How much does it cost to buy an email list?

Published on 6th April,2023          Last Updated on 24th May,2024

Most companies need to buy an email database for email marketing or advertising campaigns. Intelligence tools are the quickest way to buy an email list, but precise targeting of decision makers requires very high quality lists. Factors like refresh rate, consent and opt-in data, GDPR compliance, data replacement guarantees, all come into play. All these factors affect the cost of an email database.

Cost of email databases in markets like the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand etc.

The cost of buying an email list depends on the quality of the addresses and types of people on the list. A consumer list costs anywhere between $100 and $400 CPM. CPM is the price charged for every 1,000 email addresses that you purchase. At the same time, you have to pay a lot more to buy a business database, which is approximately $200 to $1000 for the same number of addresses. The more targeted the database is, the more expensive it becomes.

In addition, there are often other costs associated with managing an email marketing campaign, such as managing and tracking your emails. You’ll get tracking results that show you things like open and click-through rates as well as valuable insights into what works and what doesn’t. This service could cost you $500 to $3,500.

Generally, such sellers of databases or software tools, offer multiple price options, based on your team size, your use case, and some of your other requirements. Certain companies also offer free trials for you to test out their email accuracy. They might provide you anywhere from 5 to 25 free emails.

If you look closely, many companies such as Cognism, DnB Hoovers, ClearBit, SiSense, etc, do not openly mention their prices on their websites but rather require you to contact their sales team to get a quotation based on your requirements. This is a common practice for service providers or software companies.

On the other hand, there are a lot of other companies that do provide their pricing details. Most of these tools provide you with monthly credits in order to access their pre-built databases and export email lists according to your preferences.

The pricing list below of top online databases, will help you quickly glance through the cost of email lists:

Companies like Cognism, Demand Science, Zoominfo, Clearbit, Sales Navigator, Full Contact, 6 Sense do not reveal their pricing on the website. Users need to contact their sales team for information on pricing.

Buying a b2b contact database

Volume and Speed vs Accuracy

Today marketers can find numerous platforms to buy contact databases as well as company databases. Many are enriched with business intelligence as well. These contact databases help fuel your sales pipeline with a list of leads and decision makers that you can market to.

These b2b contact databases are pre-built and equipped with millions of contacts, which you can search through quite easily, based on filters. You get very quick access to large volumes of data, most have fairly simplified interfaces that you can navigate through and download data in bulk. Many provide free trials and integrate with most CRM systems. It’s a quick way to get started with email marketing campaigns.

But the question is, are they accurate enough, and what are the factors that determine their accuracy? If you look at online reviews, there are numerous complaints of inaccuracy, even when you buy a company database that claim around 98% accuracy or real time refresh of data. Contact data always turns stale as it is refreshed quarterly by most providers. Even monthly refresh cycles are very rare, let alone real time refresh of data. This requires you to make a choice between volume and speed on the one hand and accuracy on the other.

Best place to buy contact lists

Automated Tools or Custom Research

Get to know the most trusted and up-to-date b2b contact databases in the industry. Find out the top problems and solutions and critically evaluate sources of the best contact databases, for the highest quality leads.

When looking to buy a b2b contact list, you may come across software platforms that offer monthly subscriptions. Before signing up you need to factor important criteria like Data Accuracy, Niche Targets, Opt-ins and Pricing.

Software tools like Zoominfo, Cognism, Lusha, Clearbit etc. are powerful sales intelligence platforms that help marketing and sales teams find and connect with people they want to do business with. These tools provide fresh, relevant, accurate company and contact-level data including business emails and mobile numbers for decision-makers in EMEA, US, and APAC. Marketers use these softwares to build contact lists on-demand and supercharge their outbound marketing campaigns. Salespeople use these contact databases to find mobile numbers and emails and identify decision-makers in companies they want to do business with.

Custom Contact Databases

Ascentrik Research, on the other hand, has a unique, customised approach to email list building. Our goal is to solve the most widespread problem of stale data. We do this through a dedicated team of data researchers, combined with automated processes, for building email lists at scale.

Once we know what kind of data you need, we source and enrich your data for you. Thus we can provide any data in its freshest state. We believe that the best contact database is custom built.

Let’s look deeper at the factors involved when you need to buy b2b data:

Table Of Contents:
How to buy a b2b database?
When does a company need to buy b2b data?
Accuracy through Customisation
Cost of custom or bespoke research
Buying email lists for the UK and US

How to buy a b2b database?

We will go through all the methods available, to evaluate the most cost-effective option:  

Method 1- Download from Data Brokers:

When marketers need to purchase a business database, the quickest method is online software tools, or data brokers. These database providers require you to just sign up and apply various filters to narrow down to the exact data you are looking for, like industry, job title, etc. Once this is done, the software tool scans through its available database, and gives you a list of contact details. Although this is the quickest way, there are many disadvantages to it.

