Why do purchased email lists cause deliverability issues and are not a best practice?

Email marketer from Sendinblue explains that using purchased email lists can violate anti-spam laws like GDPR and CAN-SPAM. Sending unsolicited emails to individuals without their consent can result in hefty fines and legal repercussions. Building your email list organically through opt-in methods is crucial for compliance and maintaining a positive sender reputation.

Email Marketer from G2 shares that purchased lists do not consist of interested leads or people who know your company. Thus, engagement rates are significantly lower, as people are likely to ignore or delete emails from an unknown source. This impacts overall marketing performance.

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum explains that sending emails to people who haven't opted-in violates the CAN-SPAM act. This can lead to severe legal penalties and fines.

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign explains that purchased lists often contain outdated or invalid email addresses, leading to high bounce rates. Furthermore, recipients on purchased lists are unlikely to be interested in your offerings, resulting in low engagement and high spam complaints. This negative feedback harms your sender reputation and deliverability.

Email marketer from HubSpot explains that using purchased lists can damage your brand reputation. People who haven't opted-in to receive emails from you may perceive your messages as spam, leading to negative reviews and a loss of trust. Protecting your brand reputation is crucial for long-term success.

Email marketer from Reddit explains that purchased lists are usually full of outdated emails, invalid emails and honeypots. This results in a high bounce rate, immediately raising red flags with mailbox providers and harming sender reputation.

Email marketer from Campaign Monitor explains that using purchased lists is a waste of money, time and resources. Instead of focusing on quality and engagement, efforts are spent reaching unresponsive contacts, negatively impacting the overall marketing ROI.

Email marketer from Mailjet explains that purchasing email lists can seriously damage your sender reputation. Sending emails to people who haven't opted-in to receive them can lead to high bounce rates, spam complaints, and being blacklisted by ISPs. This, in turn, hurts your overall deliverability and makes it harder to reach your legitimate subscribers.

Email marketer from Email Marketing Tips Forum shares that leads from purchased email lists are almost always low quality and will unlikely convert. This impacts your sales and marketing revenue.

Email marketer from Quora explains that emailing people without their consent is unethical and can damage your reputation. Building an email list based on trust and permission is essential for long-term success.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that purchased lists cause deliverability issues and aren’t workable within a best practices framework. Thus, there’s not much consultants can do to improve things, given the underlying nature of what’s happening isn’t in line with best practices. Gmail and Spamhaus WANT to flag this kind of activity, and if they “catch” it, the systems are working as designed.

Expert from Spam Resource explains that recipients on purchased lists didn't request the emails, so they're far less likely to open, click or convert. This can drastically lower your engagement rates, which ISPs use to determine whether your email is wanted or not.

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that reputable email providers filter based on engagement, relevance and sender reputation. Purchased lists inherently lack engagement and relevance, thereby damaging sender reputation, thus resulting in filtering.

Expert from Spam Resource explains that purchased lists often contain spam traps (email addresses that are specifically set up to catch spammers). Hitting a spam trap can severely damage your sender reputation and lead to deliverability problems.

Expert Laura Atkins from Word to the Wise explains that purchased lists mean you don't have permission to email those recipients. Sending unsolicited emails can result in spam complaints, which hurt your deliverability and can lead to blacklisting.

Expert from Email Geeks suggests that the issue sounds like a problem between the client and Qualtrics. He says Qualtrics is playing with fire if they allow purchased lists because any one of their customers could ruin deliverability for everyone.

Documentation from Amazon Web Services explains that using purchased email lists violates their Acceptable Use Policy. AWS requires users to only send emails to recipients who have explicitly opted in. Failing to comply with these policies can lead to suspension of email sending privileges.

Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools explains that sending unwanted email can negatively affect your sender reputation. A low sender reputation can cause your messages to be delivered to the spam folder or blocked entirely. Building a positive sender reputation requires sending emails that recipients want and engaging with.

Documentation from Spamhaus explains that using purchased email lists can lead to your IP address being blacklisted. Spamhaus maintains a database of IP addresses known for sending spam, and if your IP is listed, your emails may be blocked by many ISPs. Maintaining a clean IP address is essential for email deliverability.

Documentation from Microsoft explains that they use a variety of factors to filter email, including sender reputation, content, and user complaints. Sending emails to recipients who haven't opted-in can increase the likelihood of your messages being flagged as spam. Following email best practices is crucial for ensuring your emails reach the inbox.