Why buying email lists is a bad idea

Are you thinking of buying an email list? If you are, think again!

I know buying an email list could seem like a quick way to get more customers and business, but is actually a waste of time and money, as well as a way of damaging your reputation.

When doing email marketing there is nothing more important than an interested and engaged list that is waiting to hear your news and willing to hear from you rather than a bunch of people who are actually not expecting to hear from you and could get annoyed.

Here are the most powerful reasons why you should never do it:

1. SERIOUS EMAIL SERVICE PROVIDERS WON’T ALLOW YOU TO USE THEM

If you are using a reputable email service provider for your email marketing campaigns, most probably you won’t be allowed to use a purchased list. If you are using ESPs on shared IP addresses that didn’t require subscribers to opt-in the list, you will probably get a poor deliverability.

Also, if you have a high number of emails marked as spam is most likely that your ESP may close your account, you could get a fine and even your email provider may take legal actions against you for hurting the deliverability and reputation of their IP.

ISP filters will start sending your emails to spam folders directly and you could potentially become blacklisted which is the last thing that you want as rebuilding your reputation again could take years!

2. YOU ARE ANNOYING STRANGERS

The people receiving your emails don’t actually know your company. They haven’t signed to hear from you and all over a sudden they receive an unexpected email from you which is annoying and makes it very likely that they will delete your email without opening it or mark it as spam. Email is a personal thing, and is like if you have just showed up uninvited to someone else’s house. Annoying, right?

We believe that this is not a great start to a good business relationship and that email marketing should be used to create a direct connection with your target audience.

3. POOR EMAIL ADDRESSES, POOR DELIVERABILITY RATE

Normal open rates tend for be between 20% to 25% and is proven that emails sent to purchased list don’t have the same results for different factors (they could be inactive emails or non responsive).

If you buy email addresses, there is a high change that they will be of poor quality. This will increase your bounce and complaint rate and you might be at risk of coming across as a spammer and being blacklisted. You will be persecuted by honeypot organizations and eventually fall in a spam trap.

Unfortunately, your IP address and your company will be damaged as people will start associating you negatively.

4. GOOD EMAIL LISTS AREN’T FOR SALE

You won’t come across high quality email lists for sale. Most of the emails in these lists are tired an exhausted of receiving spam emails from other people who have purchased these lists as well.

If someone had a really good list they wouldn’t sell it and will make sure that no one else makes use of them. Think about it, if you had a very good email list, would you allow others to use it too? We don’t think so.

5. INCREASE IN BOUNCING EMAILS

Since most of the addresses that you buy are likely old or inactive, anything that you send will bounce back. It’s unlikely that you will hit the optimal bounce rate of 2% and again you will most likely be marked as spam and start having a bad reputation.

6. YOU ARE GAMBLING RATHER THAN INVESTING

According to OutboundEngine, for every $1 spent on email marketing, the average return on investment is $44.25. You will only get this good ROI if you build this list yourself rather than just buy contacts in bulk and hope that they will convert.

Therefore, we recommend you to just email clients who have opted in to receive news and updates from you rather than just spending some money and hoping that your “investment” pays off!