EXECUTIVE EMAIL OVERVIEW

Purchasing or renting an email list can be stressful. There are many bad lists out there that have been compiled through unscrupulous methods. Using these lists can get your mail server blocked, accounts suspended, and tarnish your reputation. Our goal is to be fully transparent regarding our processes and the results you should expect. It is impossible to guarantee perfection when it comes to executive email addresses, but we go above and beyond the typical data provider to deliver the best possible, most stress-free experience.

How do you obtain email addresses for the executives in your database?

We utilize various manual research processes such as live research calls (we make over 3 million calls annually), online profile updates, updates sent in by email/mail, customer submissions, and reviewing publicly available data sources such as the company’s website/brochure, business/SEC filings, press releases, domain registrations, social media profiles, and more. Additionally, if a new executive is added and we have an email address for existing executives, we may try the same format as the others to see if it is valid.

How often are email addresses verified for deliverability?

Executive email addresses are verified at minimum every 6 months.

How are email addresses verified for deliverability?

Executive email addresses are verified at least once annually by the companies listed in our database, every 6 months using a 3rd party service called NeverBounce, and every 6 months in a real world test by sending a live email and tracking the bounces — all aimed to ensure the highest possible deliverability rate for you. Invalid emails discovered at any phase of the process are immediately removed from our database. As an additional data quality check, we ask customers to optionally share their hard bounce lists with us. In the end, excutive email addresses pass through as many as 4 verification checks. Though no verification process is perfect, the result is a deliverability rate that far exceeds industry averages. NeverBounce is the same service trusted by companies like Door Dash, Uber, Indeed, Dell, Yelp, Quicken Loans, and Seagate. 

Can you guarantee deliverability?

Bounce rates can fluctuate based on many factors, such as a temporarily full or offline mailbox, the reputation of your mail server, the volume/speed of email sent, and the content of your email and subject line — which can impact spam filters and blocklists. Some ISPs, such as AOL and Yahoo, will even bounce an email if you are sending too much email or sending email too fast, making it appear as though the email addresses are bad when they are actually good (likely a tactic by some major ISPs to get you to remove their emails from your list). Plus, executives in our database turn over at an average of 3% per month. This means that as many as 18% of executives can change jobs between our 6-month verifications (plus company mergers, acquisitions, dissolutions, and name changes). Considering all these factors, it's impossible to guarantee 100% deliverability. To be completely safe, we factor in an extreme 25% bounce rate when calculating pricing, so you never pay for undeliverable email addresses. Since data updates are made in real time, we welcome you to re-download the data every few months at no cost with an active subscription for the very latest changes.

Are the executive email addresses in your database opt-in?

Executives in our database have not "opted in" to receive email nor have they undergone any sort of "opt out" processing. Any emails you send are considered unsolicited. However, this is completely permissible under the CAN-SPAM Act. You simply must include a method for the recipient to opt out of future email and honor those requests within 10 days. There are other provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act that we recommend you familiarize yourself with, as well as looking into any other local laws in your area. Out of respect for the executives listed in our database, we do put restrictions on how often you can email them. Limiting the amount of email they receive helps keep attention rates high and complaint rates low.

How can I send out bulk email?

If you have your own corporate email (SMTP) server, you should be set to go. If you do not have a system in place to send bulk email, this is important. Most email service providers, such as Constant Contact, MailChimp, SendGrid, and even CRMs like HubSpot and Salesforce, typically prohibit the importing of purchased email lists. They only allow you to import your own customers and prospects with an existing business relationship. Using purchased lists with these services may get your account suspended. Fortunately, we have partnered with reputable email service providers that do permit the importing of purchased email lists. We recommend sending out your "cold" solicitations through one of these services, and then only adding those recipients that reply, visit your website, call you, or otherwise express interest to your CRM or email prospecting database.