For some guys reading this, you may feel an association with the title. For everyone else, in-house or the outhouse (but definitely not spam) affects the level of success for your email campaign.

How to build an in-house list
In-house lists (also referred to as permission based emails) have generally been acquired by the company internally. This acquisition may have been through offline competitions, forms, product sales or business card transfers. Online, in-house lists can be generated from web forms, newsletter subscriptions, online purchases & promotions, memberships, or emails themselves.

An in-house list has shown to out perform all other types of lists. In fact, 48% of permission based recipients are curious to read these emails. A further 13% of recipients are actually eagerly waiting to open and read these emails.

Other sources of permission based emails
List providers can supply the next best thing to in-house lists. Though not as effective, this is a good place to start building your own in-house list.

When using such lists (also known as 'rented lists') your objectives may be different. For example, a previous customer who has already bought from you has an established relationship with your company and is more likely to purchase from you again without too much coercion (assuming they're a happy customer). A rented list does not come with any relationship to the customer and should be approached accordingly. (See 'How to write winning emails')

Choosing a list provider
Here are a few helpful hints before you rush out and buy a bunch of emails based on price.

Double opt-in or single opt-in?
It has been proven that you generate twice as many responses to your emails if you choose a double opt-in list (See 'Glossary of Terms'). You will also pay twice as much for a double opt-in list. However, it has also been proven that only approximately 40% of recipients will opt-in for a second time - confirming their original request of receiving specific information. What does this mean? Well if you choose the single opt-in list, you may have to do a fair bit of 'list cleaning' and receive half as many responses (for half the price of course). The question is really a price sensitive issue.

Where does the list really come from?
You're on a web site that requires you to sign up for that free download, newsletter or to buy a product or service. You're then asked if you would also like to receive information about other products and services that may be unrelated to your initial request. Consumers, who make up this list, although they loosely fall into the 'permission' based email category, usually provide the lowest of response rates - albeit far better than spamming.

Further to this, you should also scrutinise the sign-up page that list providers use. Does the sign-up page clearly indicate what people are agreeing to? Does the form have a pre-checked or pre-selected box (also known as 'negative opt-in') or does the user select these boxes manually?The later here is the preferred method.

Is the list provided by a reputable source?
Do you know anyone who has used the services of the list provider? Do they display testimonials or past campaigns or a list of customers on their web site? Be sure to do your research. An uninformed choice could leave a bad impression of your company in the marketplace.

Spamming
This site has an anti-spamming policy which should be read by anyone wishing to use our services. Apart from this, spamming is increasingly becoming the number one enemy to the email reader. Recent statistics show that 77% of all unsolicited commercial email ('spam') is deleted without reading.

If you'd like further information on how to build your own in-house list, or you believe you have received spam from one of our Members, please contact us through the inquiries form or phone 07-5533 8706.

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