When making a purchase, you’ll likely turn to a vendor or brand you trust. Perhaps you’ve had a great experience with them previously, or you’ve done your due diligence in pre-purchase research before making a final decision.
Price is almost always a top consideration, but you also don’t want to get burned by a vendor who compromises quality for cost. This is especially important when purchasing email data. While a faulty watch or peeling handbag bought on the cheap are easy to replace, the damage to your email campaign’s reputation is not as easily rectified.
Ask Before You Buy
Whether you’re marketing to healthcare professionals or patients, you’ll want to make sure the email list you’re using adheres to the highest of standards. Here are a few questions to ask, based on the audience you intend to reach.
When sourcing healthcare provider email addresses, ask your vendor these key questions:
1) Where do your email addresses come from? All physician email addresses should be collected from trusted professional sources that have a direct relationship with physicians who have opted in to receive their services. These sources may include medical publishers, education companies, and staffing organizations.
2) Are your lists authenticated? All physician email addresses should be audited and verified by an independent third party. BPA Worldwide is considered the gold standard in verification.
You don’t want to get burned by a vendor who compromises quality for cost.
3) How often do you replace invalid email addresses? An invalid email address is like a fungus that infiltrates your deployments and damages your sender reputation. Across the industry, one percent of the addresses on any email list become invalid every month. A quality list will capture these changes in real time and update them daily.
4) How many physicians on your list have multiple email addresses? Most physicians use multiple email addresses (personal, professional, alumni). A quality list will include several email addresses for each physician and indicate which one is used most often for high-value, professional information.
5) What segmentation data is included in your list? Segmenting your audience is a key best practice for ensuring you're reaching intended targets with the right messaging. A good list will contain geographic data, prescribing data, hospital affiliations, claims data, and more.
6) Do your sourcing methods stand up under scrutiny? New data protection and privacy laws are raising the standards for permission-based marketing. Only a fully authenticated, opted-in email list can meet these standards.
BONUS! Here are four questions to ask when buying a patient email list:
1) Are all your email addresses CAN-SPAM compliant? Any answer other than a simple "yes" indicates the email provider isn't taking patient privacy seriously.
2) Have all consumers proactively requested information? A high-quality patient email list should only include individuals who have opted in--no one else.
An invalid email address is like a fungus that infiltrates your deployments.
3) Do you verify all email records? To ensure accuracy, every email record should be matched to a name and postal record.
4) What segmentation data is included? It's fairly simple to obtain traditional demographic information on an individual, but a quality consumer email list should also include additional data or lifestyle markers such as "newlyweds" or "new parents."
It’s Not Worth the Risk
In an era of increasing regulation surrounding the use of personal data, there’s no room for error. By using a poor quality list you not only chance alienating your base and severely damaging your sender reputation, you’re also putting yourself at risk for sanctions in the eye of the law.
