Renting Vs Purchasing an Email List

Success and sales are built on the backs of marketing campaigns. For small businesses, this means finding the best cost-friendly solution for reaching customers. Email marketing is still an effective way to advertise your business for a lower cost. While it does require maintenance, such as dedicated A/B testing, using an email list for marketing can inspire more of your website visitors to click through your site.

Customers constantly see ads, marketing, and deals from various businesses. Many potential customers ignore these things, but a memorable piece of marketing can eventually get their business. A customer who consistently sees engaging content may even share it with friends, family, and colleagues. Frequent and regular contact builds a relationship, and an email list is a fantastic way to deliver engaging content and deals that present opportunities for conversion.

While the best way to grow an email list is to curate it over time, that understandably takes a while. Reaching many customers that match your demographic is possible from the get-go with a qualified email list broker. A new product launch or a steeply discounted sale can attract customers from a rented or purchased email list. What is the difference between email list rental and purchasing an email list? Let’s go over the basics.

Renting an Email List

Email list rental occurs when you pay a list broker to use a curated email list. These email lists rely on a database of subscribers who have opted-in to receive emails about other businesses (like yours!) to explore different businesses. Using this option, your business appears as a featured business or is shown as a newsletter sponsor. The result is potential customers visiting your website, filling out forms on landing pages, and sharing the information via social media platforms.

If you’re looking into email list rental, it’s relatively easy to get started. You’ll design the email with content, subject line, call to action, and anything else you need to make it engaging. The email list broker will provide information on the list’s demographics. You’ll want to make sure those demographics match what you’re looking for to reach your target audience. The customers on an email list rental will receive your email, but it’ll be through the email list broker. You won’t have any of their contact information. The email list broker will handle sending it out and report back with data, like open rates, click-throughs, and what the overall response to your email was like.

An email list rental can (and should) span multiple campaigns. A single campaign only tests open rates and doesn’t drive conversions. If customers see the email only once, they might not remember to buy your product next month when they need it. Familiarity with a brand, even if they’re just seeing your company name in the From line, can be achieved when a customer sees your brand’s name multiple times. People buy what is familiar to them, so taking steps to become familiar is often the best way to win over customers. 

Purchasing an Email List

When purchasing an email list, there are murky waters to consider. Your business needs to follow the CAN-SPAM legislation and other Anti-Spam legislation, so reputable U.S. and Canadian-based list companies will not sell consumer email lists. While some companies will sell consumer email lists, a few details should be considered before you choose to buy.

One of the risks in purchasing an email list is that your domain could be flagged. An ISP can block all outgoing emails if you are caught using non-opt-in emails, as this is considered spam. Sending unsolicited emails to people who have not explicitly agreed to receive them is considered illegal spam. An email list broker can sell business-to-business lists, but the data provider has to be well-vetted or you may be lost in emails.

Unlike email list rentals, when you purchase an email list, it means that the customers on that list may not be interested in receiving emails from your company. Your emails will likely be ignored or even reported as spam. This can damage your reputation with customers, search engines, and other online algorithms, which can make it difficult for your emails to reach their intended recipients in the future.

It is generally more effective and cost-efficient to either use an email list broker for email list rental or to build your email marketing list by encouraging customers to sign up for your newsletter through your website and social media channels. This way, the demographic of these lists match those interested in your business and products. Purchasing an email list is not always advisable, but renting one is a great way to expand your reach.

List Targeting For Your Business

Email list rental is a great way to drive traffic to your website when you use it multiple times. This is a good option for small businesses because it allows them to reach a larger audience without investing time and resources into building their email marketing list. Renting an email list can also be a cost-effective way to reach potential customers, as it allows a small business to only pay for the specific number of contacts they need.

Additionally, email list brokers often have tools and expertise that can help a small business effectively target their emails and improve the chances of their messages being opened and read, such as tracking click-through rates and A/B testing. This can help a small business get its message in front of the right people and generate more interest in its products or services.

The List Warehouse offers professional email marketing campaign management that tracks essential metrics. From finding the perfect list for your business through deployment and results, The List Warehouse is here to help small businesses get their message in front of the right people and generate more interest in their products or services. Email list rental can expand your reach and grow your customer base if you own or manage a business. With The List Warehouse as your professional email list broker, you’ll save time and money by enjoying volume discounts only available through us. Let us help your business with b2c and b2b email lists today!