Advice on mailing a cold list

[Jarred]

I have a client that has a list of 30,000 past customers that he's never sent any regular mail to. Every couple of months he would shoot off a random email with a promotion offer. I'm now in control of that list and will be mapping our a regular lead nurturing email campaign, but I need to start it first. My quandary is this. A BIG part of the list contains customers from several years ago that haven't done business with him in a while. I've never worked with a list this old, so I'm not sure of the things I need to watch out for.

My first instinct was to tell him to write off those year old emails. I'm concerned about him screwing up his domain rep and getting the slap from his ESP...but he's adamant.

I'm assuming my first order of business is to get this list cleaned up and find out which contacts are actually viable. What is the best email to first send? I was going to send out a reconnect email and then do basic segmenting based on response and engagement.

I guess I'm just looking for advice on the best way to get this ball rolling.

 

[contract]

1. Don't use mailchimp. (# of spam complaints will get you banned pretty fast) Use a cheapo email service provider that you are okay with getting banned on after a handful of sends. The goal should be clean up the list as you send, then move to MC or another more reputable provider.

2. Expect the # of bounces, spam complaints, unsubscribes to be very high. Nothing you can really do about that.

3. I've scraped together local email lists of about 100K then sent them brick and mortar offers. I've sent out emails from CRM's with over 60K clients who had never been sent a message before. Even people who shop you on a monthly basis, even your most loyal customers will still mark you shit as spam. There's nothing to worry about, that's going to happen.

4. Personalize the email as much as possible. Auto [name] in the subject line and in the body multiple times if possible. Even if it's a sales promotion, make sure you add something like, "JASON, I've got something special for you. [insert promo here].

Note: Send them an offer too good to refuse. Like you're helping them, even though you are spamming them. I offered $250 CASH, if you test drove a car, and bought somewhere else. Or you bought another make, model, etc. $250 for 15 min of your time, not bad.

5. Don't use the company.com in the email domain. Instead use companymail.com or companylocation.com At least until you've cleaned up your list and have gotten through a handful of sends. When your spam levels get low enough you can switch to the domain.com again.

6. Don't just sit on your ass. You'd be amazed at how much a 30K list can generate $$$$. EVEN if you're not making sales, people are still thinking about your brand. It's getting put in their heads. It could be the push they need to buy from you again either now or months down the road.