SolveYourProblem Article Series: Opt In Email
Is There A Downside to Purchasing an Opt-In Email List?

      

As you begin your email marketing campaign have you thought about purchasing leads from a third party? Have you weighed the pros and cons of doing so? Is it better to create your own leads over time as opposed to purchasing 50,000 or more at one time? This article will examine these questions along with the benefits and liabilities that you will face if you purchase leads from a third party.

Many services offer hundreds of thousands of leads. It is your responsibility to decide if the leads, you purchase, are of actual addresses of consumers who have a history of purchasing on the Internet. There are programs that will provide you with thousands of email addresses of individuals who have never participated in Internet shopping and companies obtain their addresses by means less than ethical. It is important to know where your leads come from. Do you know the source of the leads that come from the company you are considering?

There are companies that use the opt-in technique to assure that the names you are receiving want to hear from you about your product and/or services. Remember that you are ultimately responsible for your leads whether you gather them by your own means or purchase leads through another source. If that source proves to be unethical and you contact individuals who never gave their permission liability for violating Spam regulations falls upon you. Another possibility with lists that have not been gathered ethically is those you receive your emails may already have filters in place that automatically bounce email or they delete it on sight. That may be bad but if they start complaining to your Internet Service Provider (ISP), your account could be shut down or removed completely from the Internet.

Another consideration when deciding to purchase opt-in leads from an outside source is the cost. Will you pay a low cost for thousands of leads? Is the cost per email address? These questions are important in deciding the best route to take. The idea of spending a small amount of money for thousands of leads may sound tempting, but do remember you get what you pay for. So, if the company is offering this service do not be surprised if many of your leads never gave their permission to receive your information (or anyone else for that matter). If you decide to pay per email, that could be costly if you are looking to build a large email marketing list.

Spammers will try to join as many lists as possible to gain access to emails and then begin to spam your customers. They do this through automated tools and you have to be wise to who you allow into your groups. This can be complicated if you purchase your lists through a third party because you do not know where the addresses have come from. It would be to your advantage to inform your customers about receiving mail that is not directly from you and to report to you so that remedy the situation. This is part of managing your customer base; you do not want to lose your customers based on someone else's unethical tactics.

A provider of opt-in leads is The List Guy who provides daily opt-in leads, in three ways:

This article has provided you with an example of what to look for when you are considering an outside source or your opt-in leads. Do your homework and thoroughly investigate how a company gathers their leads. This will benefit your business in the long term.

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