I have a friend. I’ve mentioned him before, and he’s easily described. His nickname is not Tigger, mainly because we felt it too cruel as it was too apt. I introduced him to email marketing and, with his normal commitment and bouncing energy, he and his company made a success of it.

They’ve taken a knock under the pressures of the Covid pandemic and the disruption in supply chains; thankfully for him, it’s the same for his competitors. He realised he should refocus the company and considered what other opportunities were available for his actual and potential subscribers which would keep his company afloat in what he hopes is a temporary hiatus of throughput of products.

His normal clientele preferred state-of-the-art ‘gear’, with all the latest gizmos that would generate credibility amongst their peers, but at a reasonable price. He decided to go Green. It was a clever move and one that lends itself to those of us with healthy email marketing lists.

His company published an e-newsletter each time new stock arrived, singing its praises, and verging very close to a marketing email, as I pointed out. These tended to paint visions of the lifestyle of those who could afford the medium-range product. The suggestion proffered was that just being a subscriber added to one’s credibility, and new subscribers to his email marketing list were fairly easy to garner.

The emphasis of his company’s marketing has changed. The e-newsletter now extols the virtues of making products last. The fact there are few replacements merely makes this a practical option. No one is easier to convince than those facing necessities.

He now sells, to the extent that it is his main business numerically, what I call repair patches for the original products, meaning they provide their function long past the original time limit, and are as effective as the replacement products which are now no longer easy to obtain. In other words, Green technology.

He has segregated his email marketing lists according to how they click-through on his e-newsletter and emails, depending if it is to the repair or replace landing pages. Cash-flow is now restored to a survivable level. He’s jumped, or bounced, onto the Green bandwagon by being greener.

It’s a clever move, with profits remaining good, although it makes more work for his company because he now sells more individual products. It’s a route away from his current problems. It plays to his strengths and uses resources to hand.

When his old-style products are available, he reckons he might continue with the patch part of the business. Making products last longer might become the new norm. He is also trying to source similar products that don’t require scarce integrated circuits, but as he says, so is everyone else.

It’s easy enough to say, ‘there’s always another way’, but the reality is he is using his email marketing list in exactly the way he did before. He has the data to target emails, and to point the way to what products will sell. Plus there’s his unending enthusiasm.