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I recently had a conversation with a client who’s not done an email campaign before, but had the perfect excuse to do so after launching a new website. I hoped this would give them the incentive they needed to start doing a newsletter on a regular basis. After discussing that they needed to get together a list of current clients and contacts, they suggested that they might buy in a list so they had more people to send their announcement to.
I explained that this would be a bad idea, so thought I’d share those reasons with any one else tempted to buy in a list.
1. Any list you buy in will have names and email addresses of people not expecting to be receiving your news.
2. As those people don’t know who you are, it’s unlikely they will open your email, it could get deleted without being read, or end up in a spam filter.
3. If a lot of the recipients start to report your email as spam, you could be at risk of being blacklisted. Many third party email providers such as Mailchimp, Vertical Response, Constant Contact, take spam reports very seriously. This means your account could be suspended.
4. The response from your emails will be very low as your list won’t be targeted. How do you know those people are actually interested in your products or services?
5. Some email addresses may be out of date, leading to high bounce rates.
With these reasons alone, purchasing in a list will be a complete waste of money. It’s tempting to buy lists when your own list is very small, but a responsive list is far more important than a large list (again quality over quantity), so work on building your own list in house and you’ll find that your messages are much more likely to be read, leading to more enquiries and sales.
Here are a couple more resources on why you shouldn’t buy in lists:
Purchased & Rented Email Lists Suck from Mailchimp
Every Time You Buy an Email List a Puppy Dies from The Email Guide
For more best practice tips on email marketing, check out our Email Marketing Guide.
Have you ever bought an email list? Did you find it worked for you? Please share any experiences you have of buying email lists.
About Samantha McArthur
Sam McArthur is an internet marketing consultant with 12 years in the industry. She helps professional service businesses with their internet marketing strategy, helping them to see significant results from their online marketing activities, particularly within the search engines. She also consults on the latest internet tools, technology and best practice techniques.
This is an excellent article. I completely agree with you – building your own list may take some time but it will be of the highest quality and full of people who have voluntarily requested to hear from you. This is the beginning of your raving fan base and, as I consistently tell my clients, one of THE most valuable marketing tools you can have at your disposal. If anyone would like to know more about starting a mailing list, I’ve written a ‘how to’ post on my blog http://barbarysolutions.com/2010/11/29/email-marketing-part-13-how-to-start-your-mailing-list/
Hi Elinor, Thanks for stopping by and commenting! You’re quite right what you say to your clients, their email list is so important and one of the best marketing tools to be used regularly and consistently. Unfortunately there’s still a lot of people who see spam as a great way of getting their name out, but as long as our clients stick to the rules, their messages will be read and (hopefully) lead to more sales, leads & enquiries.