Thinking About Buying an Email List? Read This First!
We get it – being an email marketer is a tough gig. Compiling an extensive email list is hard enough work, but so is sending bulk emails without setting off those dreaded spam filters. Even if you’re not spamming – and I’m going to hope that if you’re reading this, you’re not – small mistakes here and there can be disastrous to your perception as a legitimate email marketer. Although it can be tempting, buying an email list is a mistake that can have grave consequences. Here are a few reasons why – and the list hygiene practices that can help you be a better marketer.
1. You don’t have permission
Email marketing is all about permission. Having your recipients opt in is crucial, since marketing messages from an unknown email sender will almost always look like spam. A recipient who is tired of receiving emails that he opted into will usually unsubscribe. A recipient who receives an unknown email will usually mark that email as spam. Anonymous email hygiene is a skill you must possess if you hope to look like a trust email source to all of your recipients.
2. You don’t have a relationship
Even if you’re not marked as spam, the fact that you are sending anonymous emails means you have no reason to believe that the recipients will want to read your emails or will respond to your marketing. You’re therefore better off not taking a risk and appearing as spam and instead focusing on a strong, organic list.
3. You’re likely buying bad accounts
Online email address verification is big business for a reason. You don’t want to send emails to inactive accounts, since doing this makes you appear to spam filters as a spam address. The act of sending to a purchased email list alone makes you look like a spammer, so focus on building your own lists and gaining a strong recipient base. You’ll have much better results in the long run.
If you absolutely have to buy an email list, the very least you can do is verify all the email addresses using an email hygiene service like ListWise. Do this before you send any campaigns to this purchased list.