Post: #1

I was wondering if anyone has any experience buying targeted customer email lists, not just random lists of emails from within a niche. Basically someone in my industry sold their business but contract doesn't prohibit them from selling their customer email lists which was pretty stupid on the buyers part.

Anyhow, I have the opportunity to buy 3500 emails which should be very targeted towards what I do. I have no idea where to even begin in terms of how much to pay per email or for the list.

I would be sending email specials to these customers. I'd expect a 1% or less response rate with an average sale of say $100. Some customers may spend much more and be repeats some may never buy anything obviously.

How much would you pay per email or for the whole list?

Post: #2

$25.

If you have a facebook page you can spend $25 to target 11000 customers. I think facebook gets more attention from viewers than email because there's at least a pretty picture that attracts people's attention. With email, you see the subject line -> delete.

Post: #3

What's your figures from your own list?

Take your conversion rate and multiply it by profit per sale and you've got a price for each email.

Adjust it upwards or downwards as needed for the difference in list quality and increased/decreased conversion rate of this other list and you've got a price guide.

Pay much less than the upper limit and you'll make money.

Post: #4

(07-07-2014 07:42 PM)monster Wrote:  $25.

If you have a facebook page you can spend $25 to target 11000 customers. I think facebook gets more attention from viewers than email because there's at least a pretty picture that attracts people's attention. With email, you see the subject line -> delete.

Quite the opposite actually. Facebook traffic converts really poor, while email converts really well.

Post: #5

(07-07-2014 07:25 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  I was wondering if anyone has any experience buying targeted customer email lists, not just random lists of emails from within a niche. Basically someone in my industry sold their business but contract doesn't prohibit them from selling their customer email lists which was pretty stupid on the buyers part.

Anyhow, I have the opportunity to buy 3500 emails which should be very targeted towards what I do. I have no idea where to even begin in terms of how much to pay per email or for the list.

I would be sending email specials to these customers. I'd expect a 1% or less response rate with an average sale of say $100. Some customers may spend much more and be repeats some may never buy anything obviously.

How much would you pay per email or for the whole list?

What industry does the list relate to?

Post: #6

(07-07-2014 07:25 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  I was wondering if anyone has any experience buying targeted customer email lists, not just random lists of emails from within a niche. Basically someone in my industry sold their business but contract doesn't prohibit them from selling their customer email lists which was pretty stupid on the buyers part.

Anyhow, I have the opportunity to buy 3500 emails which should be very targeted towards what I do. I have no idea where to even begin in terms of how much to pay per email or for the list.

I would be sending email specials to these customers. I'd expect a 1% or less response rate with an average sale of say $100. Some customers may spend much more and be repeats some may never buy anything obviously.

How much would you pay per email or for the whole list?

I do this very same thing, and it's been working quite well to grow my business. In fact, it works so well that it's the main part of my advertising budget. As for cost, I pay about $150 for 2,000 email addresses. I won't reveal the niche, but it is highly targeted towards that niche.

Post: #7

(07-08-2014 10:34 AM)SteveCR Wrote:  

(07-07-2014 07:25 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  I was wondering if anyone has any experience buying targeted customer email lists, not just random lists of emails from within a niche. Basically someone in my industry sold their business but contract doesn't prohibit them from selling their customer email lists which was pretty stupid on the buyers part.

Anyhow, I have the opportunity to buy 3500 emails which should be very targeted towards what I do. I have no idea where to even begin in terms of how much to pay per email or for the list.

I would be sending email specials to these customers. I'd expect a 1% or less response rate with an average sale of say $100. Some customers may spend much more and be repeats some may never buy anything obviously.

How much would you pay per email or for the whole list?

I do this very same thing, and it's been working quite well to grow my business. In fact, it works so well that it's the main part of my advertising budget. As for cost, I pay about $150 for 2,000 email addresses. I won't reveal the niche, but it is highly targeted towards that niche.

Thanks all for the advice. In my experience if I send out an email marketing special or something I'll normally send to about 1200 people. I'm normally lucky if if converts into one or two sales maybe average sales price of $125 making about $35 although really depends on what specials I'm offering. Sometimes I might get lucky and get like 7-10 orders but thats rare. I'm not really hoping to get big sales from my special so much as get someone to try me out and then gain a recurring customer.

I wound up offering the guy $250. I know that's a bit high considering you can buy like tens of thousands of emails sometimes for around that price but I have a feeling the guy wouldn't even bother selling to me for $50 or something small like that. Also were a small niche, not a lot of compeition and my business has something unique others don't have so basically just want a shot at winning the business. I think it comes down to 0.10 or maybe 0.14 cents per email so I figure it's probably jsut as well spending the money there as it would with adwords.

