Email Marketing is a Marathon, Not a Sprint (Or Why You Shouldn’t Buy Email Lists)

99% of businesses want a larger email list… and they want it now.

But here’s the rub: Unless your business goes viral for a good reason, overnight, explosive, organic (note the bold) growth of your email list isn’t going to happen.

Organic list growth takes work and time. You’re in it for the long haul with incremental step levels as your company becomes more well known.

Yet, not a week goes by where I (or my team members) go without being asked about purchasing lists to “grow fast.”

First, stop.

Second, the leads coming from a purchased list are not nearly as valuable as you might think. And bulk emailing these cold leads can have lasting, negative effects on your business. Let’s explore those now.

Why You Shouldn’t Buy Email Lists

The central tenet that governs successful email marketing is what Seth Godin calls “Permission Marketing.” Subscribers and customers give you permission to send them marketing messages in exchange for something that interests them.

(In the EU and Canada and several other places around the world, this is not only a tenet, but a legal requirement. Unfortunately, the US isn’t an “opt-in country” but rather an “opt-out country.”)

Beyond the obvious legal issues that may present themselves, these are some big reasons why you shouldn’t buy email lists:

You Can Jeopardize Your Email Marketing Operations

Marketing to purchased lists can inflict long-term damage on your email marketing operation, even hurting your ability to send email to your opted-in, devoted subscribers and customers.

• You’ll get marked as spam. People are more likely to receive email from people they know and brands they trust. The people receiving these cold emails from you either don’t know you at all, or do know the name but know they haven’t signed up for email. If you’re lucky, they’ll just delete or ignore your email. If you’re not as lucky, they’ll simply unsubscribe. If you’re really not lucky, they’ll mark you as spam. The more people who mark your emails as spam, the more your emails will end up in the spam folder immediately upon receipt (or worse, get blocked altogether).
• You’ll damage your relationship with your ESP. Many email service providers don’t allow you to send email to non-opted-in recipients, especially from purchased lists. More importantly, ESPs don’t want to be associated with spam. It hurts their brand, too. If you market to a purchased list, you may get away with it for a bit. But if you receive too many spam complaints, your ESP will find out and may take preventative measures, including closing down your account.
• You’ll damage your brand. This shouldn’t be ignored. Every business domain has a sender reputation that’s built with the Gmails, Yahoos, and Outlooks of the world. Every email you send can build or break that sender reputation. And a bad reputation takes a long time to overcome… particularly if you continue to purchase lists and send bulk cold emails.

And all this for what? You think it works?

Cold Email is Largely Ineffective

This is perhaps the best reason of all. I recently described cold email as trying to throw a large fishing net into the sea, and you’re hoping to snag one fish. You may net that one fish, but at what cost to those fish you already have in your boat (to stretch the metaphor a bit).

Here are other reasons why it doesn’t work:

• The contacts aren’t qualified. The definition of a qualified contact is a lead who has indicated interest in what your brand has to offer based on marketing efforts or is otherwise more likely to become a customer than other leads. If these people on the list don’t know who you are or what you’re selling, how could they have indicated interest in your offer? How can these list brokers determine who is more likely to become a customer of yours? You’re essentially marketing to a random list of people and hoping for luck.
• The contacts are likely poor quality. Many list brokers won’t tell you what they’re selling or how they obtained the emails. (Outside of, “I can assure you they’re opted in” - which is a load of crap.) The emails on their lists are likely out of date, have incomplete data, or are just simply invalid altogether. And they could have been collected illegally. And if you mail to them, you’re on the hook for any punishments (fines and more). Even if the list is as “legit” as possible, it doesn’t change the fact that none of these people gave you permission to email them.
• You’re not the only one marketing to this list. You think you’re the only customer of this purchased list? You’re not. And you’re not just competing with legitimate companies who may be buying this list. Scammers purchase data as well. So you’re now competing against legitimate opt-in email, the other companies mailing to this list, and the scammers mailing to this list. The inbox is a crowded place already. You think you’ll be able to stand out?

Some people claim they get good results with purchased lists. And maybe they do, temporarily. But I have yet to see hard, tangible data that shows ongoing, continued success without the damage being done to deliverability and brand. It’s always a “churn and burn'' mindset that’s hard to both sustain and capitalize upon.

Just take a deep breath and start thinking of the steady pace of a great marathoner.

5 Ideas to Build Your Email List Organically

Most people consider buying email lists because they want immediate results without having to put in the time and effort. Sorry, folks. It doesn’t work that way.

But let’s look at 5 ideas that can drive organic growth in ways that can speed up the process a bit.

1. Utilize Viral Giveaways and Sweepstakes

We’ve all entered a sweepstakes or two for a chance to win some sort of enticing prize. Data collection is always a requirement. Data sharing is encouraged as well.

Sweepstakes and giveaways are a great way to collect email addresses and encourage sharing to get more email addresses. Why? People like free stuff (especially when it’s valuable). And the viral component can increase reach.

Pick a prize that’s valuable enough to convince people to enter and relevant to your target market. If you sell marketing software and you’re giving away a PS5, what kinds of entries are you going to get?

Recommendation: Split these entries into their own welcome series and separate audience. Track conversions separately. I’ve known sweepstakes to drive a ton of entries but a low percentage of conversions. It’s not a bad thing to get these people opted into your list, but know that conversion rates will be lower than other opt-in sources.

2. Expand Giveaways with Joint List-Building Campaigns with Complementary Businesses

Want to give your sweepstakes a broader reach? Partner with a complementary business in your industry (that you’re not competing against) and promote a bigger, combined prize.

Make sure that your collection forms state that completion means opting in for email to all participating businesses.

3. Create Webinars and Gated Content

Depending on your business, your expertise may be your biggest selling point. Share that expertise through webinars, guides, and other forms of valuable content that would entice a prospect to share their email address to receive.

Yes, gated content has, in recent years, become a topic of debate as to whether it’s worth it or not. The email marketer’s answer to this debate: Test it amongst your target audience. See what works and what doesn’t.

4. Embrace Paid Social Advertising

Paid social advertising and email marketing actually work really well together. Working with the paid social team to build a specific email opt-in campaign can be a great way to drive traffic and new sign-ups.

You can share your existing opt-in list with your paid team to use as “lookalikes” to find other prospects in your target audience. With so many channel options to choose from (Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, etc.), you’ll be able to test ads across many channels to see where your best leads come from.

5. Use Entry and Exit Pop-Up Forms

Do I hate pop-ups personally? Yes. Do they work? Also yes.

Don’t just rely on your subscription form at the top or bottom (or both) of your website. Pop-ups upon entry to your site and pop-ups when people are looking to leave your site can work really well at collecting email addresses. A few tips here:

• Offer value of some sort to entice completion – a discount, free guide, any sort of “incentive” for signing up.
• For your entry pop-up, start by waiting 5 seconds or so before dropping in the pop-up. From there, establish a benchmark and then test timing and activity requirements to find an optimal presentation.
• For your exit pop-up, start with a requirement of navigating 2-3 pages. If you have someone come to your home page, sit for a minute, and leave, I would not have an exit pop-up. It can be too much.

Don’t be afraid to ask for sign-ups.

Building Your Email List the Right Way Takes Time

Simply put, avoid buying email lists like the plague. Growth takes time and effort. If you adopt the steady growth mindset here, you’ll be able to breathe easier.