Risks associated with buying a business database that is stale

• The biggest downside when you buy a business database, is that anywhere from 10 to 30 percent of data is stale. It may hamper your business functioning by lowering the reach and effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. These large databases cannot be updated in real-time, and hence contain a lot of inaccurate information.
• It can also increase your cost in the long run by necessitating you to re-validate your data records.
• Another issue that many users have raised is the credit system used by these companies, and purchasing more credits can be costly.
• If you are targeting a niche industry or specialised job functions, you won’t find this data in pre-built online databases. Therefore, when going for quick download of pre-built databases, one needs to be very vigilant about all these factors.
• When people buy a b2b database, they don’t exactly own the list but rather pay an amount of money in order to access the list from an email database which contains millions of contact records. This may result in identical data as your competitor would be accessing the same database, thus reducing the results of your marketing efforts.
• Invalid addresses result in targeting the wrong leads. When consent of recipients is not obtained they mark your email as spam, or unsubscribe from your list.
• Such lists are likely to contain spam traps or addresses that mail services use to catch spammers. Sending an email to such an address also can cause your IP and domain to get blacklisted, making it difficult to restore your reputation.
• If there are serious problems with your IP address or domain, you may have trouble sending even legitimate emails from that address or domain in the future.
• GDPR and CAN-SPAM violations can result in significant penalties. Finally brand reputation is also damaged.

Before you buy b2b data from a data broker, you must consider all the above factors, that affect your marketing and sales campaigns.

When does a company need to buy an email database?

Usually when an organisation wants to conduct email marketing campaigns or advertising campaigns, they would need to buy an email list. This gives you direct access to millions of contacts across geographies and industries.

There are 2 factors which dictate what kind of email list you need to buy. You either need data on demand, to quickly send bulk emails. This is when most users turn to online tools connected to large databases, that provide instant access to these pre-existing databases. But bear in mind that each data record must be verified by your vendor or software before downloading to your CRM.

On the other hand, your organisation may be very particular about 100% accurate data, GDPR and other compliances, and you need the recipient’s consent through single and double opt-ins. This is when you can turn to custom data partners who source and verify each data record according to your specified categories.

Accuracy through Customisation

How to buy quality email lists?

To buy a company database that contains accurate information for your ABM and other marketing campaigns, you need to make sure they are built specially for your campaign.

Make sure these factors are in place:

• Pay only for successful contacts i.e. contacts with valid details like phone numbers, email addresses, company name, and any other client specified criteria.
• If a contact turns out to be invalid, a replacement contact should be provided.
• Make sure GDPR and other required criteria are fulfilled. Also ensure consent of recipients through single and double opt-ins.
• If your contact or company requirements belong to a niche specialisation, ensure that such lists are provided before you sign up.
• Ensure that your data partner supports you throughout your marketing campaign.

Buying an accurate email list can involve a combination of pre-built databases for quick download, as well as premium, customised databases for niche and specialised industries and job titles. Both should be verified just before download.

Cost of custom or bespoke research for b2b email lists

B2B Email lists from Ascentrik

Lead generation is a crucial part of any marketing or sales team’s process. Most companies need to buy a list of emails for marketing or advertising campaigns.

With Ascentrik’s research-based data, you get access to contact and company-level details, which helps you quickly connect with your ideal prospects. We segment the lead lists as per your criteria, so you get targeted leads for your outreach campaigns.

Our research-based lead list contains contact and company data by any industry or job title in geographies like the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Middle East, and Africa.

We offer top C-suite level data including names, emails, phone numbers, zip codes, and more. Choose from various demographic and firmographic filters.

You get 100% GDPR compliance.

All email lists are verified before you can integrate it. We verify our email addresses and phone numbers for markets across the globe, and extensively for the US and UK.

Our email lists come with a timestamp of the last updated date and time.

Some vendors assure that if 5% of their emails bounce back, they provide credits for more data. But Ascentrik Research gives you a 100% replacement guarantee and charges only for successful records.

We provide integration with any software and file format.

We provide further sales triggers and intelligence like alerts of latest news events, industry trends, potential sales trigger events.

Our pricing differs for common and niche categories. Niche targets require custom research, hence are more resource intensive in terms of time and cost.

Your email bounce rate decreases and open rates increase, making your lead generation campaigns, email marketing and cold-calling campaigns very effective.

Because of all these factors the cost of an email database that is custom built for each client, is higher than a simple email finder tool.

Buying email lists for the UK, US etc.

