10 Reasons Why You Should Never Buy An Email List

According to 59% of B2B marketers say that email is considered the effective marketing channel for the organization.

In retail, it says 88% of professionals, according to email as the main retention driver.

Whether you consider this or not, and regardless of what you choose for digital marketing, you should not ignore the email.

However, if you are thinking about buying the email list, and even though it sounds like a good as well as quick way, it is still a huge waste of money. And here are the top listed reasons why not to do it in the first place.

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What Are The Reasons You Should Know About Not Buying Email List?

Since email marketing is the first way of selling anything online, buying the email list for launching your email marketing campaign might sound right.

But it’s not; in fact, buying an email list is a bad idea as well as a huge waste of your money.

It’s even a shortcut, but it won’t work and will cause harm to the business.

But still, if you are considering purchasing the list, then here are the top reasons why you should not.

You Can’t Trust The Email List’s Quality

Creating your own email list helps you in making sure that quality doesn’t suffer.

But when you buy the list, it isn’t necessarily going to be very honest.

Even though they claim all sorts of things, there are a lot of problems that you might find.

Incomplete or Missing data of your subscribers, it might have the wrong name, etc.

There are chances that the information it has is out of date and no longer exists or even gets abandoned.

Email addresses might be illegally harvested, and it is against the CAN-SPAM act.

It Leads To Heavy Penalties

While it sounds great that you can simply buy an email address list of around 5k to 10k names in one simple way, it has more downside than profit.

If the list is just full of junk which is made up by adding people who are not wanted on the list to be in the first place, it makes the deal pretty worthless.

Not just that, if you end up getting into an illegal mess, it will subject you to pay the penalty which goes to more than $16,000 per email you have sent.

According to the CAN-SPAM Act, the law provides the impressment and criminal penalties for :

If you access someone else’s computer to send spam and do not have permission.

Using the information which is false and registering for the email account or domain names multiple times.

Relaying or retransmitting multiple messages which are spam via computer in order to mislead others regarding the message’s origin.

Harnessing or generating email addresses via a dictionary attack, it’s a practice of sending addresses that are made up of random numbers and letters with the hope of reaching valid accounts.

Taking advantage of open proxies and open relays without having permission.

Same List Are Getting Used By Others

Purchasing the list has a higher chance that there might be more people who are using an exact similar list too.

They even purchase the list just like you do and send mail after email to the recipient, the same as yours.

So there are chances that people who are on your list are already tired of the marketing emails they are receiving.

And getting another one will annoy them as they never signed up for this.

To protect themselves, they might put the filters, so they don’t see such emails, which make a list useless and your invested money too.

You Might Give A Spammer Vibe

Well, no one likes when they get unsolicited emails, especially when it’s related to the marketing message.

And there are high chance that such emails end up getting deleted, and in case the numbers are high and all are from the same company, it ends up getting unsubscribed or even marked as spam.

So even though the email is written well and packed with high-quality information, from your recipient’s point of view, it’s just an email from some company they do not know about.

It’s an unwanted email that is making their inbox full and annoying when they get too much of it.

So when people join your email list, they are showing interest. It can be because they have checked a box or glanced at some terms and conditions regarding the offers from companies.

But there are also chances that they might have forgotten this, and they are seeing it as unwelcome spam.

It Cause Problem With Email Service Providers

When the messages you’ve sent are marked as spam and the numbers are high, this ends up putting you on the wrong side of the Email service provider.

They are the company who helps you in sending emails, this means they might end up closing emails, charge a fine, or the service provider takes legal action/

Also, it’s not all; buying the email list is even strictly forbidden by the email service provider.

A lot of them consider it spamming and a serious violation of the service agreement.

You Get The Low Response Rate

Buying an email list has another downside, and it’s the major one. You will not get the response you are hoping for.

The average open rate you get with a targeted list is 20 – 25% which is considered healthy, but not with the purchased list.

Let’s say the email list you purchase contains around 10,000 names.

And here you are hoping to receive at least a 5% conversion rate, so when you sell 500 units which cost $99, netting $49,500. It doesn’t seem too bad.

But the response rate can go much lower than this; there are chances that you don’t even get the 5% either, no matter how much you work on it.

There are also chances that the vast number of them don’t even see the emails, let alone click to sales.

Also, if you get 500 people to see the email, they are still not engaged with the brand nor interested in what you are offering; this leads to no sales at all.

You Have To Pay The Legal Bills Or Charge Big Fine

Buying email is not just bad on business terms, but there are a lot of countries that have laws against this.

For example, to handle unsolicited bulk emails, the United States has a CAN-SPAM act.

So purchasing the buying list means you are going against the law, and if there are a lot of subscribers who complain about your brand, it will end up costing you a lot.

Even just proving that you didn’t do anything which is considered technically wrong will be a costly battle.

But different countries have their laws differently, too, so the penalty you might have to pay differs as well.

In the end, it’s not worth purchasing a list that ruins the reputation, and you have to pay penalties for it.

It Will Ruin The Reputation For Good

Not just you, but the email service provider also ends up ruining their reputation. And that’s why they are so against purchasing listings in the first place.

So If you get caught buying the list, this might lead them to take action.

Buying email address lists have a much broader problem for you as a brand and as an individual; it ruins your reputation.

For example, if your potential customer googles your name but finds the results of people ranting about receiving emails that are unsolicited from you.

It gives a negative vibe and causes problems with those potential customers who might be actually interested.

When it comes to brands, it’s important that you have your reputation, especially when everything is online.

People can simply tweet about your company and share it on social media, and it won’t take much to let others know you are sending emails that they never signed up for.

Experts High Remonned Not To Buy email address List

No matter whom you read, any expert or major blog regarding email marketing will recommend the same thing. They all suggest not purchasing the email list at any cost.

However, different people have their ways of working, and strategies differ on that as some people get results, some people don’t.

But buying the email address list is highly avoided by everyone; it’s just not recommended by the experts.

Those Lists Are Incomplete And Recycled

Such email lists are not made on a genuine basis; they are not the people who are interested in products or brands in the first place.

So they are simply recycled leads with incomplete data.

Also, it’s not limited to you; the people who are selling it might sell to others as well.

There might be a lot of people sending the emails to those addresses, those who have no interest in receiving emails.

Such emails might be completely outdated and incomplete. There are even chances that those emails are no longer in use, and the list is simply getting recycled.