Every day I get emails from other business onliners where the From: field is not set up properly or to its full advantage. In a time when folks are scanning their inbox making a snap decision on which email they should open or not — how your From: field displays, especially to new contacts, can make or break you.
Every email you send on company business makes an impression. Your From: field can literally determine if a new prospect will be impressed and view you as credible or hit delete because they don’t recognize you being a response to something they may have requested.
Primarily, you need to use your own dot com email address. Inexpensive and easy to setup. There is no good reason that I’ve heard of to not get this setup and and in use for your day to day communications. This is part of your branding efforts!
Refrain from using “throw-away” freebie accounts such as @yahoo, @gmail, @hotmail for business correspondence. These are called throw-away accounts because they are free — spammers setup accounts and spam knowing full well they’ll be shutdown just to open another account. In addition, if someone requests information through your Web site, they’ll recognize a matching dot com email address where they probably won’t with a freebie address.
And if you are still on AOL — time to step up and get a real email setup that allows you to be viewed as tech savvy and understanding all the enuances that are involved in doing business online. AOL is a personal service — keep it to communicate with family and friends. But when it comes to business its time to get down to business and off AOL.
Make sure your name is typed properly and formally. John A. Smith — not john a smith, john or JOHN A SMITH. If you were to type your name on company letterhead, how would you do so? That’s what you need to reflect in your From: field.
By using your dot com email address and ensuring your name displays properly in the From: field, you help to safeguard against your emails not being recognized and taken seriously. For what little effort is involved in setting your From: field up correctly, what are you waiting for?
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I agree. I was trying to send emails out for a job interview and I used my @yahoo email account. I never got a reply back.
Then I went out and bought a new website domain and put that as my @email.com (email not being the real word obviously) and as a test, I sent the SAME exact email to those companies who never responded to my yahoo email.
Guess what I had over 75% of them REPLY back! I wished I had read this post sooner but this definately WORKS. A domain is really cheap you can get one for 5 or 10 bucks initially and pay about 15 to 20 bucks a month to host it. If you’re a legitimate business of any kind or looking for a new job (especially during a time like this) very much consider investing in a website just for the professional look of being a real person and having a real email address.