You Can't Load Prospects You Have Purchased Into an Auto Responder
Monday, May 19, 2008 at 04:52PM Loading leads you have purchased into an auto responder is considered Spam. It is also not very effective because your prospects don't know who you are or why you're sending them emails.
It can also get your account removed if the auto email company you're using finds out you're doing this. That's because their email delivery rate will go down (more emails will be blocked) and therefore, their other customers will move to a better email company.
This is different than loading in prospects that you have generated from your own marketing... such as when you generate the list from a lead capture page like The 7 Great Lies, Magnetic Sponsoring or Renegade University.
When you generate leads with these lead capture pages, or lead captures pages of your own, the leads will either know who you are (because they saw your name and face in Internet content you've created that attracted them to the lead capture page).... or they will most likely remember the topic, which would be very specific.
I should mention that there are 'grey areas' that you may get away with if you use your smarts. For example, some people buy leads from someone who only sells them to one person... and if you know exactly what's on that lead capture page you should be able to write an appropriate email that would allow your lead to know it's not spam.
In the next Email Marketing class (course 5) we're getting into detail about what to send to your list so they do remember that they had subscribed to your list... which is the perfect beginning to the emailing process.
You can register for Email Marketing Course 5, which is on Thursday, after logging into your Marketing Merge Professional account (look at top of page after logging in for registration link).
Reader Comments (3)
That was timely advice as I had been wrestling over the issue. I love this blog and the whole idea of just giving it over to the universe and the answer will come! Thanks for the great advice.
I had purchased the SMTM system. www.youbeaut.net
One of the traffic channels he teaches, was exactly, buy leads and autorespond them.
Any way bottom line, 2000 leads, 38 visitors, and 4 opt ins. No Sign ups.
Thanks Mike Great advice!
Hi Darren,
Yes, it's usually the people who are either selling the leads or get a kick-back from someone selling the leads who set up such systems and/or encourage you to buy leads and put them in an auto-responder. I'm in no way saying they aren't good people with good intentions... it's just that they aren't understanding the major disadvantages of it.
It's expensive for one thing. 2000 leads, even at a very low cost of let's say 10 cent each would be $200. If you spent that on paying someone to write articles for you it would produce you significantly more leads, they'd know your name and face before they got on your list, and they'd only be opting into your list.
Thanks for sharing that experience. You're not alone! I used to spend thousands on leads and loaded them into auto responders.