In the effort to expand their email reach, many marketers fall into the trap of purchasing email lists to flesh out their inbound strategy. However, this is an approach that you should avoid at all costs as it could end up doing far more harm than good. Here’s why businesses should avoid buying email lists.
Email is an integral part of a holistic marketing strategy. It’s an easy, cost-effective way to get in front of your customers. For that moment, you have their undivided attention outside of all the noise.
It’s tempting. Thousands of contacts are just a click away! But before you give in, here are a few points to consider:
You might look at thousands of emails on a list and think, “there’s got to be a handful of good leads in there.” However, if those leads aren’t qualified, it’s a waste of time, money, and effort. The finance industry is built on trust, and receiving an unsolicited email, even when coming from a legit company, positions you as an opportunistic spammer. You’re more likely to end up in the junk folder.
Any emails that are for sale have likely been sold hundreds of times over. They often have incorrect names attached to them, or they might not even exist anymore. Simply put, purchasing an email list is like buying a pile of junk, sight unseen. If the emails were obtained fraudulently, you could be opening yourself up to legal action, too – a costly premise, as you could be subject to a five-figure fine for every email you send.
A reputable company does not sell their contact lists. So, unless you are partnering or have merged with another organization and leveraging an established database, it’s far more likely that these are unresponsive or unqualified contacts. It’s only logical – nobody shares their good leads, so you shouldn’t expect to be able to purchase them.
According to the GDPR and other data privacy legislation, email recipients must be able to opt-out of emails. And if you think you’re exempt because your company is not European, think again! If any of your recipients are EU citizens, the law applies. When you purchase an email list, you have little control or oversight in terms of where the accounts are based, so any complaints made against your tactics could expose you to costly legal action. Under the act, all email recipients must give their express consent to receive emails from you. If you cannot reasonably manage this, you are not compliant.
Sending out thousands of unsolicited emails is pretty much guaranteed to get you into hot water. There are organizations all over the world that are dedicated to flushing out spam, and if you are identified as such, your IP address and domain will be flagged as fraudulent. Email service providers recognize senders that continually send to invalid addresses. Too many hard bounces will flag the sender as a spammer, and anything coming from your IP range will start going directly into the junk folder for any recipient on their server. It might take years to reverse the damage, and it’s certainly not worth it.
Email service providers and services don’t allow illegal activity. If you are flagged as a spammer, they won’t hesitate to shut you down, either temporarily or permanently, usually the latter. Most service providers encourage their customers to report spammy activity, so they’ll likely catch up with you sooner than later.
We’re all pretty busy these days. Why would you want to waste time, money, and effort on something that you’ll not only have to do over again but will create a bigger mess for you to clean up after the fact? In the financial industry, the average open rate is just over 21 percent. With an unqualified, purchased email list, you’ll have to accept that this metric will drop to almost zero (you’ll be lucky if you get any opens or clicks at all). Any way you toss it up, you’ll be back at square one.
So, what’s the bottom line on purchased email lists? We can’t stop you from doing what you feel compelled to do, but we do not recommend it.
Granted, it takes time to build an extensive email list from scratch, but the effort is well worth it what you consider:
If you’re just getting started, here are a few ways to avoid buying email lists, and instead build a quality email list that will engage your customers and help you grow the bottom line:
In closing, we hope we’ve convinced you that there is a better way to build an email list than purchasing from some shady, backroom spam-monger.
If you would like to learn more about how we can support you in creating a quality email list, reach out today. We’d love to show you how we can help.
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