5 Things To Consider When Buying An Email List

If you are in the process of looking to buying an email list, there are many things to consider. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 established the first national standards for the sending of commercial email in the US. This post isn’t to go through each article of this Act (though if you are conducting your own email broadcast, you should be familiar with the CAN-SPAM laws), this post is to make sure you know what to consider when purchasing your own email list for your own email broadcast.

1. Make sure it’s worth it to deploy your own email broadcast.
2. Is the email list you’re purchasing opted-in?
3. Do you have “multiple-use” rights to the email list?
4. Is your “creative” optimized to get passed spam filters and CAN-SPAM compliant?
5. Do you have the proper Unsubscribe option in your email and are you keeping your Unsubscribe list updated?

Many people opt to have a marketing company do the broadcast for them because of all of the broadcast laws and the heavy fines assigned for breaking those laws. A marketing company has relationships with the servers to which they send their email broadcasts so their emails are much more likely to get through the spam filters that will most likely block your email. If you decide it is worth it to buying an email list, it’s imperative that your email list provider puts in writing that their email addresses are opted-in. Not only is this a part of the CAN-SPAM Act, but you also only want to be contacting people who are genuinely interested in your product or service.

As with many marketing approaches, the name of the game in email broadcasting is repetition. One of the benefits of owning your own email list is that you don’t have to pay a marketing company to send out your message a second or third time. Make sure the email list provider you choose offers “multiple-use” rights with your email list so you don’t breach the Terms and Conditions of your list contract.

If you hire a marketing company to broadcast your message for you, they will make sure your email “creative” is set up correctly to get through the typical spam filters and that it is CAN-SPAM compliant. If you purchase your email list, you may be on your own in this department. Click Here for more details on email broadcast guidelines. These guidelines explain the Unsubscribe requirements. It is imperative to update your Unsubscribe list before every deployment because one slip-up could cost you up to $11,000.