“Should you or should you not buy a mailing list?” Most email marketers are haunted by this question. Buying a mailing list is tricky. Chances are, you’ll find an outdated list that does more harm than good. 

In today’s post, we help you understand how to buy a mailing list. We’ll also discuss how much do an email list cost and tips to keep in mind when buying a mailing list.

What is a Mailing List?

“A mailing list is a list of email addresses of customers. These can be subscribers of a business/website. Generally, these emails are collected through online and offline methods. A mailing list is used to share news, content or product-related information.”

– Techopedia.com

An email list is the collection of email addresses that you have collected through your website or blog. 

It’s the collection of emails used by a company or an individual to promote their products and services. 

Therefore, an email list is the total number of subscribers you have. It’s also known as a “subscriber’s list” or “mailing list”.

How to Buy a Mailing List

A lot of marketers prefer purchasing custom email lists. These lists target specific audiences that they wish to attract. For instance, you may want a list of new homeowners, freshers, etc. Such targeted lists are good when you want to reach a certain type of customer. In addition, they’re also great as they target a specific geographical area. Here’s how to buy a mailing list:

• Never delegate data purchasing. Ensure that the person buying the mailing list knows your marketing campaigns. They should be aware of your goals and objectives. Instead of just focusing on the price, focus on the quality of the mailing list.
• Don’t fall for the sales hype. List owners will tell you that their email list is the best. In addition, they’ll tell you it’s unique and you’ll not get a better deal. Know that you’re speaking to a salesperson and not a data expert. So, don’t fall for the hype. 
• Ask the right questions. Ask questions that address important factors such as sources, legalities, guarantees, duplicate prevention and opt-in mechanisms. Any good broker will be happy to answer these questions for you.
• Buy from genuine companies. Check the company’s data credentials before buying an email list. In addition, ensure that the mailing list complies with ethical and legal marketing standards.
• Don’t buy too much. List owners will try to convince you to buy large amounts of data. They’ll even come up with special offers to tempt you to spend more money. Therefore, it’s important to consider if you can handle the number of enquiries that’ll come in. In addition, will you be able to fulfil all the extra orders?
• Check the samples. Don’t shy away from asking for samples. It’s an excellent way to check an email list.

How Much Do an EmailAn email (or electronic mail) is a method of exchanging communications through the internet. It is one of the most used features on the web and the number one mean... List Cost?

Generally, the cost of an email marketing list varies between $100 to $600 CPM. The price of a mailing list depends on the type of person that’s on the list and the quality of the emails. Here are a few factors that affect the price of the mailing list:

• Typically, the cost of a business list varies between $600 to $1000 CPM.
• The more targeted the list is, the higher its price will be.
• B2B email lists are more expensive than customer mailing lists.

Buying a mailing list is expensive. However, the cost isn’t the only problem associated with it. Let’s look at the reasons why email marketers don’t recommend that you buy a mailing list.

5 Reasons to Not Purchase It

When you purchase an email list, you send emails to people who didn’t sign up for them. This could irritate some of the customers. However, that’s not all that can happen. Here are 5 reasons you shouldn’t consider buying a mailing list:

• You don’t get qualified leads. Qualified leads are people who know your business and wish to learn more about your products. They want to stay updated on the latest news and offers. Therefore, it’s impossible to expect that from a mailing list. No matter how targeted the list is, people on it don’t know about your business and may, therefore, get annoyed.
• You’ll increase your spam score. Your open and click-to-rates will decline if users start marking your emails as spam. People hate spammy emails because they think you don’t care about them and their desires. Therefore, you don’t want to become that organisation. 
• Your contacts aren’t exclusive. Buying a mailing list doesn’t mean purchasing excsulve rights to it. Companies that sell such lists make money by selling the same list to multiple people. Therefore, people on these liars find themselves subjected to a lot of emails. 
• The engagement rate will be low. Engagement matters a lot when we talk about email marketing. Since people don’t know you, the chances of them interacting with you are low. In addition, if they mark your emails as spam or delete them, then you don’t even get a shot at engagement. 
• Can have a negative impact on brand awareness. People may mark your emails as spam. But, they may even remember your brand for it and that’s not good if you wish to create goodwill. Don’t create a bad first-time experience with customers. Build an organic list instead. 

7 Steps To Build a Valuable Mailing List

It’s not necessary to buy a mailing list to market your brand successfully. Here are 7 steps to building a valuable email list:

1. Understand your target audience. What are the kind of people you want to reach? Get as specific as possible. Have multiple lead magnets on your blog or website to appeal to a specific target demographic. Once you’re aware of your target audience, create a unique email list for each one of them.
2. Create good content and unique offers. Create educational content. This can be in the form of a podcast, video or an article. Make your content better and bigger.
3. Build lead magnets. Lead magnets are gifts that you offer for free such as ebooks. They make up for an excellent headline and CTAA CTA is a phrase or word designed to get an immediate response from the reader. As the name suggests, it's usually something that involves a precise action performed by....
4. Use ads and social media to your advantage. Drive more signups by running paid ads and using social media. Direct people to sign up for your mailing list. 
5. Create appealing landing pages and headlines. Play with words to keep your audience interested. Focus on evoking curiosity. Get creative with headlines and use adjectives and verbs.
6. Add a CTA button. Ensure that your CTA button sticks out. Go bold and big if you have to. Keep the button in a bright colour and with ample amounts of white space to ensure that the reader focuses on it. 
7. Conduct A/B tests. You’ve created awesome content and identified the target audience. In addition, you’ve also created engaging headlines and CTA buttons. Now, it’s time to run some tests. Optimise the content to drive great results.

To easily integrate signup forms to your website and make email marketing a breeze, check out MailsenPai. It’s a quick and easy solution. You can seamlessly add forms even without any knowledge of coding. In addition, it’s cost-effective. 

In Conclusion

It’s not a good idea to buy a mailing list. Not only is it expensive but also has low-quality leads. In addition, it can get your emails marked spam and reduce the reputation of your brand. 

However, a lot of marketers still prefer buying email lists. Why do they do that? 

It’s a common assumption that people will at least open the email once, before deleting them. However, it’s generally not the case now. 

People are using emails more than ever and therefore, have a shorter attention span. Therefore, they get irritated easily. 

Many people today prefer having a separate email for marketing. Therefore, it’s best to create your own email list.

Use a sensible approach to planning your email marketing campaigns. Start by identifying your target audience. Create content your readers will find useful. Build good lead magnets. Run ads to direct people to sign up for your list. Then, create engaging headlines and CTAs. Lastly, conduct A/B tests before you start sending emails. 

Are you planning to buy an email list? Which of our tips did you find most useful? Tell us in the comments section below!