Are you thinking of using a company to compile a direct email marketing list for you? These guys go under lots of names; "direct email", "direct marketing", "email appending".
If you are, there's something you should be aware of; some of them are dishonest about the source of their addresses.
They claim to have only "opt-in" addresses in their lists, where people have signed up to get email about products or offers in certain subjects. Opt-in sounds like a good thing; all these people have expressed an interest in getting told about products or offers like yours. Brilliant!
But what if these companies are lying about the provenance of their email addresses? What if they've actually have harvested them from webpages and public forums and the like?
Using these companies will mean that your advertising isn't delivered to people who've expressed an interest in your product, but to people who are just sick of getting spam in their mailboxes. Those people are likely to be lost forever as possible customers. They'll regard your company as dishonest and fraudulent as the mailing list constructor.
Reputations take years to build and only seconds to lose -- is it worth taking that chance with your reputation?
How do we know these companies are misrepresenting themselves and their products? Well, it's simple; They email us, often telling us that the addresses that they're mailing opted into their lists. The problem is that the addresses their emails arrive at CANNOT send email and have never been subscribed to any other lists or mail services. So they can only have got the addresses in one of two ways; guessed at it or read it off a webpage.
Either way, they're selling the addresses as known, valid addresses that have opted to receive information -- essentially, you're buying junk if you use these guys. Half the addresses will be wrong guesses and the other half will be people who will hate you forever and never be your customers.
There are reputable direct marketing companies out there, but these guys aren't on that list.
| www.sourcelists.co.uk | They say their lists are opt-in, but we know differently... |
| www.DataChampions.net, 08450 093 552 / 0800 032 0926 | They make a big thing about their lists being "opt-in". Each of their adverts says that the mailing address has opted to receive the email, but since they're sending it to addresses which CANNOT send mail, they're a fraud. Check out this report that they're not even complying with local laws, never mind UK ones.. http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~levine/spam/SloanMarketing/ |
| iMarketingZone aka www.tracksmartz.com aka www.leadszone.com | What they say; "iMarketingzone is a Precision targeted internet Marketing company with over 150 Million opt-in B2B and B2C names." -- the reality is that we know they're absolute liars, because we get email arriving at addresses which are neither businesses nor consumers and definitely have never opted in to anything. |
| ListsSourceWhat they say:"Direct Mail does the best job of providing customers with the information they want in the way they want it." What they do? The lists they sell you contain millions of email addresses of people who already hate them and will hate YOU and YOUR BUSINESS by association. "All of our lists are 100% Opt-In and we strongly oppose any use of lists that are not." Their lists CANNOT be opt in, because the control addresses we use have never signed up to them -- they are a FRAUD. | |
| optinbuilders.biz | Yet another shower of fraudsters; they claim to have opt-in lists, but AGAIN, they're being sent to addresses that cannot have opted in and must have been guessed at. Their website says "We only send emails to a client.s customer, or to a client.s prospect where they have requested similar information in advance (opted in). We do not send .Spam. or unsolicited email where the recipient has no pre-existing business relationship with the sender." This is a complete and utter lie. Remember -- work with these people and their lie will reflect on YOU. |
| www.emailappenders.biz |
These guys are, in fact, optinbuilders.biz
It shows you what a great business they must have if they have to keep changing the name. Why would they change their name do you think? The answer is; to get round people's spam filters. Their adverts are annoying enough that people filter their domain. This company claims their product is "active email addresses with fully opted-in permissions" but they themselves get blacklisted for being unrepentant spammers and liars.. The email addresses they supply you aren't going to be at all happy to hear from you, and will regard you as just as fraudulent as they are. |
| www.listgalaxy.net / www.reallists.com |
Sigh. The same old pitch. "Targetted" direct emailing to validated
addresses in "full compliance with all Do Not Call rules" and "CAN
SPAM" compliant. And here they are, spamming addresses which have never opted in. Notice how none of these people have an actual product? That should probably tell you something. | B2BListGalaxy |
Hey up. They're at it again. With a new name this time. I'd recommend not doin g business with the kind of people who keep needing to change their business name. They're probably avoiding people. So their pitch is still the same. They claim that all their lists are opt-in, and that everyone they send mail to on your behalf will be happy the recieive it. But still, we know different. They're just a bunch of spammers and using them is going to piss off your potential customers. BOOOORING!!! Get a new business model! One that isn't FRAUD! |
| www.theukemailmarketingshop.com |
We've got a new contender. In their FAQ they try and flog you "premier lists". It says "All of our consumer premier lists are 'double opt-in' which means that they have agreed to recieve emails informing them of new products or services." They're selling you something they don't have, and which will damage your business if you use them.. |
So, do you think your business ought to be considered to be dishonest? Because if you pick the wrong mailing list supplier it will be. There are real players out there, who really do operate proper opt-in lists, and the benefit to using them is that your adverts will get sent to people who want them, not to millions of people who will never want to hear from you again. Choose carefully now...
| Dunlop Mills | Our first contestant in a new category. These Swindon and Romanian based hucksters are bulkmailing people off a CD they bought from someone down the pub. Note with laughter the "Dunlop Mills contacts 'opt-in' addresses only" claim, when they're clearly just spammers. They also claim to be chartered accountants, but apparently the The Institute of Chartered Accountants no longer has them as members. Two lies in their first contact with customers. Not bad going. I wonder how well they'll audit your accounts given that? I'd steer clear if I were you and go with a proper firm that doesn't need to spam people to generate business. Think about it -- if they were any good, would they be mailing random email addresses to drum up trade? |
| Swinton Insurance | Another new category; people who think it's acceptable to have someone else spam people for them. I guess actual spamming is too dirty a job for someone like Swinton to do so they hired the greasy bastards at ClearChannel to do it for them. Maybe they think they won't look so bad if they're not /technically/ stealing resources.... Or maybe we'll recognise them for unscrupulous practitioners and people will avoid them? |