Thinking of Buying an Email List? Better Think Again.

Email marketing is popular in all its forms, from outright promotional offers to informational e-newsletters. In fact, 81 percent of B2B marketers say the latter is their most often used form of content marketing.

Of course, a key goal is to grow the subscriber list—the bigger the better. This makes it tempting to purchase a list so that circulation numbers literally grow overnight. But the reality is that paid lists should almost always be a hard pass, no matter how targeted the seller claims them to be.

Here are four big reasons to say no to paid email lists:

• Paid lists are often unscrubbed. This means they contain old or unused email addresses. So, despite the thousands of addresses purchased, you’re essentially mailing to no one.
• Recipients don’t want your emails. Even when addresses are legit, their owners haven’t consented to receive email. This makes your email a nuisance that is likely to go unread.
• Your email deliverability/IP credibility could suffer. If you send out enough emails to bad addresses, it can lead to high unopen rates or bouncebacks, which could cause future emails to be labeled as spam or go undelivered. It’s even worse if the recipient overtly marks you as spam.
• It could be breaking the law. Paid lists typically violate GDPR—a really bad thing if the list includes addresses originating in Europe.

But the List Seller Said They Had Permission

At some point, the recipient likely did check a box somewhere that gave permission to receive emails from the list seller or “its partners.” So while they did technically give permission, they didn’t give it to your business specifically.

Bottom line, if they don’t recognize your company, they won’t trust your content and probably won’t trace it back to that general consent they gave to someone else a while ago. If you’ve ever started getting emails that you know you didn’t sign up for, this is probably how it happened.

A Better Choice: Build Your List Organically

We’ve been told that meats, fruits, veggies, and dairy are better for us in their organic form—turns out the same is true for email subscriber lists. By organic growth, we mean the list has grown by adding subscribers who have shown interest in your product or company.

More specifically, they’ve filled out a form or checked a box giving permission for you to email them, or maybe they dropped their business card into a bowl at an event with the understanding they would be added to your list.

Admittedly, this is a much slower process for building a list. But those all-important open rates will be significantly higher. Here are four ways to augment organic subscriber growth:

• Make the signup form readily visible on your website. This can be a signup button or field on the home page, as well as a pop-up reminder that appears when the visitor shows intent to leave.
• Have signup options. Not every potential subscriber will land on your website, so put your signup form (or link to it) in multiple places—employee email signatures, social profiles, etc.
• Have a “share with a friend” button. This automatically pops up an email to forward the content, so all the recipient has to do is enter the address of who they want to share it with and hit send.
• Run a contest or make a promotional offer with signup as a requirement. In fact, consider an entire digital or social campaign designed to drive signups. It’s that important.

Lastly, always have engaging, valuable content. This not only reduces unsubscribes but makes it likely the recipient will open emails from you any time they’re in the inbox. You want them to look forward to hearing from you.

If you need assistance with any aspect of email marketing—from content development to automation to building a subscriber base, contact us today. Our specialists have planned and executed countless email campaigns, and are ready to help you!