In business, professionalism is everything. Yet there are still people who cut corners with their email addresses. Doing this can create a poor first impression and perhaps even cause people not to take a business seriously. Subsequently, this can have a knock-on effect on their purchasing decision.
The Top Five Benefits of Using a Custom Email Address for Your Business
If you don’t already use custom email addresses, you’ll want to make the change soon. Here’s why:
Benefit #1 Easier for customers to find your website.
Businesses that use a custom URL for their emails make it easier for customers to work out the website URL. This is because most of the time, these are the same. In contrast, companies that use an Outlook or Gmail email address aren’t able to do this. Therefore, customers may struggle to deduct where to find the business online. Subsequently, you will find it easier to manage your accounts as they will be accessible in one central location.
Benefit #2 Makes your business appear more authentic
A professional email address looks authentic, especially compared to something ending with @yahoo.co.uk or @gmail.com. So don’t let down your authentic web URL with a free email address on your contact page. Before a customer uses your business, they want to know it is legitimate before spending their hard-earned money. To find the best email domain possible, consider using one of the many email domain checkers available out there.
Benefit #3 Keep addresses short and professional.
If you’ve ever spent time looking for an available email address from a free provider, you may have realised the struggle. Perhaps you’ve ended up writing a string of extra words or letters to have it accepted. In a business context, this looks bad. Stick to something like firstname.surname@your-domain.com or something similar to this. Using the words sales, support or admin before the ‘@’ are other good alternatives.
Benefit 4 Use the same email address format across your business.
Most businesses start with one person and grow organically into potentially extensive teams. If you continue to use free email addresses as your business grows, or you take on more staff or new departments, this can quickly become messy. Customers will not appreciate making contact with a range of generic and obscure email addresses with your colleagues. Keep things uniform and generic for a consistent and professional company image.
Benefit 5 Use paid email accounts to ensure your account is never deactivated or removed.
The biggest problem with using a free email account is that if it isn’t used in a while, there’s a risk it can be automatically suspended or deleted. Would you be able to cope if this happened to you? How would your customers get in touch with you? This problem does not occur with a professional email account you own yourself.
Consider Replacing Your Existing Email Account to a Professional Email Address
Choosing an email address for a business is not something to be rushed. To make the best first impression possible to your customers, you need to select an email address that is consistent, concise and professional. So, if you’re still relying on your old @gmail.com or something similar, change over to something else as soon as you can. Your customers will thank you for it.
