Should you Rent or Buy Email Lists

Marketing   ·   February 1, 2009

The idea of using email to sell products and services is undoubtedly a very attractive idea. No fulfilment or postage charges and no stationary costs - it seems like a no-brainer so where is the catch.

It makes sense to keep in regular contact with existing customers one way or other both by email or phone. However, expanding this list using your own resources and by adding registrations will take quite a long time. One technique is to send a regular newsletter and allow new prospects to register. Eventually this list should grow and after a lot of effort, you will have your own list.

Given that, time is short and you need sales now the delay building your own list is not financially viable. In addition, you have to be sure to keep the newsletter appearing on a regular basis and have something interesting to say. Therefore, the next alternative is to consider using another owners lists categorised by business or organisations, which match your own requirements.

While the idea seems attractive, there is a big trap waiting for anyone pursuing this course of action without care. The important issue is how you come to obtain that bulk list of email addresses. In addition, here we distinguish between renting a list (list rental) and buying a list.

List rental

There are two kinds of list rental the first is dispatched on your behalf and whilst you don’t physically get to see the email list you do have the benefit of only paying for the ones that actually are sent. A percentage of emails bounce back - usually because of SPAM filters and despite the fact that the email records we use are all classed as “Opted-in” some still fail to arrive with at the recipient. Our fees include reports detailing the number of email actually sent and the percentage opened by the recipients.

The second kind of email rental is where we supply certain categories of list for you to send. These do have certain restrictions the main one being you can only send them the once - unless you have paid for multiple-use. In this case can supply a license where you can send them as often as you like for 12 months.

Buying Email Lists

The alternative is to buy a physical copy of a list of the email addresses. After you pay the purchase price, there are no further fees to pay. You can send your promotional message as often as you like to the list with no restrictions.

MTELS Direct will provide some email lists for outright use with no restrictions. We will always be very clear informing you of the advantages and disadvantages using outright purchase. The laws governing sending unsolicited emails in the UK and Europe are clear. Get it wrong and taking a shortcut can lead to real problems.

The discipline comes from not abusing the list by emailing to often since people will soon stop responding and may report you for sending spam. If there is, no control of the list or even what types of emails people send then the response will be poor.

For these reasons, we do not offer to sell you bulk email lists (1 million email addresses for £99) that type of thing. It’s almost certain that most these addresses will have been used excessively now are blocked by spam filters.