Use your bussiness URL for your e-mail address

[Stephen Watson]

I see this every day. I am handed a business card and the e-mail on it is @gmail or @yahoo or something similar. Come on people!

In short, if you are guilty of this faux pas your are damaging your own credibility.

Using such e-mail addresses as your corporate contact is simply unprofessional in this day and age. It speaks volumes to prospective clients about the size of your business and your failure to grasp the benefits of modern business communications. This is especially surprising given how simple a task it is to acquire an e-mail address.

To do business in today's marketplace, you must have a professional website to communicate your message and brand. As such, you have already secured a domain and thereby already have the hard part complete regarding any e-mail address. In fact most hosting packages that you might be using for your website, include free or low-cost e-mail...so there really is no good excuse!

If your website is www.mycompany.com then your e-mail should be [e-mail]. This not only conveys the correct message, but it also reinforces your website address.

If you don't have a website then you are really doing yourself a disservice. But assuming you do, and you should, to neglect your e-mail address is a really bad idea to put it politely.

If you are one of those guilty of this, get an e-mail address and pay the small amount to get new business cards. The print charge is well worth it!

Stephen Watson
CRE84WEB
www.cre84web.com

[Robin Kent]

You hit the nail on the head Stephen! There is absolutely no reason that a business shouldn't be branding their email to their company name. Both POP through a hosting provider or hosted Exchange are extremely affordable.

[Pat Howlett]

Totally agree!

As an ISP (since 1996), I always encouraged my Business Clients to NEVER use any of my domains for their identity - we were simply their internet connection. They had no business helping me brand my business.

Featured.

[Marge Carter]

are you say that is someone used their domain name for their email is stealing their identity. and it is ok to use a generic email just as gmail.com?

please let me know.

marrge

[Stephen Watson]

Marge,
Just to clarify a few things.

Your domain name is the name you register where your website can be found. Mine is cre84web.com, so my website is www.cre84web.com and my e-mail is (myname)@cre84web.com

Anyone can register any available domain. So, if someone registered your company name as a domain you would either have to ask nicely that they relinquish it, not likely to happen, offer to purchase it from them, could get costly, or sue them if the previous two fail. If they have any reasonable use for the domain, it's unlikely that you have any right to it at all. This is why you see so many companies registering domains that are an alternate on their actual company name i.e. margecarter123.com

If what you are talking about is someone using your [e-mail] then that is not a domain registration but a simple e-mail address at gmail. Again you can ask them to relinquish it, approach the ISP about infringement or pursue it legally. Again, not likely you'll get that address.

Marge asked : "it is ok to use a generic email just as gmail.com?"
Yes, if it is for personal use. If you are functioning as a business then you should have registered a domain, have an operational website, and have an e-mail address using your domain.

I have several e-mail addresses for different purposes. My gmail is for personal use, my (myname)@cre84web.com is on my cards, [e-mail] is for e-mail sent from my online form through my website.

The point here is that no business should really use their personal e-mail (@gmail, @yahoo etc) as their business e-mail contact.

[Darrell Edgley]

Hi,

With a fair wind I would agree, but the key thing is .... whatever solution you have, it needs to work and help you / your organization / company. Organizations such as Google, with GMAIL, GDOC, GCALENDER, G-XYZ have created an integrated suite that .... unless you have IT support or key knowledge.... is hard to beat.

Then you have organizations such as http://www.internetnews.com/software/article.php/3845876 going Google. I am not clear if this means they are going to use a GMAIL account .... or re-badge it with a domain .... it is not hard to do. Even here in NC, if you write to some of our government departments, they use "NCMAIL.COM" accounts. It is not clear that is state government / state boards.

The other side is .... get a domain .... host it wherever .... get the ISP to forward all email to it to a single mailbox, or named mailboxes .... and those mailboxes happen to be GMAIL (or similar intergrated service provider), and when you reply .... you set the "alias" so it looks like "whatever.com" sent it rather than GMAIL.

So .... I think in part I am agreeing with you but .... I think the key thing is to think through what you need as a solution .... and Google, plus others .... have good solutions. Then .... re-badge it if so desired. I think this is better that trying to set-up your own POP3 service .... unless you know what "POP3" is etc.

Having a GMAIL account is better than no email account, and I think better than a defaulted POP3 service from an ISP too. Re-badging is easy with GMAIL and others, the online help is good.

Interesting topic.

Thanks for raising.

Darrell

[Stephen Watson]

Darrell,
I agree, any solution should help and work for you as a business. As such, my point stands. gmail et al are excellent options for personal e-mail, but certainly not to maintain a business profile. Having calendar options don't do you any good if your credibility is shot!

