Why are purchased email lists so bad for deliverability?

Purchased lists typically contain contacts who haven't given you permission to email them. This leads to high spam complaints, low engagement, high bounce rates, and spam trap hits, all of which severely damage your sender reputation with ISPs.

Can I use a purchased email list with my email service provider?

Email Service Providers (ESPs) like Mailchimp and Constant Contact have strict policies against purchased lists because they pose a risk to the ESP's overall deliverability and reputation. Sending to such lists can lead to account suspension or termination to protect their shared sending infrastructure.

Is it okay to use a purchased list if I validate it first?

While you can validate a purchased list, it often has limited effectiveness. Validation tools can identify invalid addresses and some spam traps, but they can't determine consent or predict how recipients will engage. You still risk hitting hidden spam traps or receiving high spam complaints, leading to high unknown rates even after cleaning.

What should I do if I've already sent to a purchased email list?

If you've already sent to a purchased list, you might notice a drop in deliverability and a rise in complaints. To recover, immediately stop sending to the purchased list. Focus on segmenting and cleaning your existing list , re-engaging active subscribers, and patiently rebuilding your sender reputation by sending relevant content to opted-in users.

Does cold emailing with a purchased list have fewer risks?

No. While cold emailing can be a valid strategy in some B2B contexts when done carefully and with legitimate interests, purchasing a list for cold outreach often violates consent laws and leads to the same deliverability issues as bulk marketing to unverified contacts.

Why do purchased email lists cause deliverability issues and are not a best practice? - Sender reputation - Email deliverability - Knowledge base

The idea of quickly boosting your email list with thousands of new contacts through a purchased list can seem tempting. It promises immediate reach and a shortcut to expanding your audience without the slow, painstaking process of organic list building. However, this seemingly efficient strategy carries significant risks that can severely undermine your email marketing efforts and overall business reputation.

While it might appear to offer a quick fix for outreach, relying on purchased email lists is widely considered a poor practice in the email deliverability world. The core issue lies in the lack of consent from the recipients and the inherent poor quality of these lists. These fundamental flaws create a cascade of problems that lead to diminished deliverability, damaged sender reputation, and wasted resources.

Understanding why purchased lists are detrimental is crucial for anyone serious about effective email marketing. It's not just about avoiding spam filters, it's about building sustainable relationships with a genuinely interested audience.

The primary reason purchased email lists are problematic is the absence of explicit consent from the recipients. When you buy a list, the individuals on it have not opted in to receive communications from your specific brand. This immediately puts you in violation of privacy regulations like GDPR and CAN-SPAM, risking legal penalties and a loss of trust.

Without consent, recipients are unlikely to recognize your emails or be interested in your content. This leads to extremely low engagement rates, high unsubscribe rates, and, most critically, a surge in spam complaints. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and mailbox providers closely monitor these engagement metrics as indicators of sender reputation. High complaint rates signal to them that your emails are unsolicited, which in turn triggers stricter filtering.

Many purchased lists also contain outdated, invalid, or recycled email addresses. These often include spam traps, which are dormant email addresses repurposed by ISPs to catch unsolicited mail. Hitting even a few spam traps can instantly flag you as a spammer, severely damaging your sender reputation and leading to immediate blocklisting (blacklisting). You can learn more about why buying email lists is a bad idea in this article.

The lack of verifiable consent means that most email service providers (ESPs) have strict anti-purchased list policies. Using such a list can lead to your account being suspended or terminated, as ESPs must maintain high deliverability rates for all their users to protect their own IP reputation.

Damage to sender reputation and deliverability

Sending to a purchased list almost guarantees poor email deliverability. This means your emails are less likely to land in the inbox and more likely to end up in spam folders, or be rejected entirely. ISPs use sophisticated algorithms to evaluate a sender's reputation, factoring in metrics like bounce rates, spam complaint rates, and engagement.

High bounce rates, especially hard bounces from invalid addresses, are a significant red flag. They tell ISPs that your list hygiene is poor, indicating that you might be sending to unverified contacts. This can quickly degrade your sender's IP and domain reputation, making it harder for even legitimate emails to reach the inbox. You can check your domain reputation regularly.

Moreover, poor engagement, characterized by low open and click-through rates, further signals to ISPs that your content is not valued by recipients. This negative feedback loop means your emails will increasingly be routed to the spam folder, even for contacts on your genuinely opted-in list. This affects not only the purchased list but also your overall email deliverability.

In severe cases, sending to purchased lists can lead to your sending IP address or domain being added to public or private email blocklists (blacklists). This is a serious issue, as many ISPs use these blocklists to filter out suspected spam. Once on a blacklist, your emails may be universally rejected, making it nearly impossible to reach any recipient, even those who want to hear from you. The recovery process from a blocklisting can be lengthy and challenging, requiring significant effort to rebuild your reputation.

Financial and operational consequences

Beyond the immediate deliverability woes, purchased email lists come with a host of financial and operational consequences that often go unnoticed until it's too late. The initial cost of acquiring the list is just the tip of the iceberg.

You'll end up paying your ESP for emails that never reach their intended recipients, or worse, land in spam folders. This translates directly to wasted marketing spend and a low return on investment. Furthermore, a damaged sender reputation can impact all your email campaigns, requiring substantial time and resources for reputation recovery and ongoing deliverability monitoring.

The long-term impact on your brand can be even more severe. Being associated with spam erodes customer trust and can make it harder to acquire legitimate subscribers in the future. It damages your brand's credibility and can lead to a negative perception among potential customers, costing more than just lost email campaigns.

Organic list building

Consent: Requires explicit opt-in from subscribers.
Quality: High quality, engaged contacts.
Deliverability: Higher inbox placement and positive sender reputation.
ROI: Better long-term results and customer loyalty.

The true cost of a shortcut

Ultimately, the risks associated with purchased email lists far outweigh any perceived benefits. They are a gamble that can cost you more than just money, potentially ruining your sender reputation and hindering your ability to connect with your audience effectively. The email ecosystem prioritizes consent and engagement, and practices that bypass these principles will inevitably face severe consequences from ISPs and blocklist operators like Spamhaus.

Building an email list organically through legitimate means such as website sign-ups, content downloads, and direct interactions is the only sustainable path to long-term email marketing success. It ensures that your audience is genuinely interested in your messages, leading to higher engagement, better deliverability, and a strong, positive sender reputation.

Views from the trenches

Best practices

Always prioritize obtaining explicit consent from your subscribers through opt-in forms and clear privacy policies.

Regularly clean your email lists to remove inactive, invalid, or unengaged contacts to maintain list hygiene.

Monitor your sender reputation metrics, including bounce rates, spam complaints, and open rates, to catch issues early.

Common pitfalls

Ignoring signs of poor engagement such as low open rates and high complaint rates, which degrade sender reputation.

Failing to segment your audience and send relevant content, leading to disinterest and increased unsubscribes.

Not understanding the legal implications of sending to non-consented lists, risking fines and platform bans.

Expert tips

Implement double opt-in for all new subscribers to verify consent and improve list quality from the start.

Warm up new sending IPs gradually to build a positive reputation with ISPs, especially after changing providers.

Utilize email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to prove your identity and prevent spoofing.

Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks says that purchased lists are not workable within a best practices framework, and systems like Gmail and Spamhaus are designed to flag them.

2023-01-17 - Email Geeks

Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks says that sending to purchased lists can cause issues, and they wouldn't be responsible for diagnosing problems with a client's email platform.

2023-01-17 - Email Geeks