Yesterday I talked about the value of FREE email, and how it led to me buying into Google Workspace.

I had no option, but it was the right time and right thing to do.

So today I wanted to dig a bit deeper into the value of email, and how powerful it becomes in an economic downturn and some interesting tactical ideas.

Over the last few weeks, it's become clear that companies are spending less on social media marketing and digital online advertising.

Alphabet, and Meta, have both disclosed fairly heavy financial announcements containing revenue down grades.

I won't go into the numbers, that's for another day.

But I will go into a strategy every business could deploy, that came to mind having read these announcements.

There are 2 types of email as I see it.

> Personal email address

> Business email address

I currently have 5 email addresses I use for different things (wonder how many you use?)

Now the thing I think a lot of businesses miss thinking about is this, for each type of email address what type of relationship can we have?

It's assumed in my experience that businesses only go after one or the other when doing lead gen, but it doesn't have to be as binary as that.

Here's the thing, and I'd drop the caveat that this is different thinking, people who use personal email may be open to business-to-business email communications.

My iPhone has Gmail setup, I view all email as if it is in one inbox (the option is listed as "All Inboxes").

Can you see the opportunity yet?

You think you're sending emails to their personal or business account - BUT you're actually sending your email to the "All Inboxes" inbox.

A few years back whilst working for a tech company, we connected with prospective contacts via a Facebook lead gen campaign, they gave us by default their personal email address and phone number (all GDPR compliant).

It was cheaper than other channels (including Linkedin).

It was a #trojan horse of an idea.

It was very very scalable, and we used it well.

As a footnote, If you build a valued relationship through email, your email won't be unsubscribed from, you'll have a lifetime to capitalise on.

Neil Patel does long-term email relationships brilliantly, I receive them via both my personal and business email addresses btw.

Email can be very very cheap, but also very very valuable.

Worth thinking about where you think you're sending your email.

#emailmarketing #digitalstrategy #innovation #onlineadvertising #argybargy