Getting started
Choosing who to email
Who to email, and how to keep a scraped list from becoming a spam complaint.
Why the list decides everything
A scraped list is a hypothesis about who might want to hear from you. It is worth spending the ten minutes it takes to test it, because the cost of being wrong is not a low reply rate — it is a sending domain that stops reaching inboxes at all.
What to remove
Every search so far has returned rows that should not be contacted. These are the ones worth looking for by hand, because no heuristic catches them all.
- Placeholder addresses
- name@, email@, youremail@. These bounce, and a bounce costs more than any single send is worth.
- Directories and marketplaces
- They list businesses. They are not one, and nobody there is your buyer.
- The wrong geography
- A search for one city will find its namesake in another country. Check the addresses, not just the names.
- Department inboxes
- careers@, press@, boxoffice@. The obvious role addresses are skipped for you; branch ones are not.
- Companies too large to buy from you
- Where an untargeted email is the only thing your message can be, it is better not sent.
The do-not-contact list
Anything you add to the do-not-contact list is skipped from then on, and stays skipped through future searches. Use it for the rows above and for anyone who asks to be left alone by any route — a reply, a phone call, anything.