Buy, sell, trade! Direct marketers are all too familiar with list exchanges and acquisition practices that involve moving donors from one organization to another in hopes of converting them.

With the dawn of digital came some email options, most notably digital list purchases. Unfortunately, marketers quickly discovered that conversions were weak, and engagement was even weaker. Adding new names to your email file was not a great option due to poor performance.

As 2020 rolled around, co-op models and other digital trading entities popped up –some even with a splash of trendy assistance, AI. The initial success was impressive; however, the tight-knit group of users created a toxic and incestuous environment for all these list swaps. User’s inboxes ballooned with inbound messages from organizations and candidates they had never heard from.

Someone’s mailbox and their inbox represent two completely different personal spaces. Mailboxes are checked less frequently, and the presence of “extra” material is commonplace. Inboxes are more personal. They’re directly tied to our computers, phones, and watches. The presence of something we were not expecting feels like an invasion of space and privacy.

Unlike traditional mail, recourse on email is swift and punishing for an organization. Instead of just throwing a mail piece in the trash, recipients of emails can report messages as spam—wreaking havoc on reputation and deliverability. In the digital world, it’s not a stamp that gets your message in an inbox; it’s your reputation.

Let’s take a recent event where an email service provider (ESP) experienced a temporary shutdown due to a spike in spam complaints, which landed it on a Spamhaus blocklist. Ouch.

This ESP operates on a shared domain structure (e-activist.com). So, it only takes a few bad actors with poor deliverability practices to shut down the entire shared domain.

Here’s why using purchased lists on a shared IP email platform is a recipe for disaster:

1. Deliverability Disaster: Purchased lists are notorious for containing invalid or unengaged email addresses. When you blast these addresses from a shared IP, you drag down the reputation of that IP for everyone else using it. Suddenly, your legitimate emails are landing in spam folders, thanks to someone else’s shady tactics.
2. Reputation Roulette: Spam complaints are like kryptonite to your sender reputation. With purchased lists, you’re playing reputation roulette, risking a single angry recipient tarnishing your brand and landing you on dreaded blacklists. Goodbye, inbox!
3. Legal Landmines: Data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA are no joke. Using purchased lists potentially violates these regulations, exposing you to hefty fines and legal headaches. Is a quick buck worth the potential legal quagmire?
4. Engagement Famine: Even if some addresses on the list are valid, they have zero interest in you. Expect low open rates, high unsubscribe rates, and zero conversions. Purchased lists are like an audience full of strangers ignoring you.
5. Platform Peril: Reputable email platforms take deliverability and sender reputation seriously. They often prohibit using purchased lists and can even suspend your account if they catch you playing fast and loose—your actions on a shared IP impact more than just your deliverability.

The Takeaway:

Look to the professionals. Deliverability is a science. It’s highly technical and requires continual monitoring and adjustments. Many email programs just don’t have the resources to take all necessary steps to safeguard their deliverability success.

Inbox Amplifier is a tool run and managed by the Harrington Agency. It uses cutting-edge deliverability tools and experts to help remediate and rehab email programs. Then, the service switches over to a best-in-class monitoring and reporting solution for your organization’s needs.

Contact us today at ryan@theharringtonagency.com, and we will clean your list for free (Up to 50,000 names). The time to focus on deliverability is now.