I'm expecting to get maybe 3 sales off the list but wouldn't be surprised if I get nothing. If I get 3 sales I could probably make my money back. Ideally I'd like to get a recurring customer as with a one off sale or a few one off sales it's not doing much for me except getting my money back.

I'd like to offer lower just because in my niceh customers are pretty loyal to a specific seller they've dealt with people aren't quick to jump ship once they've dealt with someone so may be hard to convert customers or take marketshare but I figure its worth a try due to how targeted this list is and there really only being a handful of toher people they could go to

Post: #8

(07-08-2014 11:21 AM)jamaicabound Wrote:  I wound up offering the guy $250. I know that's a bit high considering you can buy like tens of thousands of emails sometimes for around that price but I have a feeling the guy wouldn't even bother selling to me for $50 or something small like that. Also were a small niche, not a lot of compeition and my business has something unique others don't have so basically just want a shot at winning the business. I think it comes down to 0.10 or maybe 0.14 cents per email so I figure it's probably jsut as well spending the money there as it would with adwords.

male hamster man...always throw a low offer out first. then if he says no, justify it to him using the EXACT OPPOSITE of what you just wrote. Then if he still complains come up with a mutually acceptable price. This is the art of negotiation and hence the art of business.

Post: #9

(07-08-2014 11:24 AM)monster Wrote:  

(07-08-2014 11:21 AM)jamaicabound Wrote:  I wound up offering the guy $250. I know that's a bit high considering you can buy like tens of thousands of emails sometimes for around that price but I have a feeling the guy wouldn't even bother selling to me for $50 or something small like that. Also were a small niche, not a lot of compeition and my business has something unique others don't have so basically just want a shot at winning the business. I think it comes down to 0.10 or maybe 0.14 cents per email so I figure it's probably jsut as well spending the money there as it would with adwords.

male hamster man...always throw a low offer out first. then if he says no, justify it to him using the EXACT OPPOSITE of what you just wrote. Then if he still complains come up with a mutually acceptable price. This is the art of negotiation and hence the art of business.

Yeah I'm not the best negotiator in terms of thorwing out a low offer and slowly comming up, my style is more look here's what it's worth to me, lets cut the song and dance you say high I say low, here's what I'm willing to offer take it or leave it. Your right though, who knows maybe if I offer $50 he takes it.

The guy started off by telling me how much he sold his business for but apparently whoever bought it didn't specify in the contract he couldn't continue selling his list to others, it just so happenned I came across teh guy and asked to buy he said lemme check my contact and apparently he can sell so big oversight on whoever he sold his biz too. I imagine that person already has most of his customers locked up but like I said I have something unique others dont so figure it's worht a shot trying to win those customers business and steal some marketshare.

If it winds up going down I'll have to report back and post my conversion rate and experience incase anyone else is faced withh a similar situation. Obviously much of it will be dependent on many factors that may not carry over to other industries but none the less I'm always curious what others experiences are with things like this.

Post: #10

(07-07-2014 07:25 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  I was wondering if anyone has any experience buying targeted customer email lists, not just random lists of emails from within a niche. Basically someone in my industry sold their business but contract doesn't prohibit them from selling their customer email lists which was pretty stupid on the buyers part.

Have these customers consented to be on your mailling list? The answer is no, so you are asking us how you can spam people who have never heard of you.

Quote:Anyhow, I have the opportunity to buy 3500 emails which should be very targeted towards what I do. I have no idea where to even begin in terms of how much to pay per email or for the list.

You don't know who these people. You don't know how these email addresses were acquired either. The fact that they would sell email addresses already proves that they have no integrity. And the fact that you want to buy them shows that you probably have none as well. This sounds like it's going to be your first time spamming people, so I'm not going to encourage you.

Quote:I would be sending email specials to these customers. I'd expect a 1% or less response rate with an average sale of say $100. Some customers may spend much more and be repeats some may never buy anything obviously.

And some will NEVER buy anything from you and will tell others to do the same. That's because you're a spammer. You might also get some angry phone calls asking questions like: "Who the fuck are you, Spammer? Why are you spamming me?

Quote:How much would you pay per email or for the whole list?

I would pay nothing for it because I'm a reputable businessman. Are you reputable? Do you want to do business with integrity or not?

