To List Buy or Not to List Buy?

Isn’t that always the question?

Whether your business is just starting out or is incredibly well established, the simple fact is you’ll always need new prospects. In today’s business economy, there is no such thing as “maintaining a good thing.” If your business and sales aren’t growing, your company is dying.

So, what do you do about it? 

What is your ideal marketing strategy look like?

The answer seems simple, doesn’t it? List buy. There are plenty of vendors out there with as many names, job titles, and industries as you can pay for. It’s a fast and easy solution. Or is it? The fact of the matter is, while buying a list seems like quick fix, it’s actually the solution to only one problem. It’s also the cause of many more.

For one, many email marketing software providers don’t allow you to send to a purchased list. That little box they make you check to guarantee that the names opted-in? They mean it. Buying a list often results in poor deliverability for email and many ESPs have shared IP addresses for email sends. This means if one client uses a purchased list it can cause poor deliverability and spam blockages for other clients, causing cancellations and lost business. Subsequently, you could get kicked to the curb if you aren’t careful.

Second, typically it’s very hard to find a list of high quality contacts that’s for sale. Why? Because if a list is for sale it usually means that other people have also purchased it. That list has been hammered over and over by unsolicited email requests. Add yours to the mix and you could be risking being marked as SPAM, which can hurt your deliverability and IP reputation, or reported to the FCC which can result in fines. Plus, if you’re in Canada or emailing people in Canada from a list buy, you could be in even bigger trouble. Canada’s CASL law is no joke. For more information on CASL, check out our blog post.

Studies have also shown that you can expect an average of 25% to 30% of your data to decay over a year. Do you know how fresh that list is? Do you really want to risk throwing away 25% to 30% of your investment on low-quality leads?

I hope your answer was no. Instead of a list buy, invest that money in growing your list the right way: organically. Want to get started? Start with these tips:

• Invest in a blog. Regular blogging allows your company to develop long-tail keywords that will help bring more organic traffic to your site through search.
• Invest in your website and work on your SEO. This operates under the same principle as blogging. By optimizing your website for search, more people will be able to find you organically.
• Create a newsletter.
• Work on your social presence, and don’t limit yourself to Facebook and Twitter. By maintaining your presence and working on your follower count, you can create an easy channel through which to share content.

Want help getting started? Our digital marketing team can help you implement a strategy that works for your business. Reach out to us today to learn more.