Consumer E-mail List Prices Show Biggest Decline: Worldata

Permission-based consumer e-mail lists suffered the largest price declines between winter 2009 and winter 2010, according to the most recent Worldata List Price Index. These lists carry an average cost of $110 per thousand, a $12 drop from last year’s level.

The dropped marked the largest decline on both a raw dollar and percentage basis. According to Worldata, prices for permission-based consumer lists have declined every quarter since winter 2009.

“Consumer e-mail saw a 9.84% drop since last year -- marketers know that these e-mail addresses are readily available and are having to discount their files in order to stay competitive,”said Ray Tesi, senior VP of Worldata, in a statement.

Permission-based business-to-business e-mail lists slipped $1, to $284 per thousand. Newsletter lists, at $177 per thousand, were the next-highest-priced category. These maintained their average cost from last year.

Among other categories, only Attendees/Members, Donors, Public Sector and Permission-based International Email files saw price increases this year. All categories except Donors saw a $1 per thousand increase.

Donors showed the greatest price increase over the previous year, with an average price per thousand of $83, a $2 increase over last winter.

The categories that did not fluctuate in price include Paid Circulation Business Magazines ($135 per thousand); Consumer Merchandise Buyers ($97 per thousand) and Newsletters ($177 per thousand).