Of all the Top 10 Email Marketing Questions we get asked this is up there in the top 5.

Should I buy Email Lists To Grow My Database?

How can we put this?

NO / NEVER  / NO WAY / NEGATIVE / NOPE

We totally get the attraction, it’s easy for a start, zero effort required.

Each time we hear a client say “I just got a list of 50,000 people from…”  *insert one from below.

• “A list broker”
• “A Forum owner”
• “A guy I met at networking”
• “A guy that was selling his business”
• “A bloke down the pub”

Buying an email list and sticking it into the heart of your business completely abuses the notion of opt-in, and doesn’t come close to even inferred interest in what you do.

No legitimate company will ever sell you a list of ‘opt-in’ email addresses.

Anyone selling you lists of ‘opt-in’ email addresses is  a spam merchant, with a trunk full of SPAM to sell. If you have been sold a list of email addresses which the seller promises are ‘opt-in,’ you have literally been conned.

Think about it.

Selling a collection of third-party e-mail addresses is contradictory to the concept of  “opt-in”, they’ve never heard of you and didn’t come in through your website.

You see the main problems with buying a list from ANYWHERE are:

• If they’re from a list broker most likely anyone with a pulse have been sending them rubbish for months/years
• They’ve never heard of you, even with an introduction, they will not care
• They were most likely treated badly prior to you ever seeing them
• The lists will most likely contains Spam Traps (this is bad)
• They’re old, dead, disinterested and rubbish

So that’s all the negative stuff out of the way, now for some GOOD NEWS!

If you build a legitimate list of people for your business:

• They have opted in through your website or landing page they are REALLY INTERESTED in your business
• They are not just an email address, they are a lead someone that could buy something
• They know people just like themselves they are more likely to refer business to you
• They  will not get you blacklisted, spam reported, email reputation ruined etc

So do the right thing leave buying email lists for spammers and your competitors!

Do it the slightly harder and more profitable way!

PS The picture is of Arthur Daley, the classic english con man from the UK show “Minder“