Free business mailing lists are not what people should be using in their marketing efforts, online or not. You have to be asking the basic question. Why are they free? What makes them so invaluable if they have the potential to make you money? Why would anyone be giving these away for free? The answer is that nothing in this world is free. Some of the sites that offer these lists for free do it when you opt in to one of their services and enter your email address and personal details. So they give you about 1 - 10,000 free business mailing lists, which is more than likely, products of the same process spun into a database which is given back to the end consumer.
The reason they are doing this is so that they can collect enough email lists (usually a few million) and sell them to large spam networks all over the world. The price for a database of 1 million legitimate email addresses can run anywhere from a few thousand to tens of thousands of dollars. And because there are thousands of spam networks all over the world, you get the multiplier effect. It is a scam, no more, no less - a scam that does not have your interests at heart. Other examples would be companies who dump details all over the internet into a single database and offer it as a value add service to you buying into one of their products. Whatever the method, free business mailing lists are not the way to go for one very good reason.
They are made without any prior knowledge of what your product is about nor are they tailored to specific markets. For example, if you are selling medical products, you need to find a list that contains medical professionals, pharmacists, specialists, vendors of clinics and manufacturers of medical products. Now that is a highly specific list of people and businesses that are more than likely to buy your products. Take another example. You are selling skin products for a variety of population diseases like eczema or Chlamydia or psoriasis - you need to have a list of people either with a history of such problems or those in the high risk category. What about if you are selling property? You need a list of people within a specific income bracket who are known for their investment portfolios.
As you can see, you will not be able to get these kinds of demographics from free business mailing lists. In direct or telemarketing, quantity does not count because you are dealing with different markets and varying products. It should not be a hit and miss strategy that you are basing your income on. Be specific, be targeted and be safe. Having a quality built business list is half the battle won for anyone wanting to do direct marketing. It is a small investment for an increased percentage in returns, and the end of the day you will end up with good income and an impressive sales resume.
About the Author:
Chris Burns is an authority on mailing list services providing valuable advice on the pros and cons of using free business mailing lists. Click Here to learn more about the services that he provides.