[Advanced] Complete Guide To Renting An Email List

Do you want to promote your first webinar but haven’t got an email list?

Do you want to reach out to a new audience? Have your ever considered renting an email list?

If this is the first you’ve heard of renting email lists then you’ve come to the right place.

I’m going to explain everything there is to know about renting email lists so that you get solid results from it and not end up with a junk list.

As marketers have become savvier, email list brokers have had to up their game.

In this advanced series guide, I’m going to explain what email list renting is, how to choose the best email lists to rent, how to identify junk email lists and some useful tips.

What Is Email List Renting

In short, renting an email list means to pay a third party an agreed amount to use their contact list for one email blast.

Of course email list rentals can vary with some agreeing to send more than one email.

When renting an email list, the owner will send an email to their contact list on your behalf.

They will use whichever design you send them along with your subject line copy.

You will never see the names or email addresses on the owners list.

They will provide you with data cards so you can determine whether the list will perform well.

Here is the usual process of renting an email list:

You will agree with the owner of the email list how many recipients you wish to send your email to.
You will agree with the owner the date and time in which you would like your email to be sent.
You create the design of your email and send this to the owner of the email list once complete.
Test the email list before sending by running it against your suppression Do-Not-Email list which I’ll explain further on.
The owner of the email list sends the email on the agreed date and time from their server address.

Choosing Email List Rentals That Work

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While email list brokers will provide you with data cards, it is always best to delve a little deeper.

I always believe that being transparent is the best way to earn trust.

If one email list broker isn’t willing to give you information that others are willing to give, they aren’t being transparent which is a worrying sign.

Before you rent an email list, make sure you ask the email list broker what brands have used their email list before and what results did they get.

While email list brokers can’t give you details on the names and addresses on their email lists, they should be able to provide you with brands they have worked with.

How to Identify Good Lists Against Junk Lists

Another thing to check before renting an email list is whether it is a junk email list, which of course you want to stay away from at all costs.

Using a junk email list could have a negative effect on your brand, damaging it.

Lucky for you, there are ways in which you can determine the credibility of the email list broker and their email list.

There are four steps you should take before deciding whether an email list is safe to rent.

These four steps are:

Check For Sender IP Blacklists

The first thing to check is whether there are any blacklists against the email broker’s sender IP address.

You will usually find when shopping around for email list brokers that they don’t provide this information on their data cards. It is something you will most likely have to ask for.

Again, if they are confident and transparent, they will have no problem in providing you with this information.

You can ask them to send you a sample email and use a blacklist tool such as SpamCop to see if their IP address lists as being blacklisted.

Check Abuse Email Groups

There are email groups on Google Groups that are talk about email abuse.

While you may not always find information on the email list broker you want to find more about, it is certainly worthwhile checking.

If you find there is a lot of talk about spam or abuse from the IP address of the email list broker then there is definitely cause for concern.

At this point, you can either talk to the email list broker and give him a chance to explain if the comments are quite dated or avoid them like the plague.

Does The Owner Of The List Switch IP Addresses

No one is ever perfect so it is perfectly normal for an email list broker to have a handful of complaints.

You can’t please everyone all of the time so there will always be a handful that will mark emails as spam or unsubscribe.

If the email list broker shows these signals on their data card and from the same IP address, it is actually a good sign that they are reputable.

If however, they claim to not have any complaints and continue to switch IP addresses, it is a red flag and I recommend staying away.

Can They Verify How The List Was Collected

Email list brokers should have no problem in telling how they build their email list.

It might not be information initially provided on their data card but they should be transparent about it if you specifically ask for this information.

You can specifically ask whether they have a clear opt-in option on their capture forms and even ask to see a sample lading page of theirs.

Some email list brokers may not show you their landing page though so instead ask for a screenshot of their capture form.

Asking About Deliverability And CAN-SPAM Considerations

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If you do decide to use an email list rental, you must ask your chose email list broker to run a suppression file.

This suppression file will remove any inaccurate data from an email list.

You can then ask the email list broker to run their list against your Do Not Email and Unsubscribe files.

Usually home email lists only have one unsubscribe option on their email creatives.

With rented email lists though, I recommend having two opt-out buttons; one for contacts to Unsubscribe and one for contacts to request you Do Not Email again.

Design New Emails For Your Rented Email List

While I’m already talking about adding different forms of opt-out buttons to your rented email list than your home built email list, let me explain why you should design your email differently for email list rentals.

When designing your emails, keep in mind that this is a brand new audience that may not have heard of you yet.

For this, you will need to create a compelling introductory offer if you want to establish quick relationships.

Introduce Yourself Properly To Contacts

It is important that you introduce yourself properly when sending an email to new email lists for rent.

You can do this by adding credibility signals such as testimonials, social proof and brand logos.

You can also give them an idea of who you are and what you do by adding an ‘about me’ section and listing key benefits of how your offer can help them.

What To Measure When Using Your Rented Email List

If you decide on an email list broker, have gone through the process of agreeing on recipients, send date and design, and have now sent your email, it is time to measure the results.

This is to determine whether it is a worthwhile channel for you to use for future promotions.

However I do highly recommend that you work on building your own email list.

Here is a list of some metrics you should measure after your email has been sent:

Hard Bounces – an email will hard bounce when it has been delivered to an email address that is incorrect or no longer exists.
Soft Bounces – an email will soft bounce if it cannot reach the contacts inbox for whatever reason.
Open Rate – this will determine whether the email list broker’s sender name is trusted and whether your subject line is enticing enough.
Click Through Rate – this will determine whether the content of your email was enticing enough for recipients to click through to your landing page.
Opt-Outs – this could be because the content of your email was irrelevant or because they no longer want to receive emails from the email list broker.

How Much Does It Cost To Rent An Email List?

The cost of renting an email list for your sales funnel can vary. It really depends on a number of factors, such as the quality of the list, size of the list, and reputation of the broker. It also depends on what types of contacts you’re renting.

The average cost of an email list from 2,500 to 5,000 names goes from $200 to $400 if it’s a consumer list and $300 to $600 if it’s a business list.

Is Buying An Email List Legal?

With worries over privacy growing, you may have legal concerns over renting an email list. It’s legal to collect and sell emails, but only when the users have given consent to do so.

That’s why the reputation and transparency of the list broker is so important. If a broker isn’t transparent, that should be a red flag.

Also, always make sure you run the rented list against your Do Not Email and Unsubscribe files as described above. This will make sure only people who want your emails will get them.

Conclusion

Email can be a powerful part of the sales funnel you built with ClickFunnels.

When choosing an email list broker, always choose one that is relevant to your niche so your content is something their contacts will be interested in. Sending content to irrelevant contacts will never give you a return and could increase the number of opt-outs.

Something else that might be worthwhile asking is how recent their email list is.

You want to choose email list brokers who have an email list that has had recent and regular activity.

At the end of the day, you want to be confident on the quality of the list and trustworthiness of the broker. If you’re confident in these two things, then your transaction and experience is likely to go far smoother.

What are your main concerns with renting email lists? Have you tried renting one before?

Let me know by leaving your comments below.