Marketers, Don't Buy Email Lists
We all know the email or the LinkedIn message. It goes something like this:
Some of us have been fooled by a message like the one above. How could you not? It promises to connect you with thousands of leads. in your market. immediately.
And, I can guarantee that, if you’re a marketer, you’ve been forwarded this message or something like it from someone on your sales team. So why not do it? The list will make your sales team happy, temporarily, and maybe someone will respond to the campaign.
Except they won’t and you will put your future marketing and reputation on the line for nothing.
Don’t be fooled. Just like anything else, if it looks too good to be true, it is.
Aside from the fact that emailing a cold email list is rude, there’s also a bunch of other reasons not to do it.
You’ll be emailing bad contacts. You don’t know the sources of the information you’re buying. Most likely, many of the emails are undeliverable.
There’s a huge risk. Not only will sending cold emails hurt your reputation, but it could get your entire domain blocked, and potentially land you in jail.
You’re going to piss people off and hurt your reputation. People know when they’ve requested to hear from a company. When you email someone who hasn’t asked to hear from you, they are going to unsubscribe or report you, which will tank your deliverability score for ALL of your emails.
Email service providers like HubSpot and MailChimp are notably more strict about email performance to ensure that you are only sending emails to people who have asked to hear from you.
Emailing cold lists is bad marketing. You didn’t earn that person’s attention. Get permission to contact people by providing real value and inviting them to subscribe. It’s an approach that isn’t abusive to consumers and as a result, works way better!
