Regardless of whether one looks upon the process as buying or renting, it isn’t an easy process. There are certain questions that must be asked and answered to ensure that you have a list that is going to best serve your interests. Jeanne Jennings offers some advice in her article “Renting Email Lists: What to Ask Before the Send.” She advises that you first ask whether or not the list is opt-in. She also suggests asking to see the “mechanism by which the recipients opted in.” As someone who is paying for a list, caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) applies. Check to make sure that the people you will be emailing willingly agreed to allow third party mailings by reviewing the mechanism by which the recipients opted in to make sure that it is consistent with your understanding. Jennings next recommends you ask “who handles the send? The best email service providers (ESPs) tout deliverability rates in the high 90th percentile, meaning fewer than 5 email messages in 100 are undeliverable. Not everyone who sends email can claim these results,” she says. Some list owners such as CollegeRecruiter.com guarantee 100 percent deliverability by closely working with ISPs to ensure that all emails sent to valid email addresses are delivered and by sending more emails than the buyer purchased to more than offset the small number of email addresses that were incorrectly entered by the student or which are no longer valid because the student has abandoned the email address. The final question that Jennings suggests you ask is “how has the list performed historically?” You want to get a list that has a history of good result. If the list does not produce the results the list broker promised, then request a make good, which is another send either from a different portion of the same list or a completely separate list. Some clients of CollegeRecruiter.com will test the lists they’re buying by purchasing the minimum list size. If the list performs well for them, then they typically move forward with a larger campaign.

Lists which are available to rent fall into three primary groups: opt-out, opt-in, and double opt-in. Opt-out lists are lists where the recipients have not requested that they be added to the list but can remove themselves from the list owner through mechanisms such as clicking on an unsubscribe link. Opt-in lists are far more common amongst quality lists and are those where the recipients have requested that they be added to the list. Double opt-in lists such as the CollegeRecruiter.com targeted email list are the rarest and the highest quality. Not only must the recipient ask to be added to the list but they must also confirm that request. The typical process is that the recipient opts in at the list owner’s Web site. The recipient then receives and email from the list owner. If the recipient ignores the email, they are not added to the list. This extra step ensures that the recipient truly wants to be added to the list and hasn’t made a mistake or been added by some third party.

Since you don’t want to spend your valuable time worrying about whether or not you have a good list of recipients, buying or renting a double opt-in mailing list is the most efficient and effective way to go. By working only with double opt-in lists, the deliverability and response rates should not be a concern so you will be able to focus on the critical issues of content and creativity.