Email marketing can offer an unparalleled return on investment for your business. As you explore potential email marketing companies (ESPs) to partner with, it’s crucial to approach them with informed questions. Asking the wrong things can not only lead to misunderstandings but might also brand you as a novice in the eyes of industry experts. Let’s uncover the questions you should never ask and what to say instead to foster productive conversations.
1. “Can I buy your email list? Better yet, can I borrow it?”
This question is an immediate red flag for any reputable email marketing provider. The answer is a resounding NO, and here’s why:
- Zero Permission: Any list available for purchase inherently lacks confirmed mailing permission from recipients. This is a fundamental violation of email marketing best practices and privacy regulations.
- High Risk of Damage: Purchased lists are notorious for containing high percentages of dead addresses, spam traps, and disengaged contacts. Sending to such a list will inevitably lead to:
- Massive opt-out rates.
- High bounce rates from undeliverable addresses.
- Triggering spam traps, which are email addresses specifically designed to catch spammers.
- Destroyed Reputation: Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will swiftly identify your sending patterns as suspicious, leading to blacklisting and firewalling your emails into oblivion. This permanently tarnishes your sender reputation and brand image. The stark contrast between bought vs. earned lists clearly shows how detrimental a purchased list can be.
Reputable ESPs will never offer or sell you an email list, nor will they allow you to use purchased lists on their platform. If an ESP suggests otherwise, it’s a sign to run in the opposite direction.
What you should ask instead: “I don’t have an email list. How can I grow it responsibly?”
This question demonstrates a commitment to sustainable and ethical email marketing. The key concepts here are “permission” and “engagement.”
Your ESP can guide you on strategies for organic list growth, which include:
- Creating compelling content on your website that encourages visitors to subscribe.
- Implementing clear sign-up forms that explicitly state what subscribers will receive and how often.
- Utilizing confirmed opt-in (double opt-in) to ensure real, actionable consent from every subscriber.
Building an email list from the ground up ensures you acquire engaged subscribers who genuinely want to hear from you. You can find many valuable email list growth tips online to help you get started on the right foot.
2. “Can I blast out a couple hundred million emails with your software?”
This question immediately signals that you might be approaching email marketing with a “spray and pray” mentality, which often aligns with spamming behavior. Unless you have legitimate, explicit consent from every single one of those “bazillion” email addresses, sending emails en masse without proper verification is a recipe for disaster.
What you should ask instead: “I have a large email list. What can I do to follow best practices?”
While still a challenging situation, this question shows a willingness to comply with industry standards. Most email marketing companies will be willing to assist you in rehabilitating a large, unverified list, though it will require significant effort and potentially a large reduction in list size.
Steps an ESP or list hygiene service might recommend include:
- List Verification and Scrubbing: This process identifies and removes invalid, duplicate, or high-risk email addresses.
- Pruning Your Database: Be prepared that your “couple hundred million” entries might shrink to a few thousand genuinely engaged contacts. This is a necessary step to protect your sender reputation.
- Win-Back Campaigns: For dormant but legitimate subscribers, carefully craft “haven’t-heard-from-you” campaigns to re-engage them and confirm their interest.
- Content-Driven Re-engagement: Focus on consistently delivering valuable and relevant content to rekindle relationships and encourage opens and clicks.
3. “Guarantee that my emails hit the inbox. I want my money back if they won’t!”
No email marketing company can truthfully guarantee 100% inbox delivery. This demand demonstrates a misunderstanding of how email deliverability works and the independent role of Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
Think of ISPs (like Gmail, Outlook.com, and Yahoo) as vigilant doormen to private, high-security apartment complexes (your subscribers’ inboxes). They determine who gets in based on a complex set of rules and algorithms, not simply on the sender’s demands.
ISPs scrutinize several factors before delivering your message:
- Technical Compliance: Is your email technically sound, properly authenticated (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and free of malicious content?
- Recipient Permission: Has the recipient explicitly asked to receive mail from you?
- Engagement History: Does the recipient consistently open, read, and interact positively with your emails, or do they ignore, delete, or mark them as spam?
What you should ask instead: “How can I improve my deliverability?”
This is a much more constructive question. An ESP acts as your first-class mail carrier, ensuring your “envelope” (technical setup) is perfectly addressed and sealed. They provide the tools and infrastructure for optimal sending, but they cannot control the “doorman’s” ultimate decision.
To improve your deliverability, focus on:
- Technical Health: Ensure proper email authentication, clean HTML design, and adherence to sending best practices provided by your ESP.
- Valid Subscriptions: Use confirmed opt-in forms and maintain a clean, permission-based list.
- Recipient Engagement: This is the most critical factor. ISPs prioritize emails that recipients actively want to receive. If subscribers consistently open, click, and reply to your emails, ISPs view your content as valuable. Conversely, low engagement or high complaint rates will negatively impact your deliverability.
While technical aspects and certification programs can certainly help, the ultimate determinant of inbox placement is whether your emails truly resonate with your subscribers. If your audience loves your content, the ISPs will likely follow suit.
4. “Can I get (another) free trial? Or another month? Or a 6-month trial? Just for testing, you know.”
While a free trial is standard for many software services, repeatedly asking for extensions or an unusually long trial period without a compelling reason can come across as entitled or unlikely to convert into a paying customer.
Email marketing companies offer free tiers or trials as a substantial investment. They are temporarily foregoing revenue and incurring operational costs (servers, infrastructure, customer support) hoping to convert you into a paying client later. Extending these benefits without a strong justification disrupts their sales processes and burdens their resources.
Furthermore, many ESPs operate with sophisticated Sales CRM systems. Exceptions for trial periods can complicate billing systems and create administrative headaches for their development and sales teams.
What you should ask instead: “Can I have some additional trial time to be sure you’re the perfect fit for my specific needs?”
This phrasing is far more reasonable and respectful. If you genuinely need more time, come prepared with a clear, concise, and compelling reason. Perhaps you have a complex integration to test, a specific campaign that needs a longer lead time, or a unique use case that requires thorough evaluation.
While an extension isn’t guaranteed, providing a well-articulated reason demonstrates seriousness and respect for their resources, making it far more likely that your request will be considered rather than dismissed.