Marketing Database Optimization Best Practices
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BtoB Email lists – Is Bigger Really Better?
There was a well written post by Robert Vanselow, VP of Sales and Marketing at Newsmax Media titled: “When it comes to e-mail lists, more marketing is better” published on DMNews’ The 2009 DMNews Essential Guide to Lists & Database. The article made some pretty good points and there was just one particular point which I can’t completely agree on particularly with B2B and thought “there must be others who wont completely go with this either. With regards to list size for email marketing campaigns Robert says:
The size of a list is very important. When it comes to value, many marketers will argue against large files. We constantly hear that “Quality, not quantity, counts.” What is wrong with having both? It is true you can have a small list that really works, but unless the list has critical mass, it may not be worth the time of your marketing team to prepare and implement the campaigns. The key is to use larger lists. If you have your own list, put money and resources into expanding it. If you market to lists, look for larger list files. As a rule, we will never market to any third-party e-mail lists unless they have more than 200,000 names.
Now just so this isn’t taken out of context, at no point does Robert say quntity is more important than quality when it comes to email lists, he says ideally, you should have both. Also, the larger your list, the more odds you have of more replies and better results in terms of overall number of leads generated from the email list. However the line that stood out for me is “The key is to use larger lists“. Is bigger really better?
I am one of those who you can often find saying “Quality, not quantity, counts” although as Robert puts it, there is nothing quite like having both. What if you had to pick a stronger focus between the two? I would say “The key is to use better quality, better qualified lists”. Especially if it’s for your inhouse database. Quality data at the cost of quantiy is okay. Quantity at the cost of quality is the cause of inefficiency. In a laboratory conditions scenario with all things being equal, if a company X generated 150 warm leads using an email list of 5000 contacts and company Y generated 150 warm leads with their list of 700 contacts would you agree company B owns the more valuable list? If you did agree, then essentially you believe the value of an email list comes from its “quality” and not from its quantity. If the above scenario were possible in a real life situation, it means you can do “more with less” and if you keep that focus and continue to build out your list, you can really achieve more as the size does increase.
So now the question….. is bigger really better?
Related posts:
- Custom Lead Lists For Email Marketing – Are They Really More Effective?
- Are Marketing Lists An Important Part Of Your B2B Lead Generation Strategy?
- 20 Sources For Acquiring & Building Targeted B2B Email Lead Lists
- Conference lists are a thing from the past. Don’t waste your time on them!
- Thinking Aloud On B2B Email Marketing Ethics – Is Permission Based & Opt in The Only Way To Go?
April 23rd, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Indeed. Larger the list, the better.
I organize a email campaign with a prospect list of size 50,000 and the campaign generates some 600 inquiries. Do you think sending mails only to those 600 would have produced 100% result?
April 24th, 2009 at 3:57 am
Nice and informational post. One thing i am sure is that, many times bigger is no matter really better, many times quality pays more to you, rather than quantity.
April 24th, 2009 at 5:40 am
@prakash it's good to see that focusing quantity has worked for you. Till date I have yet to come across a marketer who has achieved 100% results through an email campaign. If you could identify 600 from your database where you were 100% they would be interested….why would you send out an email campaign to them in the first place? You have qualified leads which you can directly sell to. You seem to be missing the point…. but I take it that you believe it doesn't matter how many contacts you had to go through to get the 600 inquiries as long as you get your results
August 25th, 2009 at 6:50 am
Yup i really agree with bigger really better!
but that also depends upon the situation…what say?
November 4th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
The bigger the list is – the more potential customers you can get. This is undisputed. But you should have quality of list in mind too.
November 8th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
i would love to read more from you on this
regards
james clark
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January 22nd, 2010 at 1:27 am
a good point angle.
January 22nd, 2010 at 9:27 am
a good point angle.
July 10th, 2010 at 6:15 am
Hello Great article I like it very much. Thanks for sharing.
John
July 24th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
Interesting article. Some good points on b2b email marketing covered
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March 9th, 2011 at 4:17 am
max factor is much better in my point of view x
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