Have you ever received emails from unwanted companies? How full is your spam box? Well, if you want to do email marketing right, NEVER buy an email list – don’t be one of those ???? 

Buying an email list brings your marketing team more issues instead of solutions. This blog post will go over the 5 main reasons why you should avoid purchasing an email list. 

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1. You will be paying for outdated data

These email lists are prone to having obsolete information. The information in these lists contains inaccurate data, such as a wrong name or worse – no names. The email addresses can be inactive. Inaccurate and outdated emails will not assist you in reaching qualified leads.  The people who sell these lists are not always honest (I wonder why ????), this means you end up spending money on data that has zero value to your business. 

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2. You may be committing a crime

Buying an email list can result in you sending our emails to “illegal” emails, resulting in getting your business into a real sticky situation. Some countries have laws against this, such as the USA has legislation called the CAN-SPAM Act and in Australia, it is the Spam Act of 2003. These acts prevent companies from sending unwanted emails to people in bulk. While these acts may not make it illegal to purchase and sell email lists, it is truly unlawful to send bulk emails to unwilling subscribers or to continue to send emails to unsubscribed people. 

By purchasing an email list and sending out unwanted emails to prospects, you are in fact committing a crime by sending out unwanted bulk emails to unwilling subscribers. Additionally, if you buy an email list from someone super shady, you may run into even MORE legal trouble. Oh let’s not forget the hefty fine you get to pay for each “illegal” email sent. In the USA, you could end up paying $43,000 per “illegal” email sent. So if you sent out three emails to ten subscribers, you are looking at a lovely $1,290,000 fine. 

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3. Your business can come across as a spammer

As if paying a hefty fine is not enough, you may risk your business’s reputation by being labelled as a spammer. You will be emailing people who did not voluntarily subscribe to receive your emails. They will automatically delete your emails before even opening them, resulting in your business reputation being labelled a spammer. Even if potential customers discover your brand organically, later on, they will still have this underlying impression that your business is a spammer and will not click on any PPC ads from your business (wasting more money!). 

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4. You are not the only one using a paid email list

It is important to always keep in mind that when you purchase an email list, you are not the only one using said list. Other companies are also purchasing email lists, which means multiple emails will go to these subscribers. If these subscribers are already feeling annoyed by other companies sending them unsolicited emails, you can best believe they are even less likely to engage with your emails. This will result in you wasting your money on a list of subscribers who are already bombarded with unsolicited emails daily.

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5. You will be ghosted, for life. 

The aim of email marketing is to have people engage with your emails. However, with paid email lists the chances of people engaging with your emails are very low. Not to mention, people did not voluntarily join your email lists, so they are less likely to take an interest in your emails. As a result, you will not get the open rate or engagement rate you hoped to achieve with your email marketing campaign. 

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So, what now?

It is important to remember that the most effective way to run a successful email marketing campaign is to not buy an email list but to build the list organically. This process may take some time and effort, but the results are well worth it and it will save you money from committing illegal activities. Consider the following in your next legitimate email marketing campaign:

• Add an email sign-up pop up to your website 
• Make use of email sign-up bars 
• Try creating gated content such as free downloadables (gated content is content that required users to provide their email address to access the content)
• Use the power of social media to encourage people to sign up for your email list

Remember, getting people to subscribe to your email list is step one. The next step is to develop a successful email marketing campaign that will keep them enticed and influence them to engage. A strong email marketing campaign can provide the company’s consumers with a lot of value, while simultaneously pushing forward the overall marketing goals. Be sure to check out the 9 Steps to email marketing campaigns to take your campaign to the next level. 

Tags: digital marketing, email marketing, SEO