LETTERS

Yay e-mail append article

I just read Mark Del Franco's January cover article, “Risks and rewards of e-mail append,” with great interest. As a player in the e-mail appending space, I have some tips on selecting an e-mail appending vendor:

• Get references from current clients, and call them!

• The e-mails you pay for should be deliverable addresses and credit offered for any bouncing e-mail addresses. Cleaning out typos, errors, and known undesirable addresses should be part of the process.

• You should receive not just “deliverable” e-mail addresses, but addresses that your customers have identified as their preferred addresses for e-mail.

• Your vendor's database should be 100% opt-in, and in case of dispute, your vendor should be able to provide an information source and registration date for every record. Also, your results file should be accompanied by an opt-out list.

• Your vendor should adhere to all Can-Spam regulations and run all required suppressions, including suppressing against your own opt-out list.

E-mail appending is a frequently requested service. It is important to make sure we are moving ahead conscientiously, and that we protect our clients as well as grow their businesses.
Austin C. Bliss
President, FreshAddress

Boo e-mail append article

I must say that your article on e-mail appending was way off base. I ran the e-mail append service for Equifax and have provided clients with more than 50 million appended e-mail addresses, and the number of complaints has been less then 100.

E-mail addresses change, and that's why I encourage my customers to immediately broadcast the appended addresses, as I guarantee them for 30 days. We send a welcome e-mail to the appended list explaining why they are being contacted and giving them the chance to opt out. Further, the welcome e-mail allows us to confirm delivery, and we do not charge or provide e-mail addresses that bounce or opt out. The gross match rate before the welcome e-mail ranges from 14%-20%, about 30% bounce, and less then 1% opt-out.

The article stated: “But if one-channel customers had wanted you to contact them via the additional channel of e-mail, argue opponents, they would already have provided you with their e-mail address. Therefore, you're less likely to enjoy any lift in response or lifetime value from customers who are being contacted in a channel they didn't request.” This is flat-out wrong. In my experience e-mail addresses provided by appending respond the same way as e-mail addresses acquired via other means. I had one client whose appended addresses generated the same average order as all other e-mail addresses when provided the same offer. The revenue generated by the appended addresses more than paid for the data on the first broadcast.

The current drop in the cost of appended records to as low as $0.04 per record has increased the attractiveness of the program. Further, appending e-mails that bounce helps companies keep contact with people who have changed their e-mail addresses.
Scott Shabot
Founder, Emailappend.net