The number 1 threat to your credibility
Email Address
Why YOUR Email Address is SO important
This is my number 1 issue that I find frustrating, mainly because it is really simple to sort out, and in most cases FREE if you fix it yourself.
To explain the issue, imagine you are looking for a product or service and you find what a website that offers what you need, and you now want to contact the company to move things forward.
Then you find it… the email address….
Examples of personal email addresses can be:
someone@gmail.com
someone@btinternet.com
someone@yahoo.com
someone@hotmail.com
someone@outlook.com
someone@aol.com
there are many more, but you get the idea.
Does this sound like YOU?
First Impressions LAST
If you’re trying to build a professional brand for your business, first impressions are important.
Email is one of the most common forms of communication with your potential clients. A professional email address creates a sense of trust, especially if it is from a credible website.
This will boost your company’s potential to attract new customers.
Trust
What do you think the result of receiving an email from someone@yahoo.com instead of help@onlineright.co.uk.
Chances are it will remain unopened or even worse, completly ignored.
Your professional email address can be an easy recognition of your company. Customers will also start to remember the name of your business which builds brand awareness and trust.
If you own a domain and web hosting, you should have the ability to create professional email addresses for yourself.
Using an email address from your website also reinforces the impression that you are serious about your business. Owning a domain name and a website gives your business a more professional image. Your customers today expect that you will have a website where they can find out more about you, and an email address that they can use to communicate with you.
Perhaps more importantly, a professional email address will help foster a sense of trust in you and your business.
Maintaining a professional image
In business, maintaining a professional image is important for keeping your customers’ trust and appearing credible online.
When potential or existing customers contact you with questions, or if you reach out to them or to other businesses, using an address like help@onlineright.co.uk definitely looks more professional than someone@hotmail.com.
Routing your email through your business’s domain name shows that your business is well-established and genuine, and is likely to make customers feel more comfortable dealing with you.
Clear link to your website
This also contributes heavily to reassuring them that you are a legitimate and established business, and engenders trust.
It’s a great marketing asset too – any email you send, or any time you leave your contact details with someone, you’re also giving them an easy link to your website.
Reduce the risk of being marked as spam
Today, anyone can sign up for a free email address quickly and easily, and they are frequently used by spammers, and as a result are often viewed with suspicion – this is why having a professional email address connected to your own domain is such a trust marker.
Some spam and malware filters will automatically disable, or reroute to Junk Mail folders, emails from providers like Hotmail, for example.
A professional email address reduces the risk of your business emails bouncing or being sent straight to the trash can.
This small thing will be the single best thing you can do to add credibility to your business and can only takes a few minutes.
You can get help from just about anywhere to get this done, and best of all, in most cases its absolutely FREE to do yourself.
Maintain a professional image
Clear link to your website
Promotes Trust
Reduce risk of being marked as SPAM
Most cases its FREE to setup
Create a domain email address example
For this example, I will talk about the account used for this domain (onlineright.co.uk) and the email address (help@onlineright.co.uk).
Login to your hosting provider account. In this example, I log in to my 1&1 account.
Locate the section E-Mail (this will differ from host to host, but should be obvious).
In my 1&1 account, I have a large yellow button
CREATE NEW EMAIL ADDRESSES,
so I click on that button.
I now have a number of options, but choose the option that allows you to setup an email address and storage area for your emails.
In my case, for my particular contract, it is called 1&1 Mail Basic. I then click on the CREATE button.
It now asks me to fill out specific email address information such as the email address itself, and in this example, it will be help @ onlineright.co.uk.
The other fields are, firstname, lastname and password. Make sure you choose a STRONG password
Other options I can choose for my account are SPAM protection and VIRUS protection.
This will not be an option with all providers or all accounts, but these provide automatic protection to anyone that sends emails to you, so I am going to enable these options.
Then I click the SAVE button.
You will then have to look at all the places you have your email address displayed and update it to your new domain email address. This will instantly provide credibility to your business and show that you are professional.
If you have purchase a domain account only, then you will need additional help.
Create a domain email address example
For this example, I will talk about the account used for this domain (onlineright.co.uk) and the email address (help@onlineright.co.uk).
Login to your hosting provider account. In this example, I log in to my 1&1 account.
Locate the section E-Mail (this will differ from host to host, but should be obvious).
In my 1&1 account, I have a large yellow button
CREATE NEW EMAIL ADDRESSES,
so I click on that button.
I now have a number of options, but choose the option that allows you to setup an email address and storage area for your emails.
In my case, for my particular contract, it is called 1&1 Mail Basic. I then click on the CREATE button.
It now asks me to fill out specific email address information such as the email address itself, and in this example, it will be help @ onlineright.co.uk.
The other fields are, firstname, lastname and password. Make sure you choose a STRONG password
Other options I can choose for my account are SPAM protection and VIRUS protection.
This will not be an option with all providers or all accounts, but these provide automatic protection to anyone that sends emails to you, so I am going to enable these options.
Then I click the SAVE button.
You will then have to look at all the places you have your email address displayed and update it to your new domain email address. This will instantly provide credibility to your business and show that you are professional.
If you have purchase a domain account only, then you will need additional help.
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