advice Outbound to a marketing executive - personal email or business?

[Hashim]

As part of my outbound for my domain names I need to get in touch with some people at a big company, but a tool I just came across (RocketReach) also lists their personal emails as well as their company ones.

I'm wondering whether - in particular for marketing executives based in the UK - sending my outbound mail to a personal email would be a good idea or considered too intrusive. What are others' thoughts and experiences on this?

 

[NickB]

Business email every time...never personal

 

[Hashim]

Business email every time...never personal

Any reasons?

 

[NickB]

Looks unprofessional

If you are contacting someone with a business proposal, stick to their business email - it's not a personal matter and you don't know them personally

 

[Hashim]

Looks unprofessional

If you are contacting someone with a business proposal, stick to their business email - it's not a personal matter and you don't know them personally

I'm inclined to agree with you but then I saw this article yesterday, which made some good points and made me wonder whether sending to the personal address would make you stand out more to those working in high level positions in marketing. In the article he argues that personal emails and even DMing on LinkedIn and Twitter are more preferable when you have to send a generic business emails:

Okay, if all else fails, you may have to resort to alternative, less "direct" methods like emailing your target through LinkedIn, or @-ting them on Twitter and asking them to follow you back so you can DM them and ask for contact information (if they're willing). For me, these are usually last-ditch efforts, which I've resorted to only a handful of times after if I've exhausted all of the other options I detailed in this post. But even though I prefer to send an email to someone's personal account, shooting them an unsolicited LinkedIn message to me is still far better than an info[at]companyX.com black hole.

 

[NickB]

You don't email people through LinkedIn - connect with them first (brief connection request outline), then message them the proposal. If they don't connect, then they are not interested - move on to the next one.

You are not sending emails to a generic ".info" company email (complete waste of time), you are sending it direct to that persons work email address, that is the purpose of using RocketReach, Lusha etc etc - big difference

 

[Olushoy]

You can use your personal email, as long as you are genuine...what will be will be

 

[werejack]

My view is business email. Yes you cn contact someone senior or the marketing person (if your domain is valuable enough) using their personal business ( e.g nameofmarketingperson@thebusinessname) email as opposed to their site general email which may not reach the relevant person.

Reason:
I feel emailing a business proposal to someone's personal email is unprofessional, selfish and inconsiderate of the other person's personal programs. It is the equivalent of not wanting to wait in line or book an appointment to see someone because one knows there will be too many people and you may wait the whole day and not see the person and then choose to go to their home on a weekend when the person has reserved that as family and friends time. It is likely to give a very negative reaction especially if the person has set clear boundaries between work and personal life and can doom any possible negotiation. Also likely to be reported and marked as spam... there is such a thing as a spam fine by the way.
I feel an exception may be in the case of a small business run by that individual and you have done research and failed to reach them on their business email and you can probably apologize for the intrusion and that efforts to contact them via their business email has been unsuccessful.
So my opinion is use the email they have listed on their business or website, contact them, schedule a call or skype meeting if necessary and always agree with them before calling or contacting them on an email other than on the business email.

 

[dAvo]

Depends on strategy and your target.

You can never be wrong being honest, personal and sharing who you really are...

And what you really have - and really need to sell....