Buying Email Address Lists? Here’s What I Show People…

Author:

Mark Brownlow

Source:

I get a lot of questions, and many are essentially about finding short cuts to email marketing success. Hey, we all like short cuts: can’t blame a marketer for asking.
 
If I knew any, I’d have already written about them.
 
One such “short cut” is buying a list of email addresses. You know, the “100,000 dentists for $200″ or “25 million opt-in addresses for $350″ type of list. I don’t recommend buying them and people want to know why. So I wrote this.
 
It’s an updated overview of reasons, evidence and links to convince those unfamiliar with ethical email marketing that buying address lists is only a short cut to problems, not success. You may find it useful for showing colleagues and others who found a “great offer on eBay”.
 
Quite happy to hear dissenting voices in the comments here...