Choosing the Right Email Append Provider (Pt. 3) – Email Append Data Source

Continuing with my ongoing series of posts about choosing the appropriate email appending provider, I wanted to focus on the source of your source: Where does the email append data come from?

As I described in one of my original posts, it’s of utmost importance to ensure that you gather your data from a reputable provider that abides by set of guidelines specified by the DMA. Each provider can build their monster database from a variety of sources, but website relationships and licensing agreements are two of the main routes that are taken.

Depending on the type of emails sought, the original sources can even extend to customer survey participant pools or yellowpages databases.

As you can probably imagine, every provider has their own unique methodology. Still, it’s worth your time to uncover how they source the database so you can better understand and feel comfortable with the entire process.

How to Choose the Right Email Appending Provider (Pt. 2) -- Hard Bounce Policies

Email appending can be a highly fruitful business decision, but it's important to have the proper expectations going into the process. It's unrealistic to expect a 100% match-rate, no matter the industry type.

As I described in an earlier post, consumer appends tend to have the lowest returns, but business can sometimes yield up to 70%.

Considering you're bound to have emails that do not make it to the party on the other end, it's crucial to be aware of your provider's hard bounce policy. As stated here:

A reputable vendor will guarantee email addresses for at least 30 days after delivery. Look for someone who will refund your money on all emails that hard bounce within that period of time. If they will not, don’t do business with them.

Before spending the money, make sure that you will be working with a reputable dealer. It's one thing to see their claims; it's another to see their performance. Be smart!