When you own a business, you need to have a professional way of keeping in touch with your customers. For many small businesses, this is email. But have you thought about what email account you’re using for business? Your company’s email address says a lot about your business — after all, it’s the first thing customers see in their inboxes. The wrong email address can derail your marketing efforts. The solution? A branded email address with your business name in it.
Using a free email such as YourName@AOL.com can make your company look less professional.
That’s why it’s always best to use an email address with your company’s distinct domain name in it.
A professional-looking email address gives you and your company more authority when you’re corresponding with existing and potential customers, helping you close the deal more often.
What a professional email address delivers
In these digital times, your email address could be the first thing a customer sees.
When your company interacts with clients online, it’s important to instill confidence in them. Whether the person you’re messaging is looking for more information about your products and services or wants to complain about a bad experience they had, every aspect of the interaction needs to be positive.
But using an email address that end with “@hotmail.com” can give consumers the impression that you’re not serious. They might even wonder if the email is coming from a legitimate business.
Here are some of the benefits to setting up a branded email address for your business.
1. More authority
Anyone can create a free email account. In fact, most of your consumers probably have free email accounts.
If your business uses the same type of email account as your consumers, you’re not really positioning yourself as an authority in the eyes of your consumers.
Having a branded email address shows you’re serious enough to own a domain name and a matching email account.
This means you’re not just another person using free email. You represent a real company that means business. Branded email will also increase your credibility when responding to customer complaints or managing online business reviews.
2. Better branding
Using the domain of your company’s website in your email address will help the customer remember the name of your company and your web address. If they’re already familiar with the name of your company and want to find you online, the first thing they’ll type into Google is your domain name. Likewise, if they see your web address on a sign, they can quickly guess your business name.
Using this domain name for your website and all company email addresses helps boost brand awareness, integrating your company’s efforts into one consistent strategy.
3. Less distraction
Using domains like “AOL.com” and “Yahoo.com” in your email address promotes those companies rather than yours. Regardless of what industry your company is in, your email address will be tied to another company’s identity if you continue to use a personal (ie. free) email address.
With your own domain-based email, you’ll reinforce your business identity with every email you send. One glance will tell loyal customers this is a message they want to read.
4. Better results
Your email marketing campaign isn’t going to get very far if it comes from a free email address.
Sending out an email newsletter is an effective way of keeping in touch with your customers, but every email needs to exude professionalism.
Using a personal email address can quickly derail your email marketing, because some of your users might inadvertently delete it. They could become suspicious of your emails, equating them with spam or some kind of virus. Mass emails sent from a free address could easily end up in the recipient’s spam folder.
You’ve worked hard to collect these email addresses and you don’t want to lose subscribers by looking like spam. A branded email address will give your campaign the legs it needs to grow your base of subscribers.
If you haven't yet tried email marketing, you can get started with the GoDaddy Email Marketing Tool.
How to set up a branded email address
You’ll need to register a unique domain in order to set up a branded email address. Most small businesses already have a website; if you do, then you already have a domain name you can use.
The next step is to link that domain to an email account.
Almost every web host offers some kind of branded email service. Let’s use GoDaddy as an example. To set up your branded email address, do the following:
- Visit the email page of the GoDaddy website.
- Choose from Professional Email or Office 365 Email, which comes with the Office 365 suite of tools.
- Select your plan.
- Click Continue and enter your payment info to purchase the plan subscription.
- Once you receive an email confirming your new account, go to Manage.
- Fill out the username of the account, the password, if you want to link to another email account and other settings.
- That’s it! You’re all set. You can start sending test emails to make sure it’s working properly.
Setting up a professional-looking email address for your company shouldn’t take more than a few minutes of your time. With just a few easy steps, you can elevate your business image.
Now you’re ready to start interacting with your customers as a professional company. Best of luck!
