How Your Free Email Account Might Be Limiting Your Business
How important is your email address when communicating with potential clients?
If you’re just starting to build your business, you may be working with a free email account, such as Gmail or Yahoo. While these email clients are great for personal use, they tend to fall flat when used to run a business. Most professionals use email addresses tied to their business’s domain (such as “mybusiness.com”) so that they can take advantage of improved services and options that come with a subscription like Office 365.
Although these personalized email addresses aren’t free like Gmail or Yahoo, they are often critical for running your business.
- Branding and Professionalism.
Think about it: if you were considering purchasing a new car from someone, would you take them more seriously if they emailed you from joehotrod123@gmail.com or joe@hotrodcars.com? The second address,
right?Having a business email address tied to your business’s custom domain name has the added bonus of advertising your business every time you send an email. In this case, we would know that Joe’s website is hotrodcars.com, and we could go take a look at Joe’s website to see what cars he’s listing, read his “About” page to get a better idea of his business, and even find reviews from other customers.
With Joe’s hotrod123 Gmail account, we wouldn’t know much about Joe’s business beyond what he sent us in his email.Branded email addresses also allow you to keep your established branding when you expand and hire new employees. Let’s say Joe hired a new customer service rep named Kacey. With his personalized domain and email server, Joe can set up a new account for kacey@hotrodcars.com , instead of having Kacey use the free email account she created when she was thirteen – lov3bug86@yahoo.com. Now, Joe and Kacey have professional, branded email addresses that link back to a shared server.
- Access and Control.When you have admin privileges for an email server, you can add and delete accounts, create aliases, change security settings, and keep track of sensitive information all at once.You can also create email aliases (or additional inboxes) like support@mybusiness.com, accounting@mybusiness.com, and info@mybusiness.com . Most email services allow you to create these separate addresses as personal inboxes or aliases – aliases are great for small businesses because someone can email support@mybusiness.com and the email still goes directly to you. That way, you have the added benefit of professionalism, but you’re still receiving all of your emails in one central inbox.
- Security.A lot of sensitive information is stored in emails, from conversations with potential customers to signed contract attachments, invoices, and payment information. Free email platforms like Google and Yahoo offer basic encryption services so that your information is password protected, but your data is vulnerable to security breaches or password hacks.If you have multiple employees, their business emails are part of your system – if an employee leaves your team, you can still access customer information, reference old conversations, and keep track of sensitive information. If the employee was using a free email account, you’re at the mercy of a changed password or deleted account, and can only access what that employee decides to give you.
Ultimately, branded email addresses offer more than a huge boost to professionalism. If you’re still using a free email platform for your business, it’s time to switch to a personalized domain name for your business. At Grand Technology Solutions, we offer small business start-up packages that will transform the way you do business. If you’re ready to upgrade to a personal domain and email service for your company, we’re here to help. Give us a call at 904-606-6011 or email at info@helpgts.com to get started.
Grand Technology Solutions
We’re Here to Listen. We’re Ready to Help.
(904) 606-6011
info@grandtechconnect.com
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