Why are there no clear deliverability statistics for rented email lists?

Rented email lists typically do not have clear deliverability statistics like opted-in lists because you do not directly control the sending or list hygiene. The deliverability depends heavily on the list owner's practices and reputation. It is generally very low and unreliable, often resulting in significant bounce rates and spam complaints.

Is renting an email list a good strategy for email marketing?

No, renting an email list is generally not recommended. It often leads to poor deliverability, low engagement, and can indirectly harm your brand's reputation if associated with a sender who has a poor sending history or uses non-consenting contacts. Building your own permission-based list is always the best approach.

What are the primary risks associated with using rented email lists?

The main risk is that your email content is sent to recipients who did not explicitly opt-in to receive messages from your brand. This can lead to high spam complaint rates, low open rates, and bounces. While your own sender reputation might not be directly affected if the list owner sends, the association with a low-quality list can still indirectly harm your brand's perception among ISPs and recipients. It can also be harder to recover deliverability from these issues.

What is the difference between a rented and a purchased email list?

A rented list means the list owner sends your message on their network, whereas a purchased list means you acquire the email addresses and send them yourself. While both are problematic, a purchased list directly impacts your sender reputation, while a rented list impacts the list owner's reputation, indirectly affecting the perception of your brand.

What are the deliverability stats for rented email lists? - Sender reputation - Email deliverability - Knowledge base

Email list rental is a concept that often comes with a significant amount of caution in the email marketing world. Unlike building your own organic email list, where recipients explicitly opt in to receive your communications, renting a list means you're leveraging someone else's database. The question of deliverability for these lists is frequently raised, and it's a complex one, largely because there aren't straightforward, universally applicable statistics available. My insights suggest a nuanced picture, but one that generally leans towards poor deliverability.

The primary reason for this lack of clear data is the inherent nature of rented lists. You don't directly control the list, nor do you typically handle the sending yourself. Instead, the list owner or a third-party sends your promotional content on your behalf. This separation makes it difficult to track specific metrics that would normally apply to your own campaigns, such as bounce rates, complaint rates, or direct inbox placement figures. Moreover, many email service providers (ESPs) and internet service providers (ISPs) actively discourage or even prohibit the use of rented or purchased lists due to the high risks they pose to sender reputation and overall email ecosystem health.

Understanding list rental vs. list purchase

When we talk about renting an email list, it's crucial to distinguish it from purchasing a list outright. With a purchased list, you acquire the email addresses and then send emails using your own infrastructure or ESP. This puts your sender reputation directly at stake. For instance, if you send emails to a purchased list, you might quickly see your domain or IP address appear on a major email blacklist or blocklist, which can severely impact your ability to reach inboxes for all your legitimate email marketing efforts. Your email reputation is critical for successful delivery.

However, with a rented list, the list owner sends the email on your behalf. You provide the content, and they distribute it to their subscriber base. This means that their sender reputation is what's on the line, not directly yours. While this might sound safer, it introduces a significant lack of transparency and control. You don't know the quality of their list or their sending practices.

This lack of control is a major problem. You can't verify if the recipients genuinely opted in to receive third-party promotions, nor can you check for the presence of spam traps or inactive addresses. Without this crucial insight, you're essentially trusting an unknown entity with your marketing message, with little recourse if their practices are subpar. This often leads to a poor return on investment and potential reputational damage if your brand is associated with low-quality sending.

The scarcity of reliable statistics

Finding specific deliverability statistics for rented email lists is exceptionally difficult because reputable data sources focus on permission-based email marketing. The email industry, including major ISPs, does not endorse or track the performance of these lists in a transparent way. Most reliable studies, like those from EmailToolTester, report average deliverability rates for legitimate email marketing platforms. For example, the average deliverability rate across various email marketing platforms can be around 83-84% for opted-in lists.

In stark contrast, deliverability for rented lists is highly speculative and almost certainly much lower. Industry experts often caution against their use, citing that they typically contain outdated addresses, spam traps, and recipients who never consented to receive your specific content. This leads to high bounce rates, elevated spam complaints, and abysmal engagement metrics.

