[Hidden-tech] Buying mailing lists

[Will Loving]

Roger,

I sell a software solution that is specifically designed for community arts
organizations and is applicable to other markets as well such as nature
centers and senior centers. I could manually do Google searches and compile
lists of appropriate looking organizations which would take a lot of time
and not be comprehensive. Or, I can buy lists of organizations and
businesses from a reputable company such as the ones that have been proposed
and do a 'targeted' mailing - primarily print, but also email - to introduce
them to my product.

This is no different than what non-profits do when they buy lists of or get
referrals for potential donors and send the solicitations, or what retail
stores and chains do in developing lists for sending flyers and catalogs.
Nor is it particularly different than what Google or Facebook do when
presenting you with ads they think might be appropriate to your interests
(i.e. "targeted" to you).

This has nothing to do with non-profits selling their email lists. The spam
I was referring to is unsolicited emails from 'companies' like "Acme
Marketing Solutions" (a real name but it makes me think Roadrunner, beep!
beep!) that have no website and when you check WhoIs for their domain name
find that the Domain Registrar is something like "NamesCheap.com". They are
trying to sell me "targeted" lists of IT professionals and the like, all of
which I'm sure are culled from public sources and are useless.

Having worked with many non-profits, worked with for-profit and non-profit
data, and having my primary market be non-profits, I'm very aware of data
privacy issues. I regularly educate my clients about what Non-Disclosure
Agreements (NDA) are and offer to sign one in order to make them feel more
comfortable with my handling their data.

Will

Will Loving, President
Dedication Technologies, Inc.



on 3/4/10 12:41 PM, Roger Williams at roger at qux.com wrote:

>>>>>> Will Loving <will at dedicationtechnologies.com> writes:
> 
>> Does anyone have a source to recommend for buying targeted mailing lists
>> for North America. I get lots of spam from people wanting to sell me lists...
> 
> I really don't intend this as a flame, but what difference is there between
> spam and sending mail to a "targeted" mailing list?
> 
> Speaking for myself, all unsolicited mail is spam unless it's coming from a
> specific organisation whose mailing list I opted into.  I contribute quite a
> lot to non-profits, and all of these organisations understand that I ever
> found that they had sold my email address, I would never deal with them again,
> and would raise a stink.
> 
> Given that most for-profit and non-profit organisations are sensitive to that
> issue, what chance is there of finding a "targeted" mailing list of any real
> value?


-- 

William M. Loving
Dedication Technologies, Inc.
7 Coach Lane
Amherst, MA 01002-3304   USA
will at dedicationtechnologies.com
Tel: +1 413 253-7223   (GMT ­5)
Fax: +1 206 202-0476