Greetings, my fellow email marketers, and welcome to another round of "You Bet Your Email Life!" In this episode, contestants answer the perennial question: "What's the best way to grow my email database before the holiday shopping season starts?"

Option A: "I found somebody who will sell me a million fresh email addresses for only $500! Problem solved!"

Option B: "I won't be able to hit my quarterly sales target if I email just to my small house list, so I'm going to rent a bunch of lists to extend my reach."

Option C: "I need to find new ways to attract more customers to my in-house mailing list, and try to reclaim subscribers who don't act on my emails."

Okay, contestants! If you chose Option A, you may as well start shutting down your email program now. Otherwise, the ISPs and blacklists will do it for you because of the spam complaints and spam traps you'll set off.

Option B isn't much more attractive, because you're still paying money to send your email to people who didn't specifically request it. If you're careful, you might move the needle a little.

Option C takes the most time and effort, but it's also the most reliable way to build a email database of genuine addresses belonging to people who really do want to receive your email.

This method won't magically solve all your list problems in a day. Neither will buying or renting lists, which can leave your email program in pieces.

Buying Email Addresses Can Buy Trouble

Sending email to people who didn't request your messages is the fastest way to trash your sender reputation, and a bad sender rep is the fast lane to email detention.

A purchased list is not composed of people who want to receive your emails. Many addresses belong to people who didn't read the fine print in the privacy policy when they registered for an account or entered a contest.

Even though they didn't see the clause that warned them they were agreeing to share their addresses with the marketing world, that doesn't mean they want your email. They'll just click the "report spam" button instead. Or, they'll abandon that address because of all the spam they received from it and move on. More money wasted.

Purchased email lists could be riddled with old, invalid or spam-trap addresses, called "honeypots." ISPs and blacklist services use these addresses specifically to trap and block spammers, since nobody else would be emailing to them.

Once you start emailing to these addresses, you're going to set off a lot of activity, but not the kind that produces traffic or sales. Instead, you'll generate enough spam complaints to prompt ISPs either to block your messages outright, or route them to the bulk folder instead of the inbox.

Then, if you send email to an address monitored by a major blacklist service - such as Spamhaus that can block delivery at the major ISPs - your email won't be accepted again until you demonstrate that you've recommitted yourself to a permission-based program that employs best practices for mailing.

I'm a firm believer in the saying, "You are what you send." Are you willing to put your corporate brand in the middle of a cesspool if your purchased email list explodes?

Email List Rental: Watch for Red Flags

If you have no house list, or not much of one, email list rental is a less dangerous option than buying a list. However, you can end up destroying your sender reputation just as easily if you don't work with a reputable vendor.

Does the company offer references? Does it explain how it acquired its email addresses, or how old they are? Does it guarantee its permission level, list hygiene or deliverability? If not, walk away.

Reputable vendors don't let you download addresses. Instead, they send your message out to their own email lists on your behalf.

Another caveat: People on the rented list who convert from your message haven't automatically opted in to your email program. So, technically you don't have their permission to automatically add them to your house list, unless you set those expectations and permission parameters up front. Make sure you don't continue emailing any new customers you acquire from that list unless they opt in to receiving communications from you on their own.

Best Results: Nurture Your House List

These are the people who want to hear from you and are interested in what you're selling. Building up your email marketing house list takes the most time but will generate the greatest benefits with the fewest risks.

Even with the busy fourth quarter right around the corner, these three steps you can take today will attract more email subscribers:

1. Add a benefit-based invitation to subscribe on every page of your Web site, not just the landing page, and in all your email messages, including transactional messages such as order confirmations, shipping notices and payment reminders.

2. Create a Facebook fan page with a standing subscription invitation. Promote it in your email messages and on your Web site. Update it frequently with fresh content such as Facebook-only news and offers.

3. Try to win back subscribers who haven't acted on your emails for six months or longer. Send a targeted re-opt-in message to these people with a special offer, an invitation to update their profile or take a survey, or instructions about how to unsubscribe. Delete any address that doesn't respond to this reminder message, or move it to a separate do-not-email list. (Read: 12 Tips To Re-Engage Your "Inactive" Recipients)

A Final Thought on Buying & Renting Email Lists

Buying and renting lists are merely quick fixes. They can wreck your sender reputation just as fast. Building your email address list from the inside gives you long-term stability, performance, and best of all, return on your marketing investment.

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About the Author

David Fowler is the director of email strategy, deliverability and privacy compliance for Lyris. He consults with email marketers to help them get better results from their email programs.

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