When you take a look at our terms of service, one of the first things you’ll notice is that we do not allow sending to purchased mailing lists.
We have a few reasons for this, but the main reason is to protect our IP address reputation and our customers’ excellent delivery rates. We also want to protect your business and ensure that you do not get taken advantage of by sellers who claim to drive business for you by providing unreliable purchased mailing lists.
- “Lists must be 100% opt-in. This means that you must have obtained the permission of your recipients to send them emails. Examples of lists that are not allowed are purchased lists, email addresses scoured from the Internet, and marketing leads (including lists built via LinkedIn or obtained from a 3rd party).”
What is a purchased mailing list?
A purchased mailing list is comprised of email addresses that have been scraped from websites or may have been collected from recipients who signed up to receive affiliate emails from one company, and whose data was then sold on.
Why shouldn’t I use a purchased mailing list?
Sending marketing emails to a purchased mailing list is basically a death sentence for your business. You’re wasting your time and money. Seriously, how many people with a fake email address are REALLY going to think…
“OMG yes! This fantastic product that someone on the other side of the world just emailed me about out of the blue, is exactly what I’ve been looking for my whole life!”
If I purchased the list, shouldn’t I have permission to send to the email addresses?
No matter how reputable the seller may claim to be, even if they had permission to send to each of those recipients, you don’t. There’s no way that a mailing list with a million email addresses is going to have permission from each recipient! We insist that all mailing lists used with our service are opt-in, meaning that the recipient has specifically requested to receive your emails.
But it seemed like such great value…
It might be great value for a list of email addresses, but it’s not great value for your business. At best, your emails will just get ignored or marked as spam. At worse, you may find yourself with a lawsuit for sending spam or unsolicited emails which violate the CAN-SPAM act or GDPR.
Bringing down the Ban Hammer…
At SMTP2GO we’re like the cool parent who is there to support you and lets you invite your friends around to hang out (we might even bake brownies). However, you break our rules, and the BAN HAMMER shall be unleashed. If you’re sending to a rented or purchased mailing list, your account will be suspended. Our Review Team is more like the strict parent. At the end of the day though, we do it because we care for you and want you to succeed. It won’t make us mad, just disappointed because really, you’re just letting yourself down.
We pride ourselves on our great delivery rates. However, we can only keep them up with your help. By sending to purchased mailing lists, spam complaints get generated, and this hurts our IP address reputation (and our feelings).
Purchased mailing lists mean just one thing for your emails…
How can I create a genuine mailing list?
Ask yourself, “Why would someone want to receive my emails?” If you can’t think of an answer, then you may need to reconsider your business strategy!
- Look at adding value to your customers’ lives. Create a blog, or offer free advice and tips for your industry. If they’re interesting enough, people will sign up to see more.
- Make sure it’s easy to sign up to your mailing list. Don’t make your customers root around to find a sign-up link. You could try adding a pop-up banner to your website, or a sign-up box at the end of each blog post.
- Keep it clean! Keep your mailing lists clean and up-to-date. Messy bounces are a no-no.
If you’ve got any questions about your mailing list, feel free to get in touch with our friendly support team today (we might even have brownies!)
