Compiled email lists are emails that have been aggregated and sourced from various websites and online sources and where the owner of the email address has not given you or your business express permission to email them promotional content.

What can I do with compiled email lists?

As long as you are complying with CAN-SPAM regulations, you are free to send emails to compiled email lists. To summarize the Can-Spam regulations, you cannot send emails with explicit, sexual, or illegal drug content. If you are sending promotional emails, you must include your companies physical address and allow the recipient to permanently opt-out of receiving future emails from you. While this may seem straight forward, here are some additional words of caution and best practices for using compiled email lists:

Words of caution

• Send opt-in emails, before adding them to your company's permanent email list. It only takes a few people marking your email as spam for the major email service providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook, to black list your email server or email address and thereby automatically putting all your emails into spam in the future.
• Don't add compiled emails directly to a Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, or other email campaign software until the owner of the email address has opted in. Doing so may violated their terms of service, and if too many of your emails get marked as spam, they may ban or lock you out of your account.

Best practices

• One-to-one emails are more likely to get opened. While it's very tempting to write up a flashy promotional email without anyone's name at the top, the most effective emails are personal, one-to-one communication, especially if the person your emailing has never met you or your business before.
• Emails is great way to follow-up with people you're already working with. Send follow-up emails shortly after starting a conversation with folks, and make it easy for them to get back in touch with you.