Domains and e-mail form the basis of any website, you need to get these right!
Why choosing an appropriate domain name and e-mail address is critical to the success of your business on the Internet?
If you want to be taken seriously in the world of business then your choice of e-mail address and in particular the domain name you choose is every bit as important as your choice of stationary, letterheads, business cards, brochures, Van & Truck signage or even the address of your office.
They form the basis of your Internet identity and are part of your branding. A carefully chosen domain name can make the world of difference to the way in which your prospects (and the search engines) view your website and your business in general.
What does your e-mail address and domain name tell people about your business?
When setting up an e-mail address you generally have 2 options: (we will use a company called "Kitchen Designs" as an example)
sales@kitchendesigns.co.uk
kitchendesigns@aol.com (or any other Internet service provider)
If you were looking for a professional company to supply you with quality goods or services - which one of the above would you feel more comfortable dealing with?
The advantages of using your own domain name
The first example not only contains your website address but has a branding or service associated with it. You could also have info@kitchendesigns.co.uk, john@kitchendesigns.co.uk, support@kitchendesigns.co.uk, and allocate each address to a separate employee. The “sales@” piece projects a feeling of professionalism to the recipient and confirms that they are dealing with the right department or person.
In the second example your website address is not apparent (however your Internet service providers website is!)
Additionally, if you need more than one e-mail address for your whole company would you set up:
kitchendesigns-info@aol.com
kitchendesigns-sales@aol.com
kitchendesigns-fredsmith@aol.com
It all starts to get very complicated if you need to do this
Who's business are you promoting?
Many people set up a business email address through their Internet Service Provider rather than their domain name.- do you have any of the following types of email address for your business?
- yourbusiness@sky.com
- yourbusiness@talktalk.net
- yourbusiness@aol.com
- yourbusiness@live.co.uk
- yourbusiness@tiscali.com
- yourbusiness@ntlworld.com
- yourbusiness@btconnect.com
- yourbusiness@googlemail.com
- yourbusiness@hotmail.co.uk
- yourbusiness@yahoo.com
If so then why are you promoting the service provider when you should be promoting your business? - Why hide your branding and your company website’s address?
The Major pitfalls of using an e-mail address from your Internet service provider (or free e-mail provider)
If you use a webmail service to check your e-mail this will mean that all your undeleted emails are held on their server, if you switch suppliers (e.g. from sky to virgin) what happens to all your old emails?
They will be lost when your account is closed!
Additionally - If you Internet Service provider (or free e-mail provider i.e. Hotmail, yahoo, aol etc) is taken over by another company it is feasible that their name may change (i.e. newaol.com)
All your stationery, Business cards etc will have an obsolete e-mail address on it!
Setting up a domain name for your business is not expensive - not using an effective email identity could prove costly to your business!
WebHunter provide a full range of domain, e-mail and website services - click here to find out how we can help take your business to a higher level
