The question crosses every email marketer’s mind eventually: Should I purchase this email list? The answer is, of course, no, you shouldn’t.
What he said.
You pretty much could wrap it up right there, but, for those interested, we’re happy to give you a quick breakdown on why you should avoid this not-at-all-best practice.
4. You Aren’t A Spammer
Let’s get the obvious out the way immediately: You don’t spam. Or, if you are, stop it. Stop it right now.
Either way — spammer’s buy lists and everyone has a low opinion about those types. No one likes to receive what they perceive as spam, which they’ll definitely do if they start getting messages from a brand they didn’t opt-in to. Which leads us to …
3. There’s No Familiarity
Even if a subscriber doesn’t consider it spam right off the bat, they will. Emailing a subscriber list you paid for almost always guarantees that people have no idea what your business is all about.
lol no clue who these jerks are
So not only are they going to be sending your message to the sin bin, they’re also starting out their experience with your brand on a bad foot.
2. There’s Little To No Value In The Addresses
In this day and age where of online ticket buying a little thing called the printer, scalpers have found a new con where they print of multiple copies of the same ticket to sell to unsuspecting buyers. It’s devious, but you shouldn’t be buying from scalpers anyway.
In that same vein, that list you just purchased isn’t the only copy. That same set of subscribers is being sold to as many people as possible. Which means that, even if you had “good intentions” with the list, those email addresses have already been put through the ringer by other spammers. That means that you’ll have a list populated by wary subscribers, spam addresses, or inactive emails. And that leads us to …
1. It Hurts Your Reputation With ISPs
Perhaps most importantly, buying a list of subscribers only leads you down the path of getting a bad rap with ISPs. All three of those email addresses we just listed will absolutely drop your rating, worsening your deliverability with every send to that email list you do.
It’s not worth it. If someone offers you a subscriber list to purchase, just say no.
Also check out How To Make Your Email Subject Lines Sound Less Like Spam and The Origin Of Spam.