How Lead Lists (Don’t) Work pt.2

In the first part of our article about lead lists we explained what exactly lead lists are and how do marketers acquire them. Now, we will get to the bottom of the problem and see how the led lists work. Or don’t work…

How can list buying go wrong?

1. You can lose credibility with your ESP (Email Service Provider) – every ESP puts enough measures to prevent their customers from getting flooded with spam mails, just because they ended up in the wrong lead list. Some ESPs suspend user accounts that don’t follow their policy. If your recent campaign received spam complaints, looked spammy or you appear to be sending mails to individuals who never gave you permission – your account will be suspended, because those are all red flags. Also, some ESPs do not allow the use of lead lists, even if they are rented or purchased from a reputable source. So, yes, lead lists don’t have a good reputation with email service providers and you can only lose from using both for the same campaign;

2. You will ruin your sender score – the email sender score is like your credit score – it should be good. The sender score is a score aggregated from millions of mailboxes, spam filters and security companies. The more your emails get flagged as spam, the worse your sender score is. Now, it matters, because most email services (such as Gmail, Yahoo! And Outlook) often put your credit score in consideration. Depending on it, your email might not get accepted and can get banished to the spam folder. You can also get flagged as a spammer which is even worse;

3. You will annoy your prospects – perhaps the most obvious downside of lead lists is the fact that you will send unwanted emails to people that you generally have interest in working with. Unless you know exactly what your prospects want, you risk annoying them with your uncalled for messages, even if they need your product;

So how to acquire quality lead lists?

1. Only add new leads to your list – eliminating the burden of duplicate data is easy if you know the tricks. There are a lot of new technologies that can find out which businesses in your database are new. This way you will never have a duplicate prospector in your list and you won’t send the same message twice, which reduces the risk of marking you as a spammer;

2. Use the service of a professional – companies like ours provide services that can help you generate quality leads or generate them and contact them for you. This way you minimize the risks of getting marked as a spammer, you don’t risk your sender score and you are granted quality prospects that actually want to do work with you.

Lead lists emerged as a solution to the limited data availability, but since this is a problem that decreases rapidly, their effectiveness also decreases in the same temps when such information is used by marketers or businesses that don’t have the needed experience. But, don’t worry, professionals are just a phone call away. The solution to your leads problem also. So, if you need help, don’t be afraid to contact us.