Purchased email lists. Are they right for your company?

You can read all of the articles on the web claiming purchased email lists are a big no-no for your email campaign, emailing to purchased lists can destroy your campaign, the titles go on and on. If you look closely, most of these articles are written by permission-based companies who are not equipped to execute email campaigns to purchased lists. Do purchased email lists work? Look no further than the hundreds of companies who sell them. If they didn’t work how are they staying in business? Why do consumers keep buying them?

The answer is simple. Non-permission based email marketing to purchased email lists works, if you set your expectations and have a solid strategy.

First, you have to identify your target market and acquire a quality email list for that market. If you are selling flowers you may want to target flower shops and landscapers. Not general contractors.

You have to approach this with the right mindset. It is very rare to get a sale from one cold email. It can happen with a well-written cold email, but not very often. It doesn’t matter if it’s purchased email lists, third-party data or an “old industry list”. The bottom line is your recipients did not opt-in to receive your emails. You are sending compliant commercial emails in efforts to find customers who want to hear from you and show interest in your product.

Depending on the quality of your email list, open rates can be lower and bounce rates higher than a typical opt-in campaign. REMEMBER, your recipients did not opt-in! Open rates can be 2-5%. A good email list can have open rates between 6-20% and this can vary from ISP to ISP.

If your goal is to sell product from a cold email these results may not appeal to you. However, if your objective is to cultivate warm leads and nurture them along the sales journey through follow-up campaigns, then prospecting with purchased email lists is right for you. If you want to increase your reach and broaden your audience with a low cost of investment, them cold email lead generation can work for you.

Prospecting with purchased email lists is not an overnight fix for your sales issues. There is no magic bullet or one-size fits all strategy for success. It is being consistent with your email campaigns, analyzing, adjusting when necessary and tackling problems when and if they arise. It always helps to acquire good solid data.

When mailing to purchased email lists you have to start slowly and build up your volume over time. You know the old saying. Start at first base and work your way to home base. This is the perfect analogy and approach for sending to purchased email lists.

Cleaning your email list with a list cleaning service can help remove hard bounces, spam trappers and honeypots, but it will not remove people who may complain against you and mark you as SPAM. This is always a possibility.

Keep in mind clean IPs are neutral and have no reputation. They need to be warmed up. ISPs will assess your sending habits and how your recipients are reacting to your content. They will see if you are removing unsubscribes and dealing with complaints in a timely fashion and over time, will assign you with a sending reputation. The better your reputation the more your emails will land in the inbox.


Put email marketing to work for your business.