Purchasing an email lists for marketing might be the quick fix you need to reach more audiences during marketing. But the question is, is it worth it?
Well, we will soon find out in this article if purchasing an email list is something you should do.
You will also get to understand the different methods of acquiring an email list, the advantages and disadvantages etc. And if you eventually decide to buy an email list, where can you buy it?
But before we go into that, what is an email list?
What is an Email List?
An email list is a list of contacts (email addresses and names) of people to who you intend to sell your products or services.
These could be acquired contacts from an email database vendor or contacts built from scratch using simple lead generation strategies.
Methods of Getting an Email List
Here are the different ways you can have access to an email list:
Build an Email List
This is the natural, most acceptable and advisable way of owning an email list. Here, you use lead generation strategies to build your list from scratch.
You create lead magnets like information materials and use them as incentives to convince people to join your email list.
The beauty of this method is that all your contacts are qualified. This means they are interested in what you are offering, and it’s only a matter of time and nurturing before they buy from you.
Rent an Email List
In this case, you work with an email database provider to send emails to a group of people who match your interests. But the issue here is that you don’t have access to the email list. In fact, you can’t see the email addresses of the contacts.
That is why you work together with the list provider. You choose the demography of the people you want to reach and provide him with the required campaign details.
Then he will look into his database, find people who match your descriptions and send them the already created email campaign.
Purchase an Email List
Purchasing an email list gives you permanent ownership of the list. You have access to the email addresses and other relevant information of the contacts.
In this case, you specify to an email list provider the kind of audience you want, and he makes them available to you. You could choose to get the email addresses of men or women, or both, within an age bracket from a certain location.
Is Buying an Email List Worth it?
Buying or renting an email list isn’t a bad idea if you’re looking to pass information to people from a particular region or within a certain age.
But if you’re looking to build a sustainable business, purchasing or renting an email list might be one of your worst marketing decisions.
This is because to grow a business; you need a list of loyal customers that are interested in your products or services. So, gathering a list of contacts from a particular location who have never shown any interest in what you’re offering isn’t worth it.
3 Advantages of Purchasing Email Lists for Marketing
It Saves Time and Resources
Buying an email list saves you the time, effort and resources required to build a new one. You could purchase an email list of over a million subscribers instantly, whereas it could take you one year of consistency to achieve the same feat.
It’s a Quick Fix
If you urgently need to reach out to a certain group of people from a certain location, buying an email list is your best option.
It comes in handy, as you don’t have the luxury of time to wait and build a list from scratch.
Expanding Your Audience Reach
Purchasing an email list could see you reaching over a million contacts in one campaign. That if you’re used to reaching a thousand audiences previously.
And the thing is, the more people you reach, the higher your chances of making more sales and meeting your target.
3 Disadvantages of Purchasing Email Lists for marketing
You, Will, be Marked as a Spammer
Because these contacts didn’t indicate interest in what you’re offering, they could see your emails as disturbances. And what this means is that they will either ignore your emails or report you as a spammer.
And trust me, this isn’t good for your business.
Your Email Service Provider Could Close Your Account
Reporting you as a spammer doesn’t just hurt, it affects your email service providers (ESP) too. Obviously, they don’t want to have anything to do with a spammer. It does a lot of damage to their reputation.
So, if you consistently get flagged as spam, your ESP could go to the extent of closing your account.
It Will Affects Your Sales Conversion and Open Rate
This is the most painful part. What is the need to purchase an email list when you don’t make many sales from it?
Well, that is what happens when you email a list of people who have no interest in what you’re offering. They tend to ignore your emails, and when they don’t open your emails, how do you persuade them to buy what you’re selling?
In all honesty, the disadvantages of purchasing an email list outweigh the advantages.
How You Can Build a Valuable Email List
Building a valuable email list from scratch can be really challenging but rewarding. It is challenging because it requires a good effort, huge resources and a level of consistency before you can see the desired results.
And it is rewarding because a valuable email list is full of qualified contacts that could be your loyal customers forever.
Now, how do you build a valuable email list? I will keep it short.
You can start by building a website for your business. State the goals, mission and vision of your business and state in clear terms the services you render.
After that, create a valuable lead magnet and attach it to your website. Whoever needs access to it will have to fill out an opt-in form that requires them to drop their email addresses and names.
Now the next stage is to channel traffic to this website. You can build a strong social media presence for your business.
To build a strong social media presence, you must consistently inform and educate people on key topics around your business.
Those who get interested in your content are qualified leads, and you need to collect their information by leading them to your website.
You could also get them to join your email list from your social media pages. Do this consistently, and you’d build a tribe of highly qualified leads that you could nurture into loyal customers.
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Where Can You Buy an Email List?
For one reason or the other, you may still want to buy an email list. Here are places you could buy quality leads with functional email addresses:
- UpLead
- Lusha
- Hunter
- Skrapp
- Cognism
Purchasing Email Lists for Marketing-Conclusion
Even though I wouldn’t advise you to buy an email list, I understand there are certain scenarios where you might need them. So, I can only advise that you go for the best from the reliable sources mentioned above.
Having a quality email list is a goldmine in email marketing. If you build one or come across one, do not joke with it.
This is all about purchasing email lists for marketing. In case, you have any contribution, use the comment section below.