You have the product or service that you just know everyone is going to want to have but the problem is that nobody knows you’re there. Without some visibility for your product, you plan on staying home a lot. Of course as you get clients, you’ll obtain contact information and stay in touch with them that way, but there has to be a better way to get the word out to as many people as possible right away.
Mailing lists have been around forever, and with the rise of the Internet, the medium has quickly transmuted into the email list. No more stuffing thousands of envelopes; with the touch of a button you can have your company’s info in thousands of inboxes in a matter of seconds, with little or no outlay of funds. And now there are entire companies that make available email lists – customers grouped by purchasing habits or buying history, or through their interest in a given type of product. Sounds good, right?
Renting and Buying Email Lists
Of course one option is to rent a list of email addresses. This means that you never see the addresses you are sending your information to. Only the owner of the list does. You pay him a fee and your message is sent to everyone on that particular list. This can be a one-time thing or you can rent on a regular basis. Many business owners find this to be an easy and convenient method of email marketing.
The flip side of course is to simply purchase the list. It’s a one-time cost, and you can send out email marketing messages as often as you like. Unfortunately, there are also some serious downsides to purchasing your list.
The Pitfalls of Buying Email Lists
The most common affliction is known as “list fatigue.” You can only go to the well so many times before it runs dry, and sending too many messages in a short amount of time will put a lot of people off to the mere mention of your company name. In fact, receiving too many emails is one of the top reasons for customers deciding against doing business with a given company, unsubscribing to their email list, or worse, reporting them as spammers.
In addition, most list owners have worked very hard to assemble their list, and they aren’t likely to simply up and sell it while not knowing how it might be used (or abused). That being said, what does it tell you about the quality of a list that is up for sale?
Some list providers offer niche lists specifically targeting the market you are trying to reach. This sounds good in theory, but again, you have no way of knowing just how this list was assembled. Many times they are cobbled together through questionable means, even pulling addresses from websites with little or no guarantee that they are in fact a part of your target market.
It is important for those who are selling the list that it be of considerable size. The larger the list, the more they can charge for it. This makes it increasingly unlikely that they will be all that concerned with the quality of the addresses they are providing.
Many of these lists will have a disproportionately high number of dead links or invalid addresses. When the bulk of your emails are going to such addresses, ISP’s will often mark you as a “dirty sender,” which can lead to blacklisting. This effectively neuters your ability to get any bulk email projects delivered in the future.
Email marketing works the best when you are sending emails to people who have granted you permission to send them. Purchased lists do not include any such permission, and as a result, the percentage of folks who are likely to be put off by your unexpected message is going to be significantly higher than it would be coming from a list of people who have actively expressed an interest in your product and given you their contact info of their own accord. Most of the addresses on any purchased list did not make the decision for their information to be passed on to you, so you should not expect the warmest of receptions.
In the end, when it comes to assembling email lists for the purposes of marketing your service, it is always preferable to take the time and assemble your own. Yes, it is a much slower process, but most businesses are marathons, not sprints. There are no shortcuts to success, and making use of email lists from dubious sources can end up hurting you in the long run.
In simpler terms, either be prepared to part with some sweat or forget the whole thing. Always take the high road; your customers will thank you for it and your reputation will precede you.
