What does your business email address say about your business?

 

Lately I have noticed several small businesses that use @aol, @yahoo, @embarq, @gmail, @cfl.rr, or some other generic address  as their primary email address even though they have a website for their business. Personally when I see this I often wonder if the business is legitimate. I bet other people wonder too.  If you have a website you have the ability to have email using @yoursitename. This not only identifies you as a real business, it will drive traffic to your site, which will most likely increase your sales.

 

What if you have a domain name and an email address, yourname@yoursitename, but you do not have your website up and running? This is almost as bad.  If potential customers see this email address and want to know more about you they will go to that site expecting to learn about you and your products or services.  When they discover there is no site they may dismiss you in their mind as someone to do business with. You may be thinking they will shoot you an email or pick up the phone, but most likely they won't.

 

Having a business email address such as @yahoo or an email address associated with a non-existent website hurts your credibility. I encourage you to take the next step and get an email address that is @yoursitename and to build a website if you have the domain name and are already using it for your email.