We’ve always advised you to build your own subscriber database.
Ideally using the double opt-in method, as it’s more effective at building quality databases.
But sometimes that isn’t possible, it doesn’t suit you, or you simply need to launch your bulk email campaign as soon as possible.
For whatever reason, you’d rather buy your database, legitimately generated, from a provider.
How do you know whether the database you’re buying is a quality one?
It’s not a trivial matter: both the success of your email campaign and your domain’s reputation depend on it.
You’re not the only one with these concerns.
Many customers have asked us how to analyze the quality of a database and spot potential problems in it.
The key points you should check before launching your bulk email are:
1) Check for duplicates and syntax errors in the email addresses
2) Check the number of bounces
3) Look for suspicious or problematic email addresses
4) Check whether it contains addresses that have filed spam complaints or unsubscribed
5) Make sure it’s an active database
6) Check whether the addresses are public and ask for the sign-up logs
7) Run a pilot test and check the results
Let’s go through these points in detail.
First of all, we’ll start from the assumption that we have a legitimate database purchased from a co-registration provider, an industry portal, through agreements with companies, etc.
The subscribers in this database have given their informed consent to receive promotional emails, bulk emails and other promotions.
They are aware that their data has been transferred for this purpose.
As I said, we’ll start from this assumption, so when you buy a subscriber database, above all:
“Make sure the data has been collected in accordance with the law and that the subscribers have been properly informed”
Otherwise, your bulk email campaign will fail before it even starts.
Let’s continue.
Assessing the quality of the purchased database
There are several potential problems in a database that can ruin our email marketing strategy.
These include spam traps, old lists full of bounces, spam complaints, etc.
Let’s see how to detect them using the features of Mailrelay.
1) Check for duplicates and syntax errors in the email addresses
The most basic requirement for an up-to-date, properly maintained subscriber database is that it has no duplicates or invalid email addresses with syntax errors.
For example: infó@mydomain.com, sales@@,mydomain.com, [email protected] and the like.
If a quick review shows it has them, we should ask for an explanation: if they didn’t take care of something so basic, we can hardly expect them to have been more careful with more advanced matters.
When you import your database into Mailrelay, many of these errors are detected automatically:
If you see a lot of errors in the import, be wary of the database’s quality.
2) Check the number of bounces
A quality database should be up to date and well maintained, so it shouldn’t contain bounced or failed email addresses.
To check this, we can upload it to Mailrelay and see how many bounces it has in the subscribers section (more information in “How Mailrelay handles bounces”):
If the database really is good and up to date, bounces should never exceed 5%.
Otherwise, it’s probably old and can therefore cause problems, even with the valid addresses, since people may not remember where they signed up and may file spam complaints.
Excessively high bounce rates are harmful to your sender reputation.
There’s no point in buying a database to send a bulk email if it won’t reach anyone because the accounts are invalid, incorrect or haven’t been used for a long time.
3) Look for suspicious or problematic email addresses
You’ll have to do this manually.
We need to look for suspicious addresses such as [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], etc., which can be a clear sign that the people who signed up entered fake details or accounts they have no intention of actually using.
This happens often when the data has been collected at trade shows, events, giveaways and the like, where users entered their details manually.
Whether on purpose or by mistake, we can come across this kind of email address.
And if we find some, we should ask the provider to account for them, since they should have cleaned the database beforehand.
4) Check whether it contains addresses that have filed spam complaints or unsubscribed
To do this, we’ll need to cross-check it against our account’s list of unsubscribes and spam complaints and see if there are any matches:
You can also contact the Customer Support team at Mailrelay for a more extensive analysis with empirical data from our platform.
But in the first instance, if the database has spam complaints, we should question its quality.
5) Make sure it’s an active database
We should ask the provider for an activity report on that database covering the last 3 months.
In other words, if it really is good, it should have a good percentage of recent opens and clicks confirmed in their system.
This point is related to the one about bounces.
An active database should have fewer bounces, since bounced emails “should” be cleaned out as the list is used.
Sending a bulk email to a database that has been inactive for a while can sink our sender reputation.
6) Check whether the addresses are public and ask for the sign-up logs
Another thing you can check manually.
We can pick a few addresses at random and search for them in quotes on Google to see if they appear on websites.
If all or most of them do, it’s very likely the database was built from public lists rather than from active sign-ups.
It doesn’t hurt to pick several random email addresses and ask the provider for the sign-up and confirmation logs, with the source IPs, time and date.
7) Run a pilot test and check the results
Finally, before sending to the whole database, it’s a good idea to run a pilot with a random 10%.
This lets you see the results, or even contact some subscribers at random so they can confirm that they signed up and that their details are genuine.
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In short…
7 key points that will help us assess the quality of the purchased database.
It’s always a good idea to take the time needed to make sure it’s a quality database before starting your email campaign.
What do you think? Would you add any other points?
To avoid having to run these kinds of checks later on, the best approach is to practice good email list hygiene from the start, using double opt-in when collecting your subscribers.