Email marketing can be an extremely effective way to reach new customers and promote your business. But building and cultivating an engaged email subscriber list takes significant time and effort. This leads many businesses to consider buying email lists as a digital marketing shortcut to expand their reach quickly.
However, the quality of purchased lists can vary dramatically. And overly relying on bought lists brings legal, ethical, and practical risks.
So, is buying email lists actually worth it? The answer is: it depends.
When done strategically and ethically, buying targeted lists can supplement your marketing efforts, raise brand awareness, and be an effective lead-generation tactic.
First, what exactly is an email list?
Essentially, it’s a database of contact information collected from people who have agreed to receive messages from your business. The end goal is to drive engagement and eventual sales.
The key components of an effective email strategy include:
The return on investment (ROI) from email marketing is calculated by looking at revenue driven directly from email campaigns compared to costs like software, creative work, analysts’ time, and list acquisition. The higher the revenue and lower the costs, the better the ROI.
Now, let’s explore the pros and cons of purchasing email subscriber lists.
As you can see, the quick wins of expanded reach by buying lists come with substantial engagement and compliance tradeoffs.
Next, let’s explore some of these key considerations around ethics and regulations when using purchased lists.
Email marketing is heavily regulated to protect consumer privacy while enabling legitimate business outreach. So marketers must closely follow best practices around consent, transparency and self-regulation.
Bulk purchasing a list of emails without clarity into their origin introduces major ethical and legal pitfalls, including:
To mitigate these risks, you must take extreme care when acquiring external email lists:
While bought lists can be used ethically and legally with proper precautions, even legitimate ones tend to see lower engagement from disinterested recipients.
So, is it worthwhile to pay money to reach an audience that’s unlikely to care about your emails? Let’s break down the cost considerations.
To determine if paid list acquisition makes financial sense, you need to objectively weigh your expected return on investment (ROI) compared to costs. Typical expenses include:
The ROI of these expenses ties directly to the revenue driven by converting purchased list subscribers into actual customers. It’s important to consider how your business capabilities can optimise the return on your investment.
Benchmarks vary dramatically by industry, but average email open rates tend to run 15-25%, click-through rates around 2-5%, and conversion rates from 0.5-5%.
For purchased “cold” lists, engagement metrics typically trend 50-75% lower. After accounting for deductions from aggressive unsubscribes and spam complaints as well, your usable purchased lists might realistically drive:
Building first-party lists organically through sales tactics like lead nourishment, website sign-ups, etc., is slower upfront but pays dividends in the long term with 3X+ higher engagement.
Still, if high-quality purchased lists expand your reach enough, even the slightest boost in conversion could drive worthwhile returns. Just ensure you carefully weigh potential costs against your expected customer lifetime value.
Moving forward, how can you best determine if your email campaigns with purchased lists are succeeding? Let’s explore the key metrics for tracking performance.
To maximise results from any email outreach - either to purchased or organically built lists - you need to monitor user engagement and conversion metrics closely.
Key indicators to track include:
Purchased lists often skew way below industry benchmarks for open rates, click-throughs and conversion while spiking negative metrics like bounces and unsubscribes.
If multiple email campaigns still show poor engagement, it’s a sign that a particular purchased list is no longer worthwhile continued investment.
Key indicators to watch for include:
Lists meeting several of these thresholds are unlikely ever to drive positive ROI. As quality crumbles, it may be time to cut losses and either refresh or fully replace those underperforming purchased names.
Speaking of quality, what’s the best way to build strong email lists over the long run?
Buying lists offers a quick short-term boost. But crafting your subscriber base slowly and organically over time pays off big time for engagement and conversion.
Effective ways to build quality lists from scratch include:
Organic list building takes serious upfront effort but lets you hyper-target specific demographics more likely to care about your emails. These recipients convert at exponentially higher rates through tailored, personalised journeys.
It’s best to combine organically grown lists with small volumes of purchased names. This is a strategic “hybrid approach” that balances quality and quantity in your list development efforts.
Speaking of which…
Should you focus on rapid email list building at nearly any cost or concentrate exclusively on cultivating ultra-targeted engaged audiences?
The truth lies somewhere in the middle. Larger lists, even with only marginally interested segments, can still drive significant revenue simply due to wider reach. However, considerably smaller yet passionately engaged followers typically convert better long-term through customised nurturing and effective marketing.
Ideally, marketers should aim for balance - steadily expanding subscriber volume via strategic paid supplements while intently building first-party enthusiasm and loyalty.
The brands enjoying the most success with email marketing efforts have cultivated this harmonious fusion, understanding that even moderately engaged at scale leads to sales. But loyal followers drive exponential growth as brand ambassadors over the rest of their often decades-long customer lifecycles.
So, in summary - is buying email lists actually worth it?
The answer depends entirely on your growth goals, target metrics, expected ROI, and ethical comfort.
Purchased lists can provide short-term supplements to expand reach if carefully vetted and legally compliant. But engaging organically built first-party lists drives more conversions in the long term.
Aim for the best of both worlds - modestly supplementing owned lists with paid names while focusing on hyper-targeted lead nurturing. This balanced approach maximises the advantages of each strategy.
Just remember to always confirm fully compliant origin and consent protocols in purchased lists while meticulously honouring recipient preferences. Email success relies equally on quality, trust, and scale. Impactful relationships only flourish when responsive audiences lend their attention voluntarily.
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