Whilst I’ve always had a strong opinion on this topic of buying email lists, it’s been forced to come to the forefront in the past few weeks as I witness talk in the market about this topic.

Many of my clients and pretty much all online marketers that understand the incredible value of email marketing are on a continual quest to grow their email lists. That is, to increase their database of potential clients with email addresses.

One possible way to quickly  boost your email database is to purchase an email list. So, is Buying an Email List a good idea or a bad idea?

Companies that sell these lists say it is a good idea. For a few hundred dollars you may get access to a list of hundreds or thousands of potential clients. And who wouldn’t want that?

My opinion & advice to you is NOT to buy an email list.

The downside of buying an email list is twofold and in all reality, requires a large WARNING. 

Reason 1) Buying an email list is dangerous territory in regards to abiding by very strict spam compliance laws.

Spam compliance laws means that you must have CONSENT in order to send commercial email marketing messages to recipients. Not so easy to determine or prove with a purchased list. Therefore if you are considering buying a list do very thorough research and ask many questions. Many list companies actually sell you access to their list to get around these laws, so you don’t actually get the list, you basically rent it and they send your marketing message for you.

Lists purchased from some offshore companies are NOT legitimate and should be avoided at all costs! Most email service providers (including Chameleon Mail) do not allow the use of purchased lists.

Being very strict with your spam compliance IS best practice to ensure that only recipients, who wish to receive your emails, will receive your emails. Read more on the topic of Spam compliance here on the Web Chameleon blog - Australian Spam Compliance.

Reason 2) is that campaigns to purchased lists often achieve poor results.

Not only poor results but the risk of annoying recipients. They don’t know you, there is no pre existing relationship, so often the first reaction is to delete or spam your message. Even worse they are annoyed by your message, and therefore your company. This can be the catalyst for a negative relationship, not to mention how this could negatively affect deliverability of future campaigns!

As I said, poor results.

For best results, it’s best to only ever send to people that are aware of you and are happy to receive your emails. And that means ‘opt-in’ recipients, those clients and prospects who want to recieve your marketing emails!

So spend your time & money growing your email list legitimately for maximum results. And then respect your recipients by giving sending campaigns that they will love! 

Another good article on the topic buying a mail list, outlining both sides of the argument can be found on the Smart Company website  – Are mailing lists worth the risk?.

Feel free to comment below with your thoughts on this topic.

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Related posts:

1. Australian Spam Compliance
2. Email Marketing Success Secrets