Buying email lists? 3 critical factors

Email marketing
Discover how to avoid common pitfalls when buying email lists

In recent years, email marketing has grown, especially int he B2B sector. As a result, buying email lists has become a popular marketing strategy for start-ups and large corporations, due to its ability to equip companies with a vast network of prospective consumers to whom they can promote their products and services. If you have been considering investing in email lists to further expand your company’s email and digital marketing, read our top three tips on how to avoid the common pitfalls associated with buying email lists.

1. Do not settle for generic mailing addresses

It is crucial that you verify you are being sold legitimate email addresses which contain the full name of the email recipient and their direct mail address before you commit to purchasing an email list. If you fail to do so, you may find that you have been sold multiple email addresses which all lead back to the same person, or that you have bought multiple email addresses for family members who all live within the same household. By exercising caution and scrutinising the email lists you intend to buy, you can ensure you are equipped with viable contact information through which to secure future sales for your company.

2. Always ask for opt-in records

With the growing legislation in email and permission marketing, you should make sure you buy email lists which contain contacts who will actually want to read your company’s emails rather than simply reporting them as spam. Less reputable ocmpanies harvest names from websites. Basically they scan the web, harvest email addresses and sell them. There is no permission to contact these people. It’s why several companies add their email addresses as images, or add spaces between the name, the @ and the company domain name.

Fortunately, you can protect yourself from this common email list pitfall by securing opt-in records of the recipients within your email lists. These records will prove that the email recipients in question have provided explicit permission to be added to a mailing list; which will in turn substantially increase the likelihood of these contacts responding positively to your company’s online marketing correspondence.

NB If a company cannot provide opt-in records, go elsewhere!

3. Acquire relevant contacts

One of the major pitfalls committed when buying email lists is that companies purchase large mailing lists which contain the contact information of many recipients, most of whom will not be interested in your company’s products or services.

As a result, it is paramount to the success of your email marketing strategies that you acquire email lists which comprise of consumers whose age, gender, location and interests are within your key consumer demographic. By doing so, you can create emails which will appeal to their buying interests and present them with content which is relevant to their individual circumstances. This simple yet highly effective digital marketing strategy can substantially increase the likelihood of these mailing lists delivering profitable leads for your business!

Can you recommend a good email list provider? Please do tell us!

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