Choosing a Professional Email Address
For both small and large businesses, having a professional email is critical. The right email address builds confidence in the company and signifies to customers that this business is trustworthy. With a record number of email scams floating around the Internet, investing in the right email address can be the difference between frightening customers away and welcoming them.
How do you choose the right email address? Here are a few tips to help you from the College of Business school at Fremont.
Use Your Own Domain
Not only does your domain sound more professional than a Hotmail extension, it keeps your company’s name in front of your clients every time they communicate with you. Generic email addresses simply do not have the same impact.
In addition, using your own domain solves the common problem of “crowding” a common name. If your name is John Smith, for example, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to use jsmith@ as a prefix for any of the common email carriers such as Gmail or Yahoo. Instead, you will be forced to add a numeric extension such as Jsmith65789, which is hard to remember. When you use your own domain, you avoid this problem and can use any name you like.
Additionally, emails that are tied to ISPs such as @att.net make you dependent on that particular provider. If you ever decide to change services, you will have to change your email address as well. This could lead to lost customers and an unprofessional appearance.
Don’t Use Cute Nicknames
Using your name as your email prefix serves the same purpose as using your domain. It keeps your name in front of your customers and is easy to remember. Always use some form of your name rather than a nickname, which can appear too “cute” for business purposes.
The question then becomes: how should your name, and your employee’s names, be styled? It may be tempting to use your first name only, but that can become a problem if you have more than one person in your company with the same first name. You can opt for first name and last initial instead, which is less likely to cause doubling problems. On the other hand, using first initial and last name will virtually guarantee that you can differentiate between employees, even if it is not as personal as using a first name. You can also opt to use both first and last name, although this can become cumbersome for people with long surnames.
Finally, don’t forget to use generic names such as sales@, info@ or support@ for specific departments.
Use Your Other Email Features
Creating the right email address is only half the battle. You should also remember to choose proper display names, company names and other information to appear in your clients’ inboxes. Additionally, be sure to put a link to your email address on the contact page of your website so that your clients can easily find you.
Using the right email address can be a great tool in your business arsenal. Choose your email carefully, set up your features, and watch your clients take interest!
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