Many small businesses don’t start off with a website or even a website domain, so when it comes to email, they use a free email service or an email through their internet provider. In the next few minutes, we will discuss why website domain email is better than a “FREE” email service.
Embarrassing Email Addresses
The other day when I was on Facebook, I saw a post that said, “Post your first email address.” Fortunately, I was out of high school before email became mainstream. But, as I would expect, those who were young when they created their first email address had some of the most embarrassing and hilarious email addresses. Email addresses like hiphopgirl123, greeniepinkieprincess, teenstud2000 and fatbootycutie69. Some even admitted that they still use their first email address.
This got me thinking about how many people use email addresses in business from their internet provider or free email service. These email services work well and have great user interfaces, with advanced spam control and filtering options. Not only that, the free price tag isn’t too bad either. However, we recommend using your company’s domain for email (eg. name@yourcompany.com). Here are three reasons you should consider using your company domain for email:
Domain Email Benefits
Domain Branding
Whenever you send an email from an email service other than your company’s domain, you brand their service rather than your business [website]. Why not tell everyone what your company website address is with every email you send? If they want to check out your company website, it’s as simple as copying the backend of your email address in their browser. It will generate more traffic and leads.
Professionalism
When you are in business, image and first impressions are everything. When you send a professional business email from gmail.com, hotmail.com, sasktel.net, shaw.ca, etc., it looks unprofessional and lacks credibility. On the other hand, an email from your website domain says, “We are a credible business with a website.”
Ownership
Free email through your internet provider is great… until you want or need to change internet providers. However, most internet providers will allow you to continue using their email service for a monthly fee, even after you no longer need internet service.
When you use your company’s website domain for email, you have complete control over it. Your company’s domain can also be set up through a third-party service provider that offers more features than the average web hosting email service. Some business email hosting services are Office 365, Google Workspace and the one we use, Zoho. These services typically need to be set up by your web developer or IT personnel because it requires changes to domain entries.
If you decide that you want to make the switch, I recommend putting a message at the bottom of every outgoing email from your new email address, informing people of the change. Also, set up a forward from the old email address to the new one. Then reply to each incoming email with your new email address.
Perhaps a website is not in the budget right now. If you purchase a domain, you can still have email without a website. However, I would recommend securing a domain for your company before someone else does. Need a website domain? Message us, and we’ll help you out.
