I want to buy a list. Talk me down from the ledge...

Use facebook ads.

Target people interested in various 'fishing subjects and or pages' who are self employed.

Not totally perfect targeting but if your advert hints that this is a wholesale product
you should do pretty well.

Good luck

P>S The hit rate from purchased lists is........well let's just say...it sucks usually

You've got it made, you just need to put the pieces together.

You have product samples, that gets you email and physical addresses.

Do this, piggyback off existing sites/blogs traffic. Give the webmaster a free sample in exchange for a review or blog post of your product. Make it easy for the traffic to subscribe to your own email list or order directly and they can give you their email address and physical address at checkout.

Easy and no cost traffic, except for sample shipping cost, unless you make traffic pay shipping.

Keep in mind a single niche blog could easily be 100s/1000s of unique traffic/emails so forget buying a list, build your own list from dozens of same niche blogs/sites. This way you know the emails are legit, fresh and active. A lot of people will sell you old/dead email list all day long.

I tried this once, a small list of 500- getresponse would not take any of them!

How do you get around this?

Are there any sites that sell small lists in specfic niches? Not fiverr that is a disaster!

FACEBOOK LEAD ADS

For you it would be like 'buying a list'.

Make a simple fb ads for lead generation, and target your audience, so you can have their mail and maybe better the telephone number too.

You are better off buying banner ads on fishing related websites. This will get you higher quality traffic. You can build a list through that traffic and continue to promote multiple products to them. If you buy a list, the quality might not be good.

If this purchased list is 100% aligned with what you have to offer, there is no need to walk ya off the ledge You may face some resistance because you will be a stranger to subscribers, but if they dig the product, and your free content too, go for it.

The issue with most list purchases is: marketers desperately pay money to acquire numbers and do no mental legwork, not making sure their content and offering is 100% aligned with what the list subscribers expect.

If I buy a list of folks who expect helpful blogging tips, the folks who get my emails will dig my blog posts, eBooks, audiobooks, services, all that good stuff.

It is true that the money is in the list.
But not just any list but a quality list and you can only achieve that by building the list yourself.

Using a purchased list means you're not adhering to the ISP and email client guidelines. Furthermore, purchased lists often generate really high bounces, get flagged as spam by recipients and have low read rates.

All this means that you'll soon be noticed by ISP filters and instead of reaching potential customers, you'll be hanging out in the readers' spam folder.

But wait, there's more!...

There are organizations called blacklists like Spamhaus as well as other filtering organizations like Cloudmark and Brightmail. Email clients like Yahoo and Gmail and Hotmail rely on them to help block spam (yay!). These blacklists leave spam traps or honeypots for shady list sellers to collect. Then, if one of those email addresses ends up in your purchased list, you're in big trouble! It's like having bad credit - it can take a long time and a lot of hard work to rebuild trust with blacklists and until you do, you'll have poor delivery results even if you've stopped using the purchased email list.

Hello,

Can you be a little more specific about the product? (You can PM me if you don't want to post it here.)

Without really knowing much about your product, I do have a few questions:

1. Do you have a website?

Having a website today is the equivalent of having a business card. Everyone expects you to have one. A Facebook page would at least be a good start (but you need something).

2. Do you collect customer info when they purchase?

It seems like your not because you don't already have a list. Start doing this immediately. You are sitting on a gold mine without evening knowing it. Collect your buyers info and you will instantly have a buyer's list. It's easier and cheaper to keep a customer than it is to acquire one. Nurture and care for this list and ask for referrals and recommendations to their local shop. They will give them to you.

Have some sort of giveaway to collect the info from people that don't buy from you. Maybe an item that compliments your product. It doesn't have to be expensive just provide enough value for them to fill out a form and give you their information. Again, provide them tips and unique info. They will purchase when ready and ask them for referrals and personal recommendations as well.

3. Have you considered buying a list of shop owners and calling them?

It seems that you are comfortable approaching shop owners. Buy or curate a list in your niche and start dialing. I got 16 results when I typed in "bait and tackle destin fl". When someone does express interest add them to you email list for follow up as well as doing your own. I would create an email series that leads them to ordering a sample and hit them with an upsell (aka OTO) that offers them something like buy x amount get x amount free.

4. Why not wholesale to say Bass Pro Shops, Cabela's, Dick's Sporting Goods?

Ok, this questions comes from me watching too much Shark Tank. But why not?

If one is in your area, find out how you can get your product in front of them and on display.

5. Lastly, have you considered eBay, Amazon or Shopify?

Again, without knowing specifically what you are selling these may or may not be viable options. It really depends on the category it's in and how it shows up in search.

I wish you all the best and I hope that I brought up some things that you had not already considered.

Regards

Don't do it. And especially don't jump!

Take your time, even if it has to take longer than expected. Taking your time and waiting for good results is always better than haste and making the same mistakes over and over again.

Build your own list the natural way - and don't buy a list. Don't blast off email broadcasts to folks who don't know you - and dont want to know you.

OP hasn't responded in 4 days. He must have leaped off the ledge.

I'll miss him most for his responsiveness.

RIP.