15 RULES FOR BUYING EMAIL LISTS

As a competitive assessment, each year DMD (DMDatabases) buys email lists from many data sellers, and from this assessment we regrettably report that majority of email lists for sale are junk. We express regret because this flood of junk email lists creates the impression that buying email lists is a bad idea … which couldn’t be further from the truth. After 35+ years of extensive research and experience with data, DMD can confidently guarantee that a marketer can buy “quality email lists” … WHEN following all these rules!

1. HARD BOUNCE RATE BELOW 5%: A hard bounce above 5% not only indicates bad email addresses, but even worse a high hard bounce rate can mean a high likelihood that email list is packed with “unqualified” leads. If an email list seller is not willing to invest resources to eliminate hard bounces, then likely the data seller is not investing resources to acquire accurate demographic and firmographics. Also note that a high hard bounce rate can indicate that the email list likely contains email pests (i.e. spam traps, honeypots, etc.) that can quickly harm a sender’s reputation.

- Important Note: Just because an email list has a hard bounce rate below 5% does NOT automatically mean the email list is a quality. Quality means accurate email addresses for the RIGHT people … “qualified” leads? The following rules shares some tips to help determine if the email list consist of qualified leads.

2. POSTAL ADDRESSES 95% ACCURATE: Never buy an email list that doesn’t include postal addresses. Even if email marketing is the primary application and not direct mail, postal addresses still have value as the postal addresses can be used to spot check some of the names … to help verify that the email list does in fact include qualified leads. And if data seller doesn’t guarantee 95% postal address accuracy, then high likelihood that email list is packed with “unqualified” leads.

3. CONTACT NAME 95% ACCURATE: Never buy an email list that doesn’t include email recipient’s full contact name. Having this essential data (First/Last Name + Postal Address) provides the opportunity verify if the email list consists of qualified leads. For example, a person’s age, home value, dwelling type, marital status, and other pertinent filters can often be verified with a simple Google search. With a spot of check of 20 random records, a data buyer may learn that over 50% of the names do not even exist at the postal address.

- Side note – dupes: Another benefit of having the postal address AND full name on the email list is that this data can be used to identify duplicates … multiple emails addresses for the same person. Plus, as a sneaky way to boost email quantities, some data sellers will provide the email address for every household member … even though the data buyer only wanted email addresses for adult household members … not emails for all the household children.

4. AVOID THE REPLACEMENT GUARANTEES: All data sellers promise quality, BUT very few support their abstract promises with a detailed “money-refund” guarantee. In fact, most data sellers offer a so-called “replacement” guarantee … meaning replacing bad data with more bad data … which only exacerbates the issues thus making your headache even worse. Bottom-line, when buying email list, demand a “money-refund” guarantee … not a data replacement guarantee.

5. AVOID VERBAL PROMISES: Every email list seller will verbally promise quality, though the ONLY effective way to protect your investment is with a written data quality guarantee … on your purchase agreement and ideally on the data seller’s website. Big red flag if data doesn’t show quality guarantee on website.

6. AVOID ABSTRACT WRITTEN GUARANTEES: Dubious email list sellers may use abstract phrases like “we guarantee quality.” However, exactly what does this phrase mean? Does it mean the data seller guarantees a hard bounce rate below 5%? Does it mean the postal address is 95+ percent deliverable? Does it mean the contact name is 95% accurate? Does it mean the person’s age is 95% accurate?

7. DEDICATED DATA SPECIALIST: Absolutely avoid data companies that don’t assign you with a dedicated data specialist with a direct line phone#. Talking with a different person each time you call is not effective. You need a dedicated data specialist that understands your product and has the experience to help customize your email list.

8: AVOID OFF-THE-SHELF PACKAGES: The one size fits all mantra does not work when buying email lists. Example, if you’ve an offer for seniors then it’s shortsighted to simply email blast all seniors … since all seniors are not alike. For optimal results you need to focus on a specific segment of seniors … defined by an array of demographic and psychographic qualifiers. Pinpoint targeting is the key to email marketing success, and pinpointing targeting means you need a customized email list … that is carefully discussed and refined between you and a dedicated data specialist.

9: DON’T SEEK THE LOWEST PRICE EMAIL LIST: The email list … or any marketing list … that you buy is THE most important marketing decision since the marketing list will have THE greatest impact on the marketing campaign. A beautifully designed creative … with a great offer … will still result in failure if sent to unqualified names. A major focus on quality – accurate qualifiers to assure that your offer is being sent to highly qualified leads is far more important than just focusing on price. Whether it’s cars, appliances, contractors, or whatever … in most cases the cheap option results in failure … and this mantra especially applies when buying an email list.

10. PRIMARY EMAIL ADDRESS VERIFICATION: Most people have multiple email addresses. There is the primary email address - which is checked daily, and then there are secondary and tertiary email addresses … which are rarely checked. Low-cost data sellers mainly have secondary/tertiary email addresses since they’re cheap to acquire … and can often be scraped from the web for free. For email marketing success your purchased email list must be packed with primary addresses. How can you determine if your consumer email list is packed with primary or secondary/tertiary email addresses? One way is to upload the email list as a custom audience to Facebook and review the match rate – as a high match rate indicative of primary email addresses … as most people use their primary mail address with their Facebook account. And the two below rules offer additional ways to estimate if an email list is packed with primary vs secondary emails.

11. 60+ PERCENT EMAIL-NAME AFFINITY RATE: This rule simply means that 60% of the email addresses will have an affinity to the name. Example, John Doe’s email address may be JDoe@Gmail.com. This is relevant because research shows that majority of people use a portion of their name with their primary email address. Again, not all … but majority of people use some variation of their name with their primary email address. CLICK HERE for more info this topic.

12. 60+ PERCENT EMAIL-GENDER AFFINITY RATE: Let’s assume a data buyer bought an email list of males … though 40% of the email addresses consisted of female names … Barbara@Gmail.com. Sure, some spouses may share the same email address, though 40% is a bit unrealistic … thus it’s reasonable to question the veracity of the email list as a whole; personally, I’d demand an immediate money refund!

13. EMAIL DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS: Often prospecting email campaigns fail because the email list has little resemblance to the Target. One may buy an email list of seniors only to learn that half the names are below age 50. Or one may buy an email list of affluent people only to learn that half the names consist of low-income households. To help determine if the names on your purchased email list match your intended Target, we offer a discounted Email List Analysis Report. This very low-cost report will show the age, income, gender, net worth, and other demographic profiles of your email list. This link shares more info on this topic.

14. B2B EMAIL LISTS: When buying B2B email list, absolutely stay away from scraped business email lists. Web scraping lead generation does NOT work … too may risks. This link shares more info on this topic.

15. BUYING EMAIL LISTS IS A GOOD IDEA: Lastly, we will end not with a rule per se, but a proclamation that buying an email list is a good idea IF the above rules are followed … rules that will give you a quality email list. And when using a “quality” email list, there’s no other medium that can drive more qualified NEW people to your website … at a lower cost! Click Here to learn why buying an email list is a good idea!

- -CONCLUSION: These rules to follow when buying email lists will require time and hard work, so in the spirit of saving time you may consider just asking your email data seller to just sign the below agreement:

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