Image Matters: Why a business email address is important

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Manish Dalal | 21 Jan, 2011
E-mail has undoubtedly emerged as one of the most popular communication mediums online and it has revolutionized how businesses interact and transact with each other.

According to a market research firm, person to person email daily volume surged to 210 billion messages in 2008. There are several reasons why e-mail today has become an integral part of our lives. It is fast and delivered instantly. No other method of communication can provide this speed of service. Besides, it is inexpensive compared to telephone calls, faxes or even couriers. Email is also easy to filter. The subject line on an email makes it easy to prioritize messages. The reader can identify critical correspondence quickly and deal with it immediately, unlike regular mail which needs to be opened and reviewed first.

Having a business email account not only provides a business an easy and inexpensive mode to manage and conduct business but it is also critical to project and promote a professional image of the business itself.

Creating the right impression for success
A business e-mail address plays an important role in how individuals or organizations actively market their products, services or skills. It helps to communicate useful information about the user of the address in the case of the company name being used in the email is the same as the domain name.

Several free email providers can provide you an email address but what counts is the image that your company email address projects to the people you interact with. For example: support@yourcompany name.com

On its face, a business email address may seem like a small aspect of your company’s online presence but your email address can say a lot about who you are and what you do. A generic email address may give your customers the impression that the business is small or that you are not keen about investing in your business’ image.

Having a business email address, unlike a generic email id, is also an inexpensive form of advertising for your business. Every time you or anyone in your company sends out an e-mail, it serves as a reminder of who you are and what your business is called.

Once you get a business email id, it is also important to drive the discipline of having all the employees of the organization use the business email id. If your employees are not using your business domain name in their email address, you could have your business correspondence end up in other people's personal email accounts where it might not be regularly checked.

After getting a business email address, you should consider providing your business and contact details in all your emails. The easiest way to do this is to set up a standard email signature which is automatically added to the bottom of all your outgoing emails.

How to get a business email address
When you register your business domain name with an authorized registrar or reseller, you may have the option of procuring a business email package with it for a nominal fee. You can select a business email package that best meets your requirements. The size of your business will help determine the mailbox size i.e number of emails that you will probably need to store.

Clearly, prior to doing any business on the Internet, which includes transacting using your business email id, you will need to select and register a domain name. The domain name represents your company’s brand and identity on the Internet. Selecting the right domain name increases your visibility on the net. A .com domain name offers you one of the best options because it helps lend instant visibility and credibility for your brand online, both in India and globally. A .com is appropriate for businesses of all sizes and it is one of the most widely used domain name extensions around the world2.

Once you have a domain name registered under your business name you can find a hosting provider who will host your domain name and/or offer you a business email service that uses your domain name.

Once you have a .com domain name as your company name, you can have an email address that reflects that name. For example, if you register the domain www.lookatthisgreatdomain.com, you can use a business email address that reads yourname@lookatthisgreatdomain.com. When you do this, you help instantly project a more professional image of yourself in front of those who you are going to transact business with over email

Image Matters
In a world where impression counts, it is vital that you make the right one with a business email address. A business email address introduces your business to potential customers and helps your customers to remember you each time they receive an email from you. It promotes your business in a sustained and cost-effective way unlike any other online marketing tool.

Welcome to the Internet world!

* Manish Dalal is Vice President, APAC, VeriSign.
* The views expressed by the author in this feature are entirely his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of SME Times.