Evan Carmichael and Sherry explain why buying email lists backfires: you get spam complaints and damaged reputation. Instead, build organically through valuable content and partnerships. Evan grew his list to 75,000 by earning trust, then leveraging that audience through genuine endorsements.
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Sherry's asking, is it wise to buy email lists? Yeah, I had a sense that this question would be coming. And again, going back to that roundtable as part of, you know, that was a very hot topic because for the B2B space, and this is a conversation I have with one person about, uh, they're very actively purchasing lists. And when I, you know, just out of my curiosity, I asked more questions about where are they coming from, how do you get them? And as she explained the value of doing that and that, you know, buying 50,000 names at a clip, you know, with certain parameters, um, was working in their mind. Um, when I asked more about like, okay, so where are those names coming from, uh, and how are you sure, and just kind of like digging deeper, you know, my answer is always going to be the same. It's something that I would not recommend doing, um, because, you know, her question was, okay, well then what else How else do I, you know, grow list at scale? And when we started talking about that content piece and the expectation setting, you know, it was an avenue that had not been pursued. So again, whatever your industry, your product or service, there's probably some information that you have that someone else would find valuable that would help you grow and maintain that list. So, you know, short answer, I don't agree with buying lists, and I'm happy to listen to anybody who's doing it and having success because quite frankly, That would be a great education moment for myself to understand how they go about doing it. But from a, hey, you know, from a quick start to grow your list, I would certainly recommend against it.
You know, you don't want to be in the business of spamming people. Unsolicited emails is not how you want to get out there. You want to build the relationship. And I think that the people— it's tempting because you want to do it fast, right? Like, hey, I want to get to 1,000 names, 10,000 names, 50,000 names. And when somebody says, hey, I can get you in front of a million people It's tempting, you know, for only $50, right? But if the deal is that good, you really got to consider the quality of that list, right? And I think your best bet to kind of ramp it up again is to— if you're going to do some kind of email partnership, then have it as a recommendation. So if you're, you know, if you connect with, if you connect with someone like me, I have 75,000 people on my list that I work hard to build up. If I endorse you or say, hey, come check out this 'Hey, check out this product that I'm using or this video that I'm doing together.' That's the fastest way, I think, to be able to build your list. You can piggyback off of other people, but get a genuine endorsement from people who actually care about their list. I think you'll get a lot more success than just buying names. Agree.
