One of the most important but yet most forgotten aspects of running your own business is to be sure to present you and your business as a professional entity. Probably you’ve already thought about most of the business components of ensuring your customers build brand recognition with you and your company. You answer the phone professionally, you shake hands and give out business cards and you smile and wish they have a great day. However, it’s shocking how many businesses overlook the smaller details; what does your email address say about you and your company?
In this article, I’d like to clearly present some compelling reasons why you and your business should take this matter seriously. But don’t worry, switching to a professional email address is simple, fast and inexpensive.
Showing a professional technology appearance to your customers says a lot about you and your business. For this reason it is important that you own a domain name. What is a domain name? A domain name is an Internet address such as: www.example.com. Domains have a yearly cost of about $15.00. By taking this small leap you can build brand awareness and present a more professional business image.
Below I will enumerate the top reasons why it is so important to have a domain-based email address.
1. It is more professional. It’s as simple as that. People/companies with domain-based email address look more reliable to their audience. Let’s be honest, who would you trust: [email protected] or[email protected]? When receiving an email from [email protected] people recognize the name of your company and will remember it. Often, they will try and access your website (if you have one).
2. Easy to remember username. By using a free email account such as: Gmail ( …@gmail.com), Yahoo! ( …@yahoo.com), Rocketmail ( …@rocketmail.com), AOL ( …@aol.com), Verizon (…@verizon.com), etc. you are sharing domains with millions of users being hosted on their services which is the reason why it is so hard to create a simple and unique email address for you and your business.How many times have you tried signing up for an email address with any free email provider and every username option you try says: ” [email protected] is not available”, and then it suggests possible usernames similar to the one you tried. The options that come out look a little bit like this:
- username_8401
- the_username_073578
- my.username0222
Once these suggestions show up some people think: “Ok.” and go along with the sign up process. However, there are consequences to having such a complicated email address.
3. Easy to remember domain name. Choosing an appropriate domain is as important as choosing the right username. A domain name should be your company’s name. However, if it’s taken try similar but simple variations. For example: My business’ name is Pink Studios therefore, my domain is: pinkstudios.net. If at the time of my purchasepinkstudios.net would have been taken I would have tried: pinkstudios.com or pinkstudioswebdesign.com. Both names keep my company’s name and/or describe what I do. I would have never chosen:pinkstudioswebdesignservicesincalifornia.com or ps.com. I want to clearly state my company’s name through my website and email without overwhelming the viewer. While ps.com is too short and does not state anything about me or my company, pinkstudioswebdesignservicesincalifornia.com is too long. Can you image if my username was: marii.webdesigner? My email address would be:[email protected]. How do you incorporate that into promotional items, business cards, or even say it to someone else and have them remember it?
When promoting your business, you want to provide an eye-catching, easy to remember email address to your customers. How do you know if your address meets these requirements? Easy. You should be able to tell it to anyone (in person or over the phone) without the need of spelling it or repeating it. For example: “bobhomeinspections.com”, “pinkstudios.net”, “inhometechsupport.com”, etc.
In summary, why promote Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo or AOL through your business by having a free email account with them if instead you could have a domain such as [email protected]? Doesn’t that look more appealing to you?
4. Spam. What is spam? Spam is slang for unsolicited bulk email (UBE) or unsolicited commercial email (UCE). It is the abuse of messaging systems in sending you unwanted email; which account for about 95%
of all email traffic being sent every single day! Some types of unwanted email include: bank scams, identity theft, multilevel marketing, advertisements for services and or products, loans and credit repair, free stuff, etc.Free email accounts receive dozens of spam emails per day which tend to get pretty annoying if not properly managed or delivered. This usually happens without you ever giving your address out to the public. How? The free email providers sell your new address to spammers to help pay for the free email service. Why not try a domain-based email and greatly decrease the amount of spam/junk mail?
5. Never switch again. If you use a free email address from your ISP (Internet Service Provider) or any of the ones mention above, you are taking a risk. What happens if your ISP goes out of business or if you move and your ISP has no service at that location? In simple words, you are done. You will lose all your emails and information that has been “safely” kept in your inbox for years. What do you do? Start fresh. Doesn’t sound like a good idea to me.For this reason, it is important that your email address is tied up to you and never to your ISP. Having a domain-based email address will solve this problem.Once you own a domain-based email you will never have to switch email accounts again.
6. Forwarding. How about if you’ve had your AOL/Hotmail/Yahoo/Verizon-hosted email address for over 10 years? You are probably thinking that you’ll never switch because you will lose many important contacts or possible sales. There is a feature called email forwarding that will grab emails from your old email address and redirect them to your new address. This allows you to still have access to all the emails received to your old account but from your new domain-based account. Which means, once you switch to a domain-based email and set the forwarding option, you will not have to keep visiting old accounts; everything will be waiting for you in your new email box.
7. Scalability. Multiple members of your company can have a domain-based email through your company. For example:
- the IT department’s email address could be: [email protected]
- John Doe’s email address: [email protected]
- the secretary’s email: [email protected]
It is extremely easy to have your entire company’s email setup using your domain. Doing this will not only create unity between all the members of your company it will also enhance your company’s professional image, create a better reputation for your brand and promote you and your business. To your customers’ eyes, your business will have the reliability you are looking for.
Now, some people are probably saying “But my free account allows me to check my email on my smartphone, and from any computer in the world”. You’d be surprised at how many other domain-based email accounts can provide this exact same service, while still allowing you to sync with multiple computers, smartphones and can be accessed from any computer in the world!
While everything that I have mentioned is very important for your business, the reality of implementing such a “simple technology” can be daunting.
I would highly encourage you to seek the advice of a professional to implement this service for your business. Of course, Pink Studios, in an act of shameless self promotion, can set this up for you generally within hours. However, if you choose to use the services of another professional I recommend researching their services and reputation to ensure this very important service is done properly the first time.
If what I’ve described in this article sounds appealing, please contact us and we’ll get started right away.