Let’s say you’re a real estate agent in between house showings, so you decide to fetch coffee from the town cafe. While online for your latte, you happen to meet a couple of young parents looking for a bigger home in the neighborhood. You share with them all your credentials, recent sales, knowledge of the local real estate landscape and more. You happily hand over your business card to keep in touch.
But when your potential clients see that your plain Gmail or Yahoo email address doesn’t match your real estate company name and website, all your hard work in securing your next clients might land with a thud.
Whether you’re a global corporation or a local business owner, having a customized email address, one that matches your company, is essential these days. It’s also easier than ever to set up a branded email. Here we walk through why a branded email address is an absolute must and how to secure the right business email.
1. A branded email exudes professionalism.
First and foremost, a customized email for your business shows you are committed to building a company for the long-term, and are committed to succeeding.
Always think about it from your customer’s perspective: Receiving business correspondence from a free Gmail, Yahoo, or AOL email account indicates sloppiness or indifference–and at worst, a lack of professionalism.
2. A branded email encourages trust.
Therefore it encourages people to open your emails.
According to Marketing Charts, more than 70% of consumers trust a company-branded email address over a free one. Whether it is a direct email to a customer, or a promotional email blast for your entire contact list, you want to make sure your emails don’t end up in the Spam or Trash.
3. A branded email promotes your company.
Every email you send from a custom email address is an opportunity to promote your brand, instead of promoting third party tech giants like Google and Yahoo. It also reinforces your brand through memory. The more they see and interact with your company name, the more likely they will recall and remember your brand when they need your product or service.
4. A branded email makes it easier for your customers to find you.
Think of the relative ease of searching for an easily identifiable email address or group of addresses. A branded address saves your client (and your employees) time by helping them locate contacts in overloaded inboxes.
Not only is a branded email easier to find in your inbox, it also lets your customer know where to find you on the larger Web.
5. A branded email is more important than ever in a highly digital and mobile world.
According to VPNMentor, “the fastest growing segment of the internet is the number of mobile social media users.” With everyone searching for companies and purchasing on their mobile devices, it’s more important to make the search experience seamless for customers on-the-go.
Also, with so many businesses going fully remote or hybrid, companies are using emails more than ever to communicate internally and externally. A branded, unified email address serves as an important communication pillsar for your business.
6. It’s easier than ever to obtain a branded email.
You can go to Google Workspace to create a customized email for free, or check with your domain provider as they often offer email hosting packages for their customers at a relatively inexpensive fee. It’s best to create one for yourself as well as individual employees, especially those who interact with clients. To ensure consistency, create a group mailing list or general contact address like sales@companyname.biz or info@companyname.biz to make it easier than ever for an interested party to reach out to you. Also, if there is a turnover within your company, a general email address will benefit you over the years, especially if you have loyal, long-term customers.