Is it possible to purchase reliable third party business email data?

I was recently asked to comment on this issue.

We have found over the years, that using 3rd party email data for acquisition activity simply does not work. It’s not cost effective and runs huge risks with destroying brand value - customers perceive unsolicited emails simply as spam.

Worse still, if brand owners use 3rd party email data as part of their overall email programme and the end recipient treats these emails as SPAM, this can have a detrimental effect on the brand owners’ on-going deliverability and IP reputation thereby affecting every subsequent email communication.

There are no shortcuts: brands need to embrace permission based-strategies to build prospects lists, through the use of white papers, online seminars and a whole host of tactics that build the brand and encourage opt-in. Another alternative is ‘piggybacking’ your message on other brand’s opt-in communications (through, for example, email sponsorship) where your brand can be taken to an unsoliticited but altogether ‘warmer’ potential customer base.