When shopping for an email service provider, you need to be prepared to answer questions too. By providing the right information up front, you can lay the groundwork for successful campaigns in the future.

So, you're in the market for a new email service provider. You probably read all the advice on the internet about how to choose an ESP, and you've got your list of tough questions that you expect all your candidates to answer clearly and honestly. You did your homework. Good for you!

Now, are you just as ready to answer the questions your prospective ESP might have for you?

Don't be surprised that your candidate is just as curious about how you run your email program. You might even think it's nobody's business but yours. However, your relationship with your ESP isn't just as a buyer and a seller of services. It's a partnership, and your ESP wants to make sure your end of the partnership is solid.

These questions aren't designed to root out trade secrets or make you feel like an idiot if you don't know the answer. Instead, they can highlight problems that need to be fixed in order to boost your email performance.

In fact, if an ESP operates on a "no questions asked" basis, run away fast. You might be a solid sender, but you could end up sharing space with senders who aren't, and that can hurt you.

ESPs usually want to know what's going on with your program in these general categories:

• Data content and quality
• Message content
• Mailing practices
• Other services you use

No, I'm not going to give out the actual test questions. But I will talk about questions you're likely to hear, along with the ESP's motivations for asking them.

One final piece of advice: Don't try to game the system by fudging the facts. It's like giving your medical history to a new doctor. You can lie about quitting smoking, but your hacking cough will give you away.

Data collection and quality
The ESP will want to know how many data you're dealing with, all the places they come from, how clean or dirty your lists could be and how much you know about your sources.

These points are important because you can't run an effective email program with out-of-date or unreliable data. Your ESP needs to know this information in order to determine whether you need help with list hygiene, permission upgrades, authentication, etc. -- especially if you're looking around for a new vendor because you're not getting your emails through your major domains.

Example: Your ESP-to-be might ask for all the ways you collect addresses on your list. It could be that you have different lists, with different collection policies. The ESP will want to handle the private list whose members pay to belong differently from the list you bought from Bob's List Shack four years ago.

Email content
Your ESP wants to know the kind of messages you send to get a more accurate picture of your email program and the challenges you face. Do you send weekly newsletters that mix news and commerce? Solo offers? News bulletins? Transactional messages, blog posts, third-party messages?

The copy you use in a solo offer is going to be different from what you send in a newsletter. Solo offers use more promotional language, which can get blocked or filtered more often than the kind of information copy a newsletter usually delivers.

Example: The ESP might ask how many of your email messages promote your own products, services or offers, and how much you send for third parties or affiliates. The answer shows how relevant your emails probably are to your audience.

If you're sending a lot of email your subscribers didn't ask for or if you send more than they expect, they're probably clicking the spam button a lot, which hurts your delivery.

Mailing practices
ESPs want to know how often you currently send email. Such information will tell them what they need to do to help you succeed or overcome problems regarding deliverability or list integrity.

You need to review these areas, too, because you might end up having to overhaul your email program in order to improve it.

Example: The ESP will want to know how often you email your lists or how long it's been since you last emailed each one. You aren't a bad sender if you have a list that you haven't emailed at all or for, say, six months to a year. But if the ESP knows a list is dormant, it will know the list has to be reactivated safely without setting off ISP spam alarms.

Other likely questions
Among other things, the ESP will probably ask if you're emailing via a homegrown application or an in-house software package, or if you want to move on from an outsourced vendor. Your current practices and desired transitions can affect how fast the ESP can ramp you up to warp speed on its own systems, how portable your data could be and if you have had issues with any third-party vendors.

Changing ESPs won't solve your deliverability problems. But if you're honest with your ESP, you will give them the help they need to do the best possible job for you.

Wendy Roth is the senior manager of training services for Lyris Technologies.