I emphasized earlier that step 1 in growing your customer base is spending the time examining your data and understanding what you have before you deploy your first campaign. For step 2 I recommended that to build the foundation to grow your data, keep it updated and offset normal attrition by implementing an organic email acquisition program. Today is step 3: using data append and list rental as alternative options to jumpstarting your acquisition programs.

The key word in the last sentence is “jumpstarting.” Long-term success is predicated on marketing strategies that promote organic growth. Email appends and list rentals are short-term solutions that can give your existing data new life or your program a quick shot in the arm.

When your future customers are in the prospect stage, take special care to provide the most relevant messages possible. Doing so greatly improves your chances of helping them cross that great chasm from “just looking” to “I’ll take one of those.”

This is a difficult task. It’s rarely the case that you have a lot of data to leverage with your prospect messages. If you’re lucky, maybe you got name, title, email, company, address and topics of interest through a well-crafted lead-generation form. Or your prospect data might simply consist of email address and products abandoned during the conversion process.

While data can be your biggest ally in creating highly relevant campaigns, it can also be your worst enemy if used incorrectly. In fact, improper use can make you look downright foolish.

I’m sure you’ve been exposed to email marketing campaigns or online advertising that made you think, “Why in the world am I being targeted with THAT ad?”

I was checking the spam folder in my Gmail account today, seeing which unfortunate marketing messages were filtered. I then looked toward the top of the screen and saw a recipe for Spicy Spam Kabobs in the targeted text ads section.