Is Your Email Address for Sale?

Would you be comfortable with your email address being sold or distributed without your permission? Many of us would immediately say no, but beyond the spam and ethics of it all, it’s happening all the time.?

There was an interesting thread about this topic recently in our private Facebook group and there were mixed reactions.

Did you know that if you search #brandemails on TikTok you’ll find a slew of viral videos that give away brand email addresses? You can find videos on YouTube about how to be an internet sleuth and track down the right contact. There are blog posts that suggest using tools like Hunter.io to find direct email addresses.?

You could also purchase access to Cision and pay anywhere from $2,500-$6,500 annually. According to Cision this list is opt-in only and current, but users report out of date emails in some cases.

Here’s an important question: If your email address is listed on your website, LinkedIn or Instagram is it really improper to aggregate it to a list since it’s already public? Is the issue because the list is being sold? If you were to get a piece of that sale would that make it better?

Here is my biggest issue – I HATE click bait. Many of the resources I found share generic email addresses like partnerships@ and collab@ which “sells” me a broken promise. If you’re telling me you’ve got the goods, bring them. Don’t lie to influencers by suggesting that an email to a generic email address is going to land them a brand deal.?

Typically these #brandemails posts don’t prepare the influencer with what or how to pitch. I am very big on first impressions and it would be a shame to waste one in the small chance that this email would land with someone who has the authority to hire them.

It’s interesting that you rarely find “big influencers” sharing these types of contacts – publicly at least. It’s actually fairly common for influencers to share contacts via DM or in Private Facebook Groups with their internet friends. But for those of you who are about to jump all over this, is this really any different than traditional networking??

Sharing contacts isn’t new and neither is selling them. A lawyer can speak more intelligently to the legality of all this but a quick Google search taught me that “the United States does not have a law that specifically forbids selling email lists. It does have a law regulating spam, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.”

Call me cynical but I don’t see this ending any time soon. In fact, it’ll probably become more common and perhaps legitimized as people try to capitalize on the creator economy. I hope the focus is less on spammy techniques and more on fundamentally educating influencers on what brands are really looking for and how to effectively pitch their business to them. Yes, their business. Each influencer is an entrepreneur and the successful ones treat every outreach as a business opportunity.?

I’m not here to knock anyone’s hustle but I know you may disagree. What are your thoughts on sharing brand emails? Comment below with your thoughts on this interesting topic. Would you be okay if you email was being sold without your permission?

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