A good deliverability rate for legitimate marketing emails should generally be 90% or higher. For rented lists, it's reasonable to expect significantly lower rates, possibly even approaching zero if the list is particularly bad or the sender's practices are poor. You can learn more about the specific reasons why these types of lists are problematic in our guide on purchased email lists, as many of the underlying issues are similar.

Expected deliverability and hidden impacts

When the list owner sends on your behalf, their reputation dictates the success of your campaign. If they have a history of sending to non-consenting or low-quality lists, their emails will likely face significant filtering by ISPs. This means your message may end up in the spam folder, or even be blocked entirely, without you ever knowing. This hidden impact is why it's so challenging to get accurate deliverability stats for rented lists.

The deliverability rate for rented lists can swing wildly. At the very high end, if the list is extremely well-maintained, highly segmented, and the list owner has an impeccable sender reputation, you might see results comparable to a decent, but not excellent, opted-in list. However, this scenario is exceedingly rare. Most often, the deliverability will be significantly lower, potentially leading to wasted marketing spend and minimal return.

The worst-case scenario, which is quite common, is near-zero deliverability. If the rented list contains a large number of inactive, invalid, or spam trap addresses, or if the list owner has a poor sending history, your email may not reach any inboxes at all. The list owner may provide you with delivery reports, but these often only reflect that the email was accepted by the recipient's mail server, not that it landed in the inbox. This distinction is critical in understanding true deliverability.

Risks to your brand and long-term deliverability

Even if your brand isn't directly blacklisted (or blocklisted) for sending to a rented list, the association can still cause problems. If the list owner's sending practices are poor, your brand could be indirectly linked to a sender with a bad reputation, affecting how ISPs perceive future campaigns where your brand is mentioned. This is a subtle but significant risk that many marketers overlook.

It's also worth noting that some email platforms and services have strict policies against the use of non-opt-in lists. If a list owner uses such services and sends to a rented list, they risk getting their entire sending account shut down. This can have ripple effects for all their clients, including you. For more on the risks, review this MarketingSherpa article on email list rental.

Risks of rented lists

Poor quality data: High likelihood of invalid addresses, spam traps, and disengaged recipients.
Reputation damage: Association with a poor sender can harm your brand's standing, even indirectly. Recovering can be a long process, as discussed in our guide on domain reputation recovery.
Lack of transparency: Limited insight into list hygiene and performance metrics.
Legal and compliance issues: Risk of violating anti-spam laws like CAN-SPAM or GDPR if consent isn't properly managed.

The true cost of rented lists

The long-term consequences of using rented lists far outweigh any short-term gains. Focusing on building an engaged, permission-based email list is always the superior strategy. It ensures better deliverability, higher engagement, and a stronger, more sustainable marketing channel. While it takes more time and effort, the results are consistently more positive and reliable, helping your emails land in the inbox rather than the spam folder.

Ultimately, the deliverability stats for rented email lists are inherently poor or, at best, unreliable. The lack of consent, control, and transparency makes them a risky endeavor that can harm your brand's reputation and deliverability in the long run. Invest in building your own list through ethical and effective means, and you'll see much better returns on your email marketing efforts.

Views from the trenches

Best practices

Focus on building your own opted-in lists to ensure recipient consent and better engagement.

If considering list rental, ensure the list owner has strong deliverability practices and a clear opt-in process.

Monitor your sender reputation diligently even when using rented lists, as indirect impacts can still occur.

Common pitfalls

Assuming rented lists will perform like opted-in lists without proper vetting.

Failing to understand the actual sender of the email in a list rental scenario.

Ignoring the lack of transparency and reporting for rented list performance.

Expert tips

The distinction between a purchased list (you send) and a rented list (third party sends) is crucial for deliverability.

For rented lists, the deliverability hinges entirely on the list owner's reputation and their sending hygiene.

Directly acquiring and sending to rented lists yourself will quickly damage your own sender reputation.

Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks says finding deliverability statistics for rented lists is very difficult unless it's extremely industry-specific, due to the numerous variables involved.

2019-05-01 - Email Geeks

Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks says that, at the high end, deliverability for rented lists might be comparable to good opt-in statistics.

2019-05-01 - Email Geeks