Post: #11

puckerman, US law gives you the legal right to contact anybody by email or telephone for marketing purposes (with a few rules to abide by).

Email marketing works.
Telemarketing works.

They both work really, really well. Any website based in the US should have a privacy policy specifying what that business is going to do with your personal data. People agree all day long to have their data sold to 3rd parties for marketing purposes.

Post: #12

No, you can't send email to people who haven't consented, that is spam and carries high fines if caught. However, nothing is stopping the guy with the original list (and consent), from emailing on behalf of someone with an offer. That is perfectly legal.

Post: #13

(07-09-2014 02:20 AM)berserk Wrote:  No, you can't send email to people who haven't consented, that is spam and carries high fines if caught. However, nothing is stopping the guy with the original list (and consent), from emailing on behalf of someone with an offer. That is perfectly legal.

You are mistaken.

"There are no restrictions against a company emailing its existing customers or anyone who has inquired about its products or services, even if these individuals have not given permission, as these messages are classified as "relationship" messages under CAN-SPAM.[8] But when sending unsolicited commercial emails, it must be stated that the email is an advertisement or a marketing solicitation."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Ac...licability

You need to give all recipients a way to opt out but he is able to send emails to that list as long as it wasn't harvested as in scraped off the web. The guy can't sell opted out emails either.

Post: #14

(07-09-2014 02:34 AM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 02:20 AM)berserk Wrote:  No, you can't send email to people who haven't consented, that is spam and carries high fines if caught. However, nothing is stopping the guy with the original list (and consent), from emailing on behalf of someone with an offer. That is perfectly legal.

You are mistaken.

"There are no restrictions against a company emailing its existing customers or anyone who has inquired about its products or services, even if these individuals have not given permission, as these messages are classified as "relationship" messages under CAN-SPAM.[8] But when sending unsolicited commercial emails, it must be stated that the email is an advertisement or a marketing solicitation."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Ac...licability

You need to give all recipients a way to opt out but he is able to send emails to that list as long as it wasn't harvested as in scraped off the web. The guy can't sell opted out emails either.

You can't just buy a list of someone and then email them whatever, that is what the above means, but the owner of the list can email on behalf of others.

Post: #15

(07-09-2014 03:45 AM)berserk Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 02:34 AM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 02:20 AM)berserk Wrote:  No, you can't send email to people who haven't consented, that is spam and carries high fines if caught. However, nothing is stopping the guy with the original list (and consent), from emailing on behalf of someone with an offer. That is perfectly legal.

You are mistaken.

"There are no restrictions against a company emailing its existing customers or anyone who has inquired about its products or services, even if these individuals have not given permission, as these messages are classified as "relationship" messages under CAN-SPAM.[8] But when sending unsolicited commercial emails, it must be stated that the email is an advertisement or a marketing solicitation."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Ac...licability

You need to give all recipients a way to opt out but he is able to send emails to that list as long as it wasn't harvested as in scraped off the web. The guy can't sell opted out emails either.

You can't just buy a list of someone and then email them whatever, that is what the above means, but the owner of the list can email on behalf of others.

Yes, you can just buy a list of data and email them. The CAN-SPAM Act allows this. You can not buy a list of data that was harvested/scraped from various websites, but for instance, Roosh (or any other website/data company) could sell me the data of all of their users. Completely legal and quite profitable.

Data aggregation is a HUGE business, and it is 100% legal. Everybody's personal data is for sale.

Post: #16

(07-09-2014 09:00 AM)SteveCR Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 03:45 AM)berserk Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 02:34 AM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 02:20 AM)berserk Wrote:  No, you can't send email to people who haven't consented, that is spam and carries high fines if caught. However, nothing is stopping the guy with the original list (and consent), from emailing on behalf of someone with an offer. That is perfectly legal.

You are mistaken.

"There are no restrictions against a company emailing its existing customers or anyone who has inquired about its products or services, even if these individuals have not given permission, as these messages are classified as "relationship" messages under CAN-SPAM.[8] But when sending unsolicited commercial emails, it must be stated that the email is an advertisement or a marketing solicitation."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Ac...licability

You need to give all recipients a way to opt out but he is able to send emails to that list as long as it wasn't harvested as in scraped off the web. The guy can't sell opted out emails either.

You can't just buy a list of someone and then email them whatever, that is what the above means, but the owner of the list can email on behalf of others.

Yes, you can just buy a list of data and email them. The CAN-SPAM Act allows this. You can not buy a list of data that was harvested/scraped from various websites, but for instance, Roosh (or any other website/data company) could sell me the data of all of their users. Completely legal and quite profitable.

