To be or not to be? Does my small business need a professional email address?

 

With all the advancements in website technology (we’re looking at you AI), we thought it would be nice to take a step back and talk about other ways to help your small business thrive.  It’s as simple as the email address you use for your business.  A great deal of small Florida business owners use a free Gmail, yahoo, or outlook address, but if you take a step back for a moment, think about how that reflects your brand. 

Firstly, what is a professional email address?  A professional email address is one that incorporates your domain name, like support@”yourbrandnamehere”.com.  It immediately tells your customer who you are.  It says, “I’m the company you want to work with”!  Now, what’s an email address that you shouldn’t use?

As an example, if potential or current customers are communicating with you via email, and they need to send information to (as an example) jane.doe@gmail.com, that isn’t horrible, but it isn’t exactly professional.  It could be worse if you’re using your 2008 address, guitarhero66@whatever.com.  The point is, customers want to know your business is reputable and can be trusted.  Think about it like this:  If you wanted to hire an electrician, would you choose the business whose email address was burnitdown@aol.com or support@citrusbestelectric.com?  

Let’s talk about the benefits of using your domain name in your business email.

1.      Branding.  Your brand is your creation.  It’s your baby.  You’ve spent countless hours building and offering your customers this amazing idea.  Giving your email address to a customer is one of the first ways to help build that brand.  It’s on your website, your business cards, and often all your social media profiles.

2.      Trust.  Let’s face it.  Today, email boxes are full of spam, scam, and phish!  Having a professional email address lets customers know your business email is legit and safe.  Building trust with your customers is key to continuing to grow your business.

3.      Cost.  It’s cheap!  Many professional business email plans start out between $6 - 8.00 per month.  That’s a small price to pay for the benefits that come with it.

4.      Accessibility.  We are a society of mobile device using creatures now.  Our phones are always in our hands...and so is your email.  With programs like Google Business Suite, communicating to your customers is as easy as opening an app, or linking your business email to your device’s native email app.

You might be asking yourself, hey, Armstrong Web Dynamics, will a professional email address help my SEO?  The technical answer is no.  According to Google’s John Mueller, using a different domain name for your website and your company email has no impact on your SEO.  However, we believe that professional email helps your SEO in a roundabout way.  The more reputable your brand becomes, the more likely customers are going to use and refer your website, and that translates to more clicks, conversions, and boosted SEO.  It all starts with something as simple as a professional email address.

Lastly, there’s the question of which email prefix to use.  The email prefix is the name identifier that comes before the @ sign.  The most commonly used business prefixes are help, support, contact, info, admin, and sales, but don’t be afraid to get creative.  You can make it whatever you wish.  It’s your professional email after all. 

If you have questions about, or need help purchasing a professional email address for your small Florida business, reach out to Armstrong Web Dynamics!  It's help@armstrongwebdynamics.com in case you were wondering.