What if I bought an email database? (underwater experiment)

In order to respect the anonymity of the protagonists of this story, their names have been changed. Don't try to search, you won't find out more!

Intro.

As you know, it's in our DNA (and also in our very... paradoxical name), we don't like Badsender's. For this reason, we don't play with them, and if we are involved in a situation that we don't like and that doesn't respect our opinions, we prefer to withdraw.

For years, several times a month, I have been receiving proposals to buy a database. Sometimes it's 5 million addresses for 1000 euros, sometimes it's hyper-qualified addresses, ... Pure scam most of the time. However, I've been dreaming for a long time to put my nose in this kind of file... by pure curiosity. This summer, I had the opportunity to do it.

To put you in the mood, at the time of writing, it is about 10 pm, a good wood fire in the fireplace, a steaming cup of tea, some candles and John Coltrane in the ears.

History.

It all started in early July. During a consulting mission, one of my clients (let's call him Leon) tells me that he would like to introduce me to someone who would need my advice on deliverability. So far, you may say, nothing special. What he tells me next is much more interesting. This contact, let's call him Rene, has acquired an email database and would like to exploit it. As Leon is not the last of the fools, I listen to him politely, even though I know I will decline the offer. What Leon tells me is that he has worked with René for years and that René is always the first to respect good marketing practices in general. And that on the project in question, as long as he applies the right recipes, he is ready to leave 80% of the base on the floor if it is the most efficient and respectful solution.

Leaving 80% with a base of 1.5 million addresses, it is to be satisfied with 300.000 when we could have four times more. While continuing to discuss with Leon, I agree to go one step further and discuss with Rene.

It was mid-July when the first telephone contact with René took place. He explained his approach to my services. He would like to be advised on how to best exploit the list he has acquired in order to increase his team's competence, to choose the appropriate sending platform and to recruit an emailing campaign manager who should be trained. He also explained to me that his goal was not to exploit the base to throw dozens of commercial campaigns at him, but to increase his own business (which I won't talk about here) and to monetize the base once or twice a month at most.

I remain suspicious and try to dig in order to know more about the origin of its base, the legality of the operation, ... and all these questions that burn my lips. What is disconcerting is that I receive an answer to each of my questions. René knows the history of the database, when it was created, how the addresses were collected, which campaigns were sent to it in the past, ... everything! However, he knows this history because the salesman explained it to him... so we only have the good faith of this one to put us under the tooth. To tell you the truth... the database even has a CNIL number, and this one has been given to René.

In order to go a little further, I explain my point of view to René. Under these conditions, it is absolutely necessary to go through a phase of requalification of the database! The best way to do this is to send an email presenting the new concept developed by René around the database, and to let the recipient choose to continue (or not) to receive emails. I warn René that he might end up with an empty shell if nobody wants to continue receiving messages.

René accepted all the proposals. We are therefore embarked in early August in the search for a platform to route these emails, in the design of the requalification message, in the drafting of a job description for the future emailing manager and in the implementation of a ramp up plan over several weeks. Our messages have no less than three unsubscribe links. The first one in the header, the second as the main CTA (next to the reconfirmation CTA) and the third in the footer. All these suggestions are accepted by René.

In order to create the Ramp Up plan, we had the database analyzed in order to know the most active addresses, those who have opened or clicked campaigns recently. This allows us to set up a priority rule, the most active will be shot first, allowing us to avoid a disaster and detect the moment of non-return in advance. The subject line of our reconfirmation email is unequivocal: "Do you want to continue receiving our emails?

However, even if all possible precautions have been taken, something still worries us. While we are almost at the beginning of September that everything is ready, we still haven't heard back from the original owner of the base... have all the de-registrations from the past been removed from it? Although it is stipulated in the contract, we have not received any confirmation on the subject.

So we launch the first emails.

On the first day, we limited ourselves to 2,000 mailings, on addresses that were apparently still active. And indeed, the addresses are alive, since we have an honorable opening rate for this type of mailing. Even better, the reactivity rate is well over 40%... for clicks exclusively dedicated to the "I don't want to receive your emails anymore" button.

The more the days go by, the more the opening rate increases... The deliverability is also excellent since there are very few bounces (we are always on active), no spam complaints, ... But NO commitment! NOTHING! NADA !

At this point, after two weeks of careful warmup, it is time to tell René that the die is cast, and that there is no point in continuing. I could have expected a strong reaction from him, but instead, he thanks me for my advice and declares that his whole team has learned a lot from this experience and that he won't be fooled by the sirens of buying addresses anymore.

For my part, even if I don't have much pride in having participated in this project, it has at least allowed me to confirm my opinion on the fact that this type of strategy, even with the best will in the world, is doomed to failure. Buying a cheap email list, collected with a low level of commitment will never produce an enthusiastic base for your projects. One piece of advice, collect direct permissions for your brand, don't waste your time annoying consumers who don't know you from Eve or Adam!

It is certain that I will not be caught again!