Data aggregation is a HUGE business, and it is 100% legal. Everybody's personal data is for sale.

I read up a bit on Can-Spam and it seems to be a grey area, not strictly forbidden, but generally not encouraged, since users must have given permission to have their data shared. So if you have one of those, "We promise we won't sell your email" type opt-ins (which convert poorly), then you could get in trouble.

My experience is with european law which is stricter it seems. I disagree that everyone's data is for sale as a default, it is not, only if you agree to it, which is what is hidden in the page after page TOS when you sign up for something.

Post: #17

(07-09-2014 09:44 AM)berserk Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 09:00 AM)SteveCR Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 03:45 AM)berserk Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 02:34 AM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 02:20 AM)berserk Wrote:  No, you can't send email to people who haven't consented, that is spam and carries high fines if caught. However, nothing is stopping the guy with the original list (and consent), from emailing on behalf of someone with an offer. That is perfectly legal.

You are mistaken.

"There are no restrictions against a company emailing its existing customers or anyone who has inquired about its products or services, even if these individuals have not given permission, as these messages are classified as "relationship" messages under CAN-SPAM.[8] But when sending unsolicited commercial emails, it must be stated that the email is an advertisement or a marketing solicitation."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Ac...licability

You need to give all recipients a way to opt out but he is able to send emails to that list as long as it wasn't harvested as in scraped off the web. The guy can't sell opted out emails either.

You can't just buy a list of someone and then email them whatever, that is what the above means, but the owner of the list can email on behalf of others.

Yes, you can just buy a list of data and email them. The CAN-SPAM Act allows this. You can not buy a list of data that was harvested/scraped from various websites, but for instance, Roosh (or any other website/data company) could sell me the data of all of their users. Completely legal and quite profitable.

Data aggregation is a HUGE business, and it is 100% legal. Everybody's personal data is for sale.

I read up a bit on Can-Spam and it seems to be a grey area, not strictly forbidden, but generally not encouraged, since users must have given permission to have their data shared. So if you have one of those, "We promise we won't sell your email" type opt-ins (which convert poorly), then you could get in trouble.

My experience is with european law which is stricter it seems. I disagree that everyone's data is for sale as a default, it is not, only if you agree to it, which is what is hidden in the page after page TOS when you sign up for something.

Everybody's data is for sale. Ever signed up for a free email account at places like yahoo, gmail, hotmail? Do you pay for internet? Do you subscribe to cable televison? What about having a bank account? Do you buy anything online? Do you use social media websites, such as facebook?

Guess what - all of this data is for sale. I'm telling you - data aggregation is an incredibly HUGE business.

Post: #18

(07-09-2014 03:45 AM)berserk Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 02:34 AM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 02:20 AM)berserk Wrote:  No, you can't send email to people who haven't consented, that is spam and carries high fines if caught. However, nothing is stopping the guy with the original list (and consent), from emailing on behalf of someone with an offer. That is perfectly legal.

You are mistaken.

"There are no restrictions against a company emailing its existing customers or anyone who has inquired about its products or services, even if these individuals have not given permission, as these messages are classified as "relationship" messages under CAN-SPAM.[8] But when sending unsolicited commercial emails, it must be stated that the email is an advertisement or a marketing solicitation."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Ac...licability

You need to give all recipients a way to opt out but he is able to send emails to that list as long as it wasn't harvested as in scraped off the web. The guy can't sell opted out emails either.

You can't just buy a list of someone and then email them whatever, that is what the above means, but the owner of the list can email on behalf of others.

Yes you can and there are companies I can go to to purchase lists and email them legally. I even bolded the portion that allows it. According to you, Infousa.com is illegal yet they have been in business for a long time.

Post: #19

(07-09-2014 02:46 PM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 03:45 AM)berserk Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 02:34 AM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 02:20 AM)berserk Wrote:  No, you can't send email to people who haven't consented, that is spam and carries high fines if caught. However, nothing is stopping the guy with the original list (and consent), from emailing on behalf of someone with an offer. That is perfectly legal.

You are mistaken.

"There are no restrictions against a company emailing its existing customers or anyone who has inquired about its products or services, even if these individuals have not given permission, as these messages are classified as "relationship" messages under CAN-SPAM.[8] But when sending unsolicited commercial emails, it must be stated that the email is an advertisement or a marketing solicitation."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Ac...licability

You need to give all recipients a way to opt out but he is able to send emails to that list as long as it wasn't harvested as in scraped off the web. The guy can't sell opted out emails either.