(Most hosting companies - even godaddy - offer shared calendars/scheduling tools etc. to businesses as part of their e-mail hosting solutions.)

The only option that works and helps a businesses credibility is in fact an e-mail address utilizing their own corporate brand, in other words using their own domain. Show me an employee of a fortune 500 company that has an '@mindspring' address on their business card and I'll show you a former employee of a fortune 500 company.

An @gmail or @yahoo address is no different than your child answering your business line...not the best impression and most likely a missed opportunity!

As for the forwarding and masking idea, I have to disagree. Keep work and personal separate - always! Have multiple accounts and check them separately, it really isn't that hard. If an e-mail comes to one account it's work, another account and it's personal. This actually helps you get organized.

Sometimes people complicate things in their efforts to simplify them.

Stephen Watson
CRE84WEB
www.cre84web.com

[Angela Coulter, Mktg Strategist]

I can't tell you how many times this has come up with my clients! I can usually help them get there, but occasionally, I have someone who won't budge, who says, "Well, I've been using this email for business for a long time, and it's so ingrained in my work that it would be 'a pain' to change it now!"

It makes me nuts! I tell people that beyond branding, it also typically provides a bigger window and perception into them - #1 That their business is "professional" enough to have it's own Website (that's completely a basic), and #2 That it also provides more information about that person's business - by inadvertently providing their Website address, so if they don't have it, they have an opportunity to check out more about the business without having to get the URL!

[Laurel Nicolosi]

I agree - it also makes it consistent to what "brand" you are trying to portray. I have just started using my [e-mail] as my business address and will soon get business cards with that email on them. I can choose to redirect that to my yahoo or I can remember to check that every day and know that if I got a response from people I have talked to - it will BE there.

Good way to conduct your business and save time! :)

[Phoenix delaMer Rector]

I'd love to see the directions for how to make this work.

Thanks for the great advice.

Phoenix

[Stephen Watson]

Phoenix,
Directions for this vary based on what you already have set up, what your needs are in terms of hosting, website needs etc. etc.

Put simply: (if starting from scratch)
1. register a domain - roughly $10/yr
2. get a hosting plan - roughly $4-$80+/month depending on your needs
3. Point domain to new hosting plan
3. Set up e-mail on new hosting account using new domain

The above may seem as though it would be more complex, or that I am understating how hard it is. The truth is that even if you can't do it, tech support at your hosting company can walk you through it in about 10mins. Certainly, your web developer can set this up for you as part of your web development.

Most basic hosting plans come with some amount of free e-mail. If your needs exceed the free e-mail limits, then you may have to pay extra for an unlimited e-mail storage plan but even that is only $10/month give or take.

Price (taken from a local hosting company www.websitesbuiltfasthosting.com):
domain - $9.99/yr
deluxe hosting - $6.99/month
Hosting includes up to 500 e-mail addresses and 500MB of storage at no extra cost!

The above e-mail comes with webmail access so you can check your e-mail on any computer with internet access. And/or you can set up outlook to check these accounts. You can even set up your i-phone/blackberry to check these accounts...all fairly simply.

For something that you are going to have to pay for anyway, hosting and domain, in order to have a website...why would you not go the extra 10 feet and set up your e-mail? You look more professional, your company brand is reinforced and your website address is reinforced.

[Patti Zordich]

Thanks Stephen. I am guilty of the @gmail faux pas. I have the email set up with my url but I haven't want to switch over yet. I also have to get all of my contractors in my psychology practice set up also. Thanks for the reminder and the push!
Patti Zordich, Ph.D.
www.trypsych.com
919-342-3458

[Mike Garr]

Hi Stephen.
I totally agree.
I have a few email addresses including a couple of gmail accounts for personal use.
But when it comes to business branding, it just makes sense to identify a wholesome image that is clear, professional looking and connected to your company name. I believe it helps build trust. If I see a Yahoo address on a business card, I really have to ask myself is this business for real? Hmmm.....

In my case, I first set up a gmail account because it was a way for me to move my emails from a local computer to webmail. I was no longer tied to outlook. Trust me, after loosing my stored addresses twice it was not a difficult decision. However, that was when you couldn't get an address except through personal invitation. There was a certain novelty to it. Also, in the beginning, I could send larger files with gmail than I could with my outlook. I think some of us just get comfortable and stick to what works without periodically reviewing their own collateral.

I now use GoDaddy to host a laundry list of domains and I continue to use the webmail now with my domain identity. Thanks for the post.

Mike Garr
Nuwebber