What Does Your Email Address Say About Your Business?
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Part of running a business is building your brand. Your brand will create a recognizable impression of what your business offers, what it stands for, and what it is about.
Branding Baby!
Branding goes far beyond just having a cool logo. Everything you do and every decision you make will reflect on your brand. This is why it is so important to maintain a consistent brand presence across your website and social accounts.
And what are the most important things that are often underestimated? First, have a domain name email address that matches your website domain.
Many website owners don’t use their domain for email. Instead, contacts and customers see a Gmail.com, Yahoo.com, or Hotmail.com email address. Boo!
Your email address will be the first impression anyone has of you, as it is the first thing they see in their inbox. So, when communicating about business-related or professional activities, you want to make the best impression possible—including the fact that you are tech-savvy.
You must always use your domain name email address for business communications or those related to your professional life. That’s called branding and how true professionals do business.
Examples: jo**@**********ts.com or ja**@***************me.com
Using your domain name, you also build awareness for your website with every email you send.
Don’t Use Freebie Email Addresses for Business
Not jo**********@*ol.com (which suggests you are likely technologically challenged and have yet to make the transition to using technology seriously) or ja**@***il.com. While just fine for personal communications, Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, and MSN addresses all give a less-than-stellar impression of how seriously you take your business and your use of technology.
Why are you building those brands and not your own?
Freebie accounts suggest a lack of technical savvy. Replying to a business inquiry with a Yahoo.com account could lead potential partners and contacts to wonder if you can use technology efficiently. Will communicating with you be more difficult? Possibly.
Using a freebie account will make your email communications unnecessarily problematic. You must make a concerted and consistent effort to get your freebie email address whitelisted by your contacts. Count on it being blocked occasionally or ending up in your recipient’s junk/spam folder.
You Are The Company You Keep
Free email services are often considered “throw-away accounts” because spammers use them and then shut them down. However, using your company domain name (even if it’s your name) is inexpensive—about $10.
Why would you not use your domain email? I’m still waiting for a valid argument against using throw-away accounts instead of your domain name.
Business Email Address Branding Tips
Here are some tips when setting up your domain name email addresses:
Business Means Branding!
As with anything related to your business’s success, this is only one small investment that will significantly impact how your business is perceived. Branding is everything.
If you still need a domain name, my consulting website offers Domain Tips to consider before registering and using it. Then, integrate that domain email at all your contact touchpoints and social accounts.
To have a viable, successful business, potential customers expect you to have a high-quality website and to use technology appropriately. Therefore, your domain email address is invaluable for building trust and providing efficient customer service.
Now that you know the importance of having your domain email, what are you waiting for?
