Thinking About Buying Those Email Lists For Sale? Definitely Not Worth It

Thinking about buying email lists to speed up everything? I know that feeling. But that is definitely a bad idea that’s not worth your money and time. 

Email marketing has one of the highest conversion rates and the highest return of investment (ROI) among the digital marketing strategies. It’s no surprise that marketers and newbies are now into it though some of them are availing the shortcuts instead. It’s also no surprise that some people are monetizing their email lists by actually selling them to those who have no idea of the disadvantages of paid email lists. 

Here are all the reasons why you should not entertain any thoughts of buying one:

The subscribers consented to receive emails only from the original owner of the list. There are certain laws which expressly require that the sender has fully informed the subscribers what they would receive before they are included in the email lists.

A European law - the General Data Protection Regulation or the GDPR - requires active consent from the email subscribers to receive emails from a business. You are covered by this law as long as you have subscribers from Europe.  There's also the CAN-SPAM Act from the United States which prohibits businesses from sending unsolicited emails to unknowing subscribers.

Law enforcers can track you and your business once you are reported to be violating these laws. 

Companies specializing in email marketing will avoid offering their services with you. They would rather insist that you use organic and opt-in email lists because paid ones affect deliverability of the future newsletters and emails.

This is because the subscribers do not even know who you are in the first place. They don't have an idea how their email addresses got into yours hence, they would most probably hit that unsubscribe or the SPAM button. Especially at these times where financial frauds are rampant, people have become vigilant about suspicious and unfamiliar emails in their inboxes.

How sure are you that the email list you are going to buy is that exact target audience you are looking for? Perhaps, the list of email addresses has indeed matched your target demographics, but their interests and views about your business will always be questionable. 

If you want to grow your subscriber’s list quickly, why not buy solo ads instead? In solo ads, you buy an ad space from someone with a massive subscriber’s list. You won’t buy and acquire the list itself. Rather, the owner would advertise your brand or landing page to their own subscribers through emails and newsletters. This is better because you are sure that the owner and the list itself would be in the same niche as you are. 

Paid email lists are surely tempting as it can hasten the process of email marketing. But shortcuts are not guaranteed to bring you the results you've always wanted. In fact, it can even do more harm to your business's goodwill and image. There are other ways to grow your subscriber’s lists that are more effective and without concerns of illegalities.