ESPs and Purchased Lists
Over on her Word to the Wise blog, Laura Atkins shares a wonderful list of links to almost every email service provider's policy prohibiting use of bought lists or purchased email addresses.
It's funny, working in this business.
Do reputable email service providers knowingly allow clients to send to purchased email lists? No, they don't. Because, as Laura points out, using purchased lists tends to cause deliverability issues that basically can't be resolved until and unless you stop using purchased lists. In other words, you have to stop drinking the poisoned water before you can expect to get better.
Why do I use the word "knowingly" above? Because most email service providers are self-service platforms. It's not always easy to immediately figure out that a client has uploaded a list that violates an ESP's acceptable use policy or contractual opt-in requirements. Eventually it catches up with the client, but that happens later, after the complaints come in. Maybe after multiple mailings. After the damage of annoying uninterested email users has already happened.
(And if you're receiving spam yourself from some ESP, please report it! If you don't want to report it to the ESP, at least hit the "report spam" button if you've got one, so the spam gets noted by an ISP or spam filter. The more spam reports, the more active feedback you're providing to both the ESP and ISP to help them better police senders.)
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