Summary
Experts, marketers, and documentation from various sources overwhelmingly advise against purchasing 'top email marketing companies' lists. These lists are often associated with questionable practices, low value, and ethical concerns. They frequently contain outdated and inaccurate data, increasing the risk of spam traps, low engagement, high bounce rates, and spam complaints. Furthermore, sending unsolicited emails to purchased lists can lead to legal repercussions, including violations of GDPR and CAN-SPAM acts, damaging sender reputation, and contravening the terms of service of email marketing platforms. The consensus is that building an opt-in list through valuable content, incentives, and easy opt-in forms, coupled with proper segmentation and personalization, is a more effective, ethical, and sustainable approach.
Key findings
- Low Value and Questionable Practices: Offers to be included in 'top email marketing companies' lists often have limited value and may involve unethical practices such as email scraping.
- Data Quality Issues: Purchased lists typically contain outdated, inaccurate, and incomplete data, increasing the likelihood of spam traps and irrelevant contacts.
- Legal and Compliance Risks: Sending unsolicited emails to purchased lists can violate GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and other privacy regulations, potentially leading to fines and legal action.
- Deliverability Problems: High bounce rates and spam complaints resulting from purchased lists damage sender reputation and impair deliverability.
- Ethical Concerns: Buying and using email lists raises ethical concerns due to the lack of consent from recipients.
Key considerations
- Focus on Ethical List Building: Prioritize building an opt-in email list through ethical practices such as obtaining explicit consent, providing valuable content, and offering incentives.
- Legal Compliance: Ensure compliance with all relevant privacy regulations (e.g., GDPR, CAN-SPAM) to avoid legal penalties and maintain a positive sender reputation.
- Inbound Marketing Strategies: Implement inbound marketing strategies to attract qualified leads and organically grow your email list.
- Segmentation and Personalization: Segment your email list based on demographics, interests, and behavior, and personalize your messaging to improve engagement and conversion rates.
- Long-Term Strategy: Consider list building as a long-term investment that yields better results than relying on quick fixes like purchasing lists.
What email marketers say
10 marketer opinions
Experts and marketers overwhelmingly advise against purchasing 'top email marketing companies' lists. They cite low engagement rates, outdated and inaccurate data, potential legal issues (GDPR, CAN-SPAM), damage to sender reputation, high bounce rates, spam complaints, ethical concerns due to lack of consent, and higher cost per conversion compared to organically built lists. Building your own permission-based list with valuable content and easy opt-in forms is consistently recommended for better results and deliverability.
Key opinions
- Low Engagement: Purchased lists typically result in low engagement because recipients have not opted-in to receive communications.
- Data Quality: The data in purchased lists is often outdated, inaccurate, and may contain spam traps, leading to poor results.
- Legal Risks: Using purchased lists can violate GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and other privacy regulations due to lack of consent.
- Reputation Damage: Sending emails to purchased lists damages sender reputation, leading to high bounce rates and spam complaints.
- Cost Inefficiency: Purchased lists have a higher cost per conversion compared to organically grown lists.
Key considerations
- Ethical Implications: Consider the ethical implications of emailing people who haven't opted-in, as it can negatively impact brand perception.
- Building an Organic List: Focus on building your own permission-based list with valuable content, incentives, and easy opt-in forms for better results.
- Segmentation and Personalization: Employ proper segmentation and personalization strategies to improve engagement and conversion rates within your organic list.
- Legal Compliance: Ensure compliance with GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and other privacy regulations when building and managing your email list.
- Long-Term Strategy: View list building as a long-term strategy that yields better results and improves overall email marketing effectiveness.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Litmus shares that purchased email lists are ineffective due to low engagement rates and potential spam complaints. Building a permission-based list ensures a more receptive and engaged audience.
1 Feb 2025 - Litmus
Marketer view
Email marketer from Warrior Forum explains that the cost per conversion from a purchased list is much higher than from an organically grown list, due to low engagement and high bounce rates. Building a targeted list through content marketing is more cost-effective in the long run.
24 Apr 2023 - Warrior Forum
What the experts say
3 expert opinions
Experts from Email Geeks, Spam Resource, and Word to the Wise all advise against paid 'top email marketing companies' lists. The consensus highlights the low value of these offers, questionable and unethical practices like scraping emails and violating CAN-SPAM, and the danger of spam traps and uninterested recipients leading to deliverability issues. They emphasize that ethical list building focusing on permission and providing value is crucial for maintaining a healthy sending reputation.
Key opinions
- Low Value Offers: Offers to be listed in 'top email marketing companies' lists often have little value and employ questionable practices.
- Ethical Concerns: Buying lists is not an ethical practice, as it involves sending emails to people who have not given permission.
- Deliverability Risks: Purchased lists pose significant deliverability risks due to spam traps and recipients not wanting the emails.
Key considerations
- Unsolicited Contact: Be aware that companies offering these lists often engage in unsolicited email scraping and potential CAN-SPAM violations.
- Ethical List Building: Focus on ethical list building practices, such as obtaining permission and providing value to subscribers.
- Reputation Management: Prioritize maintaining a healthy sending reputation by avoiding purchased lists and focusing on genuine engagement.
Expert view
Expert from Spam Resource (Laura Atkins) warns that buying lists, even seemingly targeted ones, is dangerous due to potential spam traps and the likelihood of recipients not wanting the email, which leads to deliverability issues.
6 Jun 2023 - Spam Resource
Expert view
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that ethical list building is crucial, and buying lists is not an ethical practice. Focus on obtaining permission and providing value to subscribers to maintain a healthy sending reputation.
8 Mar 2022 - Word to the Wise
What the documentation says
5 technical articles
Documentation from Sendinblue, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, and Constant Contact uniformly advises against using purchased email lists. They highlight potential violations of GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and other anti-spam laws, damage to sender reputation, low engagement due to lack of consent, high bounce rates, spam complaints, and overall negative impact on deliverability. Building an opt-in list and focusing on inbound marketing strategies are recommended for compliance, trust, and better results.
Key findings
- Legal Violations: Purchased email lists can violate GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and other privacy regulations because recipients haven't given explicit consent.
- Reputation Damage: Buying email lists harms sender reputation, leading to deliverability issues.
- Low Engagement: Engagement is low with purchased lists because recipients haven't opted-in.
- Terms of Service Violation: Purchasing lists violates the terms of service of many email marketing platforms (e.g., Mailchimp).
Key considerations
- Opt-in List Building: Focus on building an opt-in email list to ensure compliance and foster trust with subscribers.
- Inbound Marketing: Employ inbound marketing strategies to organically grow your email list.
- Legal Compliance: Prioritize legal compliance to avoid fines and repercussions.
- Deliverability: Prioritize deliverability by avoiding purchased lists, focusing on earned subscribers.
Technical article
Documentation from Campaign Monitor says that sending unsolicited emails to people on a purchased list could violate the CAN-SPAM Act, leading to significant fines and legal repercussions. Permission-based marketing is always the best approach.
7 Apr 2023 - Campaign Monitor
Technical article
Documentation from Mailchimp says that purchasing email lists is against their terms of service because it leads to high bounce rates, spam complaints, and potential legal issues, negatively affecting overall deliverability and sender reputation for all users.
26 Apr 2023 - Mailchimp
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