@gmail.com, @yahoo.com, @live.com, all touted as FREE email addresses. Great for a new business that wants to keep costs down right? Let's have a look at why your business should stay clear of a free email address.
With email communications being a key tool for your business, it’s important to make sure that your credibility surrounds that communication and that your email address is one that speaks 'professionalism'. After all, it’s for business.
When people see your Email address, if you have a Yahoo or Gmail account, you may be giving the impression that you are not as serious about your business as you should be. It's all about the perception, especially for a small business. Free email addresses definitely serve a purpose but when it comes to your business, you should steer clear of anything that takes away from your credibility and potentially detracts from your professional reputation.
"It's all about the perception, especially for a small business."
Let's dig into what exactly is 'wrong' about using a free email service for your business. All of these points are assumptions on the customers behalf and for the most part theoretical.
It's unprofessional
When people see an email account that is from a free service, they may assume that you are reluctant to spend money and therefore the products and services that you offer may not be of the highest quality. How people perceive you and your business is critical to the success of your business. Having a free email address may make those who are considering doing business with you think twice before they enter into a relationship with you. As easy way to remedy this is by registering your business domain name so that can have business emails. Our partners have confirmed to us that since using professional email addresses they have been treated as a much more established business than they did before. You may see that this will open up a large amount of new business opportunities for you and your business - and at such a small cost.
No domain? No business investment
Registering your domain name is very inexpensive and so if you don’t register yours, it will be seen as a direct lack of investment into the business. Customers may wonder where else money has been saved on your business. This of course also spreads to the perception that your products or services are of inferior quality.
Are you here to stay?
So you aren't investing in one of the most inexpensive purchases a business can make and so the question may come up in the minds of potential clients as to whether your business will actually be around in the long term.
The people with whom you do business need to totally trust that you will always work with their best interest in mind. It needs to be seen that you are willing to invest their hard-earned money so they the customer can trust that your business will be around for a very long time. Having a legitimate business email address and email system will help them to feel comfortable with that and it's a very evident investment into your business.
'Free' means 'No technical support'
When you are using a free email service, and your email goes down, to use a popular phrase "Who You Gonna Call?!”
Well Google or Microsoft won’t be answering your phone call and millions of others when they are having problems. They would go out of business if they did that for free. With a true email hosting service, you will very often get technical support (you certainly would with us). So, if your email service stops working at that critical time, and remember in running a business communication is a top priority - you will be able to get the help you need.
It's not for a business
Although a free email address might be enough for your business now, it will definitely not be in time. The free email services offer a consumer-grade set of products and so the clever features offered in a business-standard email platform are immediately missed out on. Basic features such as mailbox sharing (instead of all using the same set of logins, read: major security risk) or even email deliverability authentication (this is a measure to ensure that your emails are actually delivered to your recipients and not to their spam folder).
Your business services need to be able to scale actively with your business success. You don't need the stress, and potential downtime, of having to change email services when you get busy - trust us.
You are missing out
Using your domain name in your email address is similar to how product placement is used in the movies to get people to remember that product even after the movie is over.
When you use your business domain name in your email communications, you are continually presenting your company name over and over again. It’s like free marketing. And if you don’t take this opportunity to market your own business, and you use a free email service like Gmail, you are essentially putting a sign for somebody else’s business over your front door. In other words, you are advertising for Gmail and not your own business. Granted Google appreciates the free advertising and they do offer some fantastic products, but you shouldn’t be doing that for Google. They have a much larger advertising budget than you likely do!
If your email has your domain name in the email address, you are cementing the name of your company into your potential customer’s mind. Do this over and over again and the customer will remember your company before any other company when they are about to buy your products or services.
A custom domain is a pretty cheap billboard...
In Closing
It's worth spending a small amount of money so that you can register your domain and so that the perception that other people have of your business is one of credibility and trustworthiness.
It is also important to remember that nothing in life is really free. You may not always know when you sign up what the price is going to be. Generally the cost of a business email system is a lot less than the cost of a customer facing issues anywhere from deliverability problems to customer service problems (because your email has gone to your customers spam folder). The relationships that you share with your clients should not be short ones but should endure for a very long time - invest in your business email system to show that you will be around for a long time.
To find out more and to get started with professional email addresses, let's chat, we're all ears.
