#email #emailaddress #professionalemail
Let’s compare a free email service to more professional email accounts; I sincerely believe that the advantages of a paid, or more professional, email address is well worth the money.
Running a web design business for over twenty years has revealed some things to me. Advancement in technology and the security required to protect it has made things that were once simple and easy quite troublesome for most users.
In this article
Is Free Email Great?
Branded / Vanity Email Address
Why Your Emails Fail to be Delivered
Email Support
Email Services
Is Free email great?
It’s true- when I had an idea for a new business, my first step was to jump on the computer and sign up for a free email address. There’s nothing wrong with that, right? Right!
When your business is starting out, a free email can be a great starting point. It doesn’t cost you anything, and if you decide to abandon the endeavor, you’re not losing anything.
In the early days of your business, there are so many things to sign up for: social media platforms, website services, advertisements, services, and much more. A free email address sounds like the perfect way to keep everything organized, all in one place.
It’s so much faster! You go to your favorite email provider, click sign up, put in some basic information, and presto; you have a new free email address.
So if a free email address is so great then why would anybody do anything more?
Well, that is a rhetorical question indeed. Free email accounts come with limited or unchangeable storage, no support, and poor integration, meaning how well it connects to other web services and devices.
First, let’s clarify what a professional, branded, matching, or vanity email address is. This refers to the second part of your email address behind the @ symbol. For example, email@mbtpro.com The second part, mbtpro.com, is a professional, branded, email address. This is also known as a vanity URL. Because of this vanity URL, you can safely assume that there should be a website located at mbtpro.com, and that you can reach someone at email@mbtpro.com
Disclaimer: For the sake of this blog post, the email address above is fake. You can visit mbtpro.com to schedule an appointment.
Now that we have a good understanding of what matching, professional, branded email addresses are, we can discuss the branding aspect and work our way into the technical hurdles.
Branded / Vanity Email Address
Every email that you send related to your new business is an opportunity to spread your brand. It’s difficult to measure the value of your brand. However, if people know your email address, and that email address matches your website, then they also know your website address.
The more people that know your email and website address, the more valuable your business becomes. People learn how to communicate with you, where your website is to locate services, and simply remember who you are.
Branding is a broad term, but it can have some definitive value aspects, like your domain name and email address. Value is great, but with an ever-growing Internet and even greater security challenges, it may not be the most important reason to get a professional email address. Sending and receiving emails can become the lifeblood of your business.
The hidden technical part of why your emails fail to be delivered!
Two-step authentication for login has become the norm. Verifying one web system with another is often overlooked, but can be critical for ensuring email delivery. We like to use a service called Sendgrid to ensure email delivery. Once a website has been verified with the domain, we can trace the email to your inbox. This way, we know if it has been delivered or if it got caught in a spam filter along the way.
You may spend money on a web design, or may simply do it yourself. However, that doesn’t guarantee that leads will end up in your inbox. There are numerous reasons why you might not be getting new leads. In this case, let’s pretend that you get two leads per week. That would equal 1/4 of your business for the month.
Could you do without 1/4 of your leads every other month?
Is there a shipping company that you trust above all others? If your business depended on getting a package to a customer, what company would you use to ship your products?
With a matching, professional, branded email address, you can verify an email delivery system with your domain to increase email delivery reliability.
The reason you would want to ensure your email deliverability is to make sure that you don’t miss a lead. Just like two-step authentication, your website form can safely and securely deliver those new leads to your inbox.
To clarify, when you are using a free email address, you are at the mercy of the provider. You cannot verify your email address with your website. Only by using a matching, branded, professional email address can you verify that email address with your website server. Once the website is verified with your email provider, then you have insured reliable email delivery of your website leads.
Do you really want to take the chance of losing a quarter of your business each month?
Email Support
Sometimes, the simplest things like forgetting your password and not knowing how to reset it can be the worst feeling. With paid, branded email service, you also gain access to email support. Additionally, if you need another email box or are interested in Office products, email support can handle it for you. That’s not something you get with free service.
Email Services
In addition to the standard email delivery, some professional email services come with built-in spam filtering. However, if that doesn’t seem to do the trick, there is tougher security and spam filtering that can be applied to really crack down on those unwanted emails.
We use Proofpoint to dial in those email accounts. Lastly, with a paid email service, you can change the size of your email account, meaning the storage space that you need.
Better Email Delivery
We understand that getting emails from your website form is important.
Our new solution is faster and more reliable because it instantaneously puts the emails in your inbox, and also sends and receives emails from your service provider. If you don’t add this technology to your website, you may not be receiving email notifications from your forms on the website.
This technology could increase your annual income by 10%. As an example, if your business is making $100,000 a year, then 10% would be $10,000 more.
We are charging one hour to add this technology to your website. Visit our website to book an appointment, and choose option number four website changes.
Office Products
Any business needs some basic tools to work with. Whether is a spreadsheet or text editor, your office products can be bundled with your email service. See a full list of Office products.
The solution is a branded email account.
Have you avoided using website forms, ultimately causing you to miss out on qualifying your customers just because you can’t get the emails from your website into your inbox? Do you continue to answer the phone because you don’t have a website form that delivers your emails?
Buy a professional, branded, matching email address for your website.
Feature image by Torsten Dettlaff: https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-and-gray-digital-device-193003/
Business owner and entrepreneur, David Grubb started Shepherds Loft in 2000 with a couple of friends. Now, after over 20 years, he has enjoyed helping hundreds of business owners with their business.