Should You Rent Your Mailing Lists From A Mailing List Broker?

Mailing lists are usually available from one of three sources - the owner of the list, a mailing list broker, or a list manager. The majority of companies that use mailing lists rent them from a mailing list broker. Whether you rent your list from a broker or not, it is generally rented for one time usage.

The reason most successful companies use a mailing list brokers is because the brokers are mailing list specialists. They are businessmen and women who work with their lists day in and day out and will be best be able to help you to market your business.

Although some companies use list brokers solely to order mailing lists many other organizations take advantage of the broker's knowledge

Mailing list brokers are usually independent agents. Their main goal is to make rental arrangements between people who use the mailing lists they represent and the people who compile or own those lists.

In order to stay competitive list brokers have to stay up to date with what is current in the fields they represent. Otherwise they would not be able to make the best recommendations to their clients for whatever objectives their customers would like to achieve. Consequently, they are invaluable resources for advice.

For example, your mailing list broker will often be able to tell you if another company has rented the mailing lists you are targeting and whether or not their direct marketing campaign was successful. They will also be able to help you to find which mailing lists will most likely have the biggest impact for the type of appeal you are planning. And, of course, they will know how clean any list you want to rent is.

Mailing list brokers charge a fee to the companies who rent mailing lists from them.

The mailing list brokers typically receive a commission that amounts to 20% of the rental price of the list. They accomplish this by collecting the entire amount of the list rental fee, deducting their commission, and transferring the balance to the owner of the list.

If you hire a mailing list broker it is important to be comfortable with the quality of their lists as well as their ethics. That's because list brokers and their mailing lists are different from one another..

Most mailing list broker companies are professional firms who specialize in compiling various consumer mailing lists that can be used by their clients for direct marketing campaigns. However some brokers harvest email addresses using automated software crawling robots or bots. Generally those are the ones that you would be best avoiding.