossible, to maintain acceptable complaint rates with. But I think saying that "email is not viable for customer acquisition" might be too broad of a statement. I wouldn't have any problem with "Purchasing lists is not viable for customer acquisition" There are lots of ways to do customer acquisition through email without purchasing a list. Services like CoolSavings can provide customer acquisition through email messages that have a lot of similarity to the direct mail model. People love to sign up for email lists that send them coupons, travel specials, new gadgets and sweepstakes. When users receive a message from one of these lists, it looks a lot like direct mail. The body of the email is primarily an advertisement. Better lists have strong branding that the user recognizes. But I know lots of examples of companies that are able to provide a list "rental" instead of actually selling the list without going over the complaint thresholds and while maintaining whitelists at all the ISPs. I agree that purchased lists are a bad idea and extremely difficult, if not impossible, to maintain acceptable complaint rates with.

But I think saying that “email is not viable for customer acquisition” might be too broad of a statement. I wouldn’t have any problem with “Purchasing lists is not viable for customer acquisition”

There are lots of ways to do customer acquisition through email without purchasing a list. Services like CoolSavings can provide customer acquisition through email messages that have a lot of similarity to the direct mail model. People love to sign up for email lists that send them coupons, travel specials, new gadgets and sweepstakes.

When users receive a message from one of these lists, it looks a lot like direct mail. The body of the email is primarily an advertisement. Better lists have strong branding that the user recognizes. But I know lots of examples of companies that are able to provide a list “rental” instead of actually selling the list without going over the complaint thresholds and while maintaining whitelists at all the ISPs.

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