I am amazed how many financial advisers still have email addresses like johnsmith1979@hotmail.com for their business.
I realise it does not impact on an adviser’s ability to provide good advice, but it just looks so unprofessional!
Come on, we are trying to portray ourselves as serious professionals, not backyard operators. Having an email address that ends with hotmail or bigpond or whatever just screams amateurism, as any idiot can anonymously register with these email services.
Having a more professional email address such as john@smithfinancial.com.au not only makes you and your business look more professional, but it also reinforces your brand every time you send an email. It also adds trust to your messages, as people can see that it has come from a real business rather than a scammer in Nigeria.
Even if you’re not interested in setting up a website (although you definitely should be!) I still recommend registering your domain name so you can have a professionally branded email address for yourself and your staff.
And here’s another very good reason: What if Hotmail or Yahoo or whoever suddenly go broke or decide to change their name? I know it’s very unlikely, but if that happens you will have to change all of your business cards and stationary, not to mention updating all your various contacts and logins that use your email address.
When you have an email address which uses your own domain name (i.e. smithfinancial.