How e-mail Change-of-Address Works

Long-time list expert and friend Liz Dixon offered this insight into the e-mail Change of Address market:

"I'll give you a snapshot of the Email Change of Address landscape. Since I represent the Return Path services through my own company, Elixir Marketing, I can provide the most detail about their email list optimization services.

"Return Path conducted a study with NFO Research last year which indicated that 32% of consumers change their email address each year. For anyone who manages a database, that's a scary churn rate. Some of those consumers will go to a website or two to notify them of the change. The net result for most businesses is a 20% to 25% annual email churn rate. Keeping in mind lost past transactional purchases or gift donations associated with an email address.

"Return Path helps companies retain customers and reduce email churn in three steps:

1. First, they clean your email list. Using proprietary software, Return Path will correct email format/syntax errors, correct undeliverable email addresses where a forwarding address has been supplied by the ISP, and suppress known "bad" email addresses. On recent client projects, Return Path has consistently achieved a 1% to 5% match rate with this service. In fact, Return Path recently benchmarked their list cleaning service against the capabilities of a leading email service bureau, and Return Path emerged the clear leader.
2. Next, Return Path matches your email list to their ECOA database to find pre-approved ECOA changes (consumers who have told Return Path to automatically update any list containing their old email address with their new email address).
3. Then, Return Path establishes an ongoing update process so you can capture future ECOA changes. This can range from real-time updates to scheduled batch updates.

"The Return Path service is designed so that when consumers notify one business in the network of an email address change, they can easily notify any other business in the network that has their old email address, as well. When consumers register for the ECOA service, they can choose to automatically update all businesses that have their old email address, or they can request to selectively update them, by reviewing a list of firms with their old email address. Consumer permission drives the process.

"Here is another link from Business 2.0 that recently covered the ECOA space:

Are Bounced Messages an Inevitable Part of E-Mail Marketing?

"If you have any questions, feel free to call me at 703 313-9039 or email me at lizdixon@mindspring.com."

August 2001

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