Ascentrik has a very wide experience in serving industries in the UK and USA. You can buy email lists for UK industries like media, real estate, finance,construction, oil and gas, retail, healthcare, IT and many more.

If you are looking to buy email lists for UK, USA etc, this is what we provide:

• Made-to-order- Custom contact databases are sourced using exclusive, full time data researchers, along with automated software. The outcome is not just the email list but the success of your marketing campaigns.
• 100% Accuracy- The database is always fresh since manually built databases are never stored. Once they are handed over to the client, the data is deleted so none of your competitors have access to the same list.
• Consent Based- Explicit consent of each person is gathered. These are called single and double opt-ins.
• Niche Targets- A data partner would not only help source broad market data like software engineers or b2b salespeople but could also help you source even the most niche data like maternity nurses working only in the west part of New York, or event marketers working only in the oil and gas sector in the UK. This is something you cannot get in an online database.
• You receive exclusive ownership of your contact list. Your data is deleted from the vendor’s system.
• The pricing structure will benefit you in the long run, as your data will not turn out to be stale, your emails will not bounce, and you will not need to pay twice for getting your data re-verified.

When you buy email lists for UK, you acquire a curated collection of email addresses specifically tailored to a particular business sector or field. These lists are designed to help businesses connect with relevant contacts within specific industries.

The main benefit is targeted marketing:
Buying a list of emails allows you to focus your marketing efforts on the right audience. By reaching out to contacts within a specific industry, you increase the chances of engaging potential customers who are genuinely interested in your products or services.

Ascentrik allows you to customise and buy your email list no matter how niche your target!

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the legal considerations when you buy a b2b database?

Your data provider should not overlook privacy norms, GDPR regulations, and consent based opt-ins. Single and double opt-ins indicate the receiver’s consent towards receiving the marketing communication you will be sending them.
 

Can I buy an email list to target specific decision makers?

Yes, you can filter your lists by multiple criteria like industry, job title and function, zip code etc.
We provide our clients with premium data, including email addresses, phone numbers, postal addresses, and much more.
 

How do I buy contact lists that are highly accurate?

You can buy very high quality and accurate email lists from data partners like Ascentrik Research, by just filling one of the quick forms, provided across our site. We offer a 100% data replacement guarantee, so you pay only for successful records.
 

How does Ascentrik ensure it is safe to purchase a business database from us?

A reputed and reliable data provider like Ascentrik Research provides common databases for quick download. We also offer custom databases that require specialised research and validation. We work with you till the end of your campaign, to ensure that all the contact records have reached the right target. Therefore it is definitely safe to purchase our data or partner with us for custom data, as we make sure our data meets every requirement.
 

Can I buy a contact database with opt-in data?

Yes. We offer single and double opt-in data, so you can obtain consent from everyone on your list, before reaching out to them.
 

Can I buy a company database from Ascentrik?

Ascentrik Research specialises in building highly targeted email lists for niche industries and job titles. We have a team of full-time researchers sourcing and validating data for specialised targets.
 

What format does the purchased business database come in?

We can provide email lists in any format as per the client’s needs. We provide custom API integration with the client’s CRM software.
 

Do all Email Marketing Services allow you to send emails to 3rd party purchased email lists?

No. Not all email marketing services allow you to send emails to 3rd party purchased email lists. Therefore you need to check with your service provider. MailChimp, HubSpot and Constant Contact do not allow you to send emails to purchased email addresses.
 

Is it a good idea to buy a b2b database?

Many advise against buying an email list, due the problems with data accuracy and high rates of data decay. Another issue is unsolicited emails and phone calls, if the data provider hasn’t obtained consent. A third issue is the similarity between yours and your competitors’ data.

All these problems can be handled easily by data research partners, as described above. We make sure every record is researched and validated before handing it over to you.
 

Where should I not buy a contact list from?

Buying email lists from cheap sources that don’t ensure verified contact details, can increase your email bounce rates. It’s always good to check if your vendor provides GDPR compliance and single and double opt-in consent.
 

What do I do after I buy a contact database?

After you buy your email list, you can execute your marketing strategy by sending out marketing messages to potential customers! Upload your purchased list of email addresses into your email marketing program and start a campaign.

For the best ROI, you should use a verified, trustworthy 3rd party email service provider to begin your email marketing campaign. This will ensure email deliverability, less bounced emails, less emails hitting spam folders, and higher open rates.

You can also reach out to Ascentrik Research for managing your email campaigns on your CRM. We are well efficient at creating and managing campaigns on the CRM, pre-sales activities, responding to queries, and assigning contacts to the respective marketing and sales executives.

To know more about our B2B Data Services, click here. Custom B2B Data