You can't just buy a list of someone and then email them whatever, that is what the above means, but the owner of the list can email on behalf of others.

Yes you can and there are companies I can go to to purchase lists and email them legally. I even bolded the portion that allows it. According to you, Infousa.com is illegal yet they have been in business for a long time.

It's a grey area. Did you see the part about 'having inquired about your product or services'?

As I said, my experience is in Europe with much more restrictive laws.

Post: #20

(07-10-2014 01:21 AM)berserk Wrote:  It's a grey area. Did you see the part about 'having inquired about your product or services'?

As I said, my experience is in Europe with much more restrictive laws.

No, it is not a grey area. You are misreading what I posted.

Quote:un·so·lic·it·ed [uhn-suh-lis-i-tid]

given or supplied without being requested or asked for: unsolicited advice.

Look, pop up some links to the law that say it is illegal otherwise you're just passing off your opinion as if it is fact.

Post: #21

Quote: If you buy or rent an email list from a third party you can use it only if the intended recipients have actively consented to receiving unsolicited messages by email from third parties.

http://www.cognique.co.uk/blog/email-mar...75DjbGnhi8

UK law. As I wrote, I know European law, not US. Most European countries have similar laws. You can't send people emails, if they haven't specifically agreed to receive emails from third parties.

Which means, that if you buy an email list, if there are euros on that list, even if collected from the US, you would be breaking the laws unless those who got the list made sure to state in the TOS their contact info could be sold.

Post: #22

Anyone interested in a list from the online gambling/poker/sportsbook industry?

Post: #23

The terms the user agreed to when signing up typically dictates what can be done with that data (in the US.) Selling data to third parties is common in many agreements. When it comes to enforcement companies get in trouble when the data includes underage users, or when a website's terms of service explicitly claims the users data will not be sold; but otherwise enforcement tends to be ignored.

There are other issues which don't appear to be enforced very well or at all: for example, how do you know the entity you are acquiring the data from had permission to contact the people?

For buying phone numbers, as long as you are doing it by hand and not dropping the list in to a robodialer, probably ok.

Instead of buying a list outright, buy 20% of it, test, and if it looks good buy the rest. Nothing prevents the seller from giving you the good stuff in the first batch and crap in the second, but then you have cheaply evaluated the person's trustworthiness (leaving cash sitting around in the open is a way to do this in your day to day life.)

Post: #24

(07-10-2014 02:44 AM)berserk Wrote:  

Quote: If you buy or rent an email list from a third party you can use it only if the intended recipients have actively consented to receiving unsolicited messages by email from third parties.

http://www.cognique.co.uk/blog/email-mar...75DjbGnhi8

UK law. As I wrote, I know European law, not US. Most European countries have similar laws. You can't send people emails, if they haven't specifically agreed to receive emails from third parties.

Which means, that if you buy an email list, if there are euros on that list, even if collected from the US, you would be breaking the laws unless those who got the list made sure to state in the TOS their contact info could be sold.

From the site you linked:

"If you buy or rent an email list from a third party you can use it only if the intended recipients have actively consented to receiving unsolicited messages by email from third parties."

So tell me, do you usually read every TOS and privacy policy before signing up for websites and/or other services? And even if you do (doubtful), most people do not.

Post: #25

(07-10-2014 12:25 PM)SteveCR Wrote:  

(07-10-2014 02:44 AM)berserk Wrote:  

Quote: If you buy or rent an email list from a third party you can use it only if the intended recipients have actively consented to receiving unsolicited messages by email from third parties.

http://www.cognique.co.uk/blog/email-mar...75DjbGnhi8

UK law. As I wrote, I know European law, not US. Most European countries have similar laws. You can't send people emails, if they haven't specifically agreed to receive emails from third parties.

Which means, that if you buy an email list, if there are euros on that list, even if collected from the US, you would be breaking the laws unless those who got the list made sure to state in the TOS their contact info could be sold.

From the site you linked:

"If you buy or rent an email list from a third party you can use it only if the intended recipients have actively consented to receiving unsolicited messages by email from third parties."

So tell me, do you usually read every TOS and privacy policy before signing up for websites and/or other services? And even if you do (doubtful), most people do not.

Of course not, I have no problem with email marketing, just commenting on the de facto legality and the fact is that in Europe, you need explicit consent. I do know, that I get really pissed when someone sells my email to spammers. If I can figure out who did it, that is the fastest way I will never do business with them again.