The Dangers of Purchasing an Email List

This post originally appeared on the BrandBlasting Blog and was written by Nicole Dieker.

So. Not enough people have followed the call to action on your landing page and signed up to your mailing list. What are you going to do about it?

Some people would immediately think “I need to improve something about my marketing or my website.” Others might work on increasing their social media outreach, in order to connect and build trust with more prospective customers.

And then there are those who think “I’ll just buy an email list.” Exchange money, get a whole gob of emails. What could go wrong?

As it turns out, plenty.

Purchased Email Lists Are Illegal in Canada

Let’s start with the legal factor. Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation prohibits you from sending email via purchased email lists. As the website states:

You can’t send a commercial electronic message if you don’t at least have implied consent.

I am not a lawyer and can’t offer legal advice about CASL, so consult a lawyer if you are curious about what constitutes implied consent.

You don’t have to be a Canadian company, either. If you send emails to people in Canada, you have to obey CASL. Which means you better not be purchasing any email lists that include Canadian names.

You Can’t Purchase a True Opt-in List

At this point, you may be thinking “Okay, I’ll buy my email list from one of those sellers that offers an opt-in list. After all, those people opted-in. That counts as consent, right?”
Nope. If you see a seller offering an “opt-in email list,” be aware that they aren’t actually offering a list of people who have opted in to receive email from you. Salsa explains why:

List sellers may claim that their contacts are 100 percent opted-in, but you should be suspicious. Typically, list sellers dupe subscribers with equivocal language and fine print — e.g. “Check here to receive relevant offers and communication from our partner companies.” Chances are, the site visitor didn’t even read this message, let alone understand what they were agreeing to. Some list sellers even use scanning bots to capture email addresses from random websites and forums.

Purchased lists are never going to be truly opt-in, no matter what a seller promises you.

Email Marketing Software Often Prohibits Purchased Lists

If you purchase an email list, you might not be able to use your list with your current email marketing software — and you aren’t going to like your other options. HubSpot explains:

If you’re using email marketing software now or plan to in the future, you’ll find that reputable companies will insist that you use opt-in email lists. You might be saying, “I’ll just use a non-reputable email marketing vendor.” Alas, ESPs on shared IP addresses that don’t require customers to use opt-in email lists typically suffer poor deliverability. Why? One customer’s ill-gotten email address list can poison the deliverability of the other customers on that shared IP address. You’re going to want to hitch your wagon to the light side of the email marketing force if you want your emails to actually get into inboxes.

What does “poison the deliverability” mean? In this case, it means your emails get delivered directly to spam folders — if they get delivered at all.

So stay away from purchased email lists and disreputable email marketing vendors, and make sure the emails you send get delivered to the people who have opted in. Those are the people who are most likely to convert, after all.

Purchased Email Lists Do Not Correlate With Increased Engagement

Some people purchase email lists as a way to throw more spaghetti against more walls; sure, a lot of it will fall to the ground, but some of it will stick, right?

Nope. Sorry. As MailChimp explains:

If we look at campaign performance versus the percentage of a mailing list that’s purchased or scraped, we find that positive engagement falls off a cliff as purchased correlation increases. Since most folks have to open an email to unsubscribe, unsubscribes die off too. The only thing that does go up? Complaints.

MailChimp writes “a purchased list is a dead list,” and they should know.

To recap: purchased email lists result in decreased delivery and engagement, they might get you sent to spam folders or blacklisted, you’re unlikely to find an email marketing software company willing to work with you, and you’ll be violating CASL if you’re sending email from, or to, Canada.

Still think purchasing an email list sounds like a good idea?

Now get back to improving your marketing and your conversions so you can build your email list the right way.

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