Can eMail Marketing Save Us?

Did you know that President Obama has 13 million permission based email addresses? Of course you do. It was one of the smart moves he made that helped him win the election.

Did you know he still emails that list – quite often? In fact, he’s been quoted as saying the email list will be part of the “permanent campaign” and thus we can all expect to keep receiving missives from him, Mrs. Obama and our good buddy David Plouffe.

And that is all great. But here is my suggestion or request to President Obama and David Plouffe. The idea is yours, free of charge and I think you might even be able to wrap an interesting PR angle around it. Personally, I think you could almost guarantee inclusion in at least one news cycle if not more.

Help us... help you... help us. 

13 Million people reading an email is worth a lot of money to corporate America. So take a page out of Peter Shankman’s (HelpAreporter.com) and sell simple, text based ads on your emails. Nothing too snarky and no Viagra ads please. Better yet, let someone creative like Peter write them for you. So they’ll be interesting, smart and something a consumer might actually read or act on. Then charge advertisers for the right to place those ads. Heck, you could even set up a PayPal account and let them pay by credit card – help out those banks you now own. And you can even include ads for certain car brands you now direct. That’s one way to cut their ad budget.

But seriously, let us help you. Sell ads in your emails and not just ones that ask me to donate to your cause, but ones that let corporate America donate to mine – a balanced budget. I like a balanced budget. It makes us economically stronger. And instead of paying other countries interest, maybe you can invest in our schools, infrastructure and job training programs... just saying.

Think about it.

Anyone else care to chime in. Better uses for the savings or other ideas for how we can market our way out of this recession? I'm all ears... talk to me.