Thirty years in the list industry, and for the first time I’m witnessing an infection contaminate the reputation of our list industry. I’m referring to the recent explosion of new start-ups … with little history in the list industry … that are peddling bogus email addresses.
I’ll not mention names, but a simple Google search on “buy email list” will show a long list of companies claiming to “sell” quality email addresses … at unbelievable low prices … such as 100,000 affluent email addresses for $399. Unfortunately there’s no such thing!
A day doesn’t pass where some defrauded marketer calls, and shares a story about how they just flushed $499 down the toilet. A recent call-in shared a story of how he bought 85,000 golf email addresses for just $699. He figured he couldn’t lose even if 50% of the list was bad; sounds logical. He excitedly email tested a small 5,000 name sample, and quickly learned that more than 45% of the email addresses were undeliverable. No problem – as he expected – BUT then he was faced with a new development … his email transmission company locked his account … punishment per se for using a bad list. Most unsuspected marketers are not aware of this latter point; it’s a waste of time and money to buy a huge number of email addresses if there’s not an email transmission company that is willing to transmit the email list.
And yes there are a few email transmission companies willing to take money for transmitting an email list, BUT what these companies don’t admit is the majority of your emails will either be blocked or sent to the SPAM Box … since the transmission company is blacklisted by the ISPs (AOL, Gmail, Yahoo, etc). In a nutshell, the unsuspected marketer flushes away $499 when purchasing the bogus email list … and then flushes away another few hundred dollars by paying a blacklisted company to transmit the bogus email addresses.
I want a refund! What about refunds? This question reminds me of another victim who bought a 60,000 name boat email list for just $950. A steal! So he thought. A week later his transmission company locked his account … before they even email blasted the list. Transmission company informed that their email cleansing service classified the list as a low quality list … and quality email transmission companies will NOT touch a low quality list … since doing so would damage their reputation with servers (AOL, Gmail, etc). Anyway, the victim called the email list seller for a refund, but after receiving voicemail too many times to tally … he gave up.
Another refund story involves a young woman who started a new business catering to the senior’s market. She bought an ailment email list consisting of a whopping 175,000 email addresses AND direct mail addresses for just $1700. She was a sharp marketer because as an extra quality control measure, she called us and asked that we append age data … just to make sure the names were really seniors. Well, I’m sure you can guess. Over 55% of the names were under age 50 … far from her target market. Plus, we also discovered that the list was loaded with duplicates. Bottom-line, after eliminating all the duplicates and under age names, her ailment list dwindled down to 48,000 names. She was mad but still under control since she still had about 48,000 email names … for just $1700 … a good deal. Then she did a test email blast to 10,000 names; undeliverable / bounce-back rate was 43% … that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. She called the email list provider demanding her money back. But like 99% of the time, the email list seller refused to refund any money, but instead offer her more email addresses. Of course she did not want more bad email addresses – as the cost of cleaning the bad email addresses was too much.
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In this tough economy, I understand how marketers are looking for a low cost way to reach their prospects, and unfortunately some are willing to risk $400 to give a low cost email list a try. However, if there’s a willingness to take that risk, then my only recommendation is to DEMAND some type of guarantee. If a list supplier is not willing to provide some type of “money-back” guarantee – then I highly recommend that a list is NOT purchased. Literally, the dollars might as well be flushed down the toilet.
IF there’s a guarantee, be sure to have the email list supplier clarify. Does the undeliverable guarantee mean they will simply send you more bad email addresses to compensate for the undeliverables … or does the guarantee include a “money” refund? IF you find a “money” refund guarantee, then let me say congratulations because I’ve never seen one … not a single one … of the low cost email list sellers provide a “money back” guarantee. It’s always … we’ll send you more bad email addresses.
Bottom-line, quality “opt-in” email addresses … with strong guarantees … cost a lot of money, usually 20+ cents per name. Very expensive but if you’ve a strong offer and a well priced product, then a quality email list will generate a positive ROI.
Now, not being able to afford a “quality” email list is no reason to go out and waste money on a low cost worthless email list. Instead I recommend investing $400 into a direct mail or telemarketing list. Yes telemarketing is tough, BUT there are some nifty and effective ways to generate long-term profitable customers via telemarketing. And studies have shown that a well targeted direct mail campaign will easily generate more responses (sales) than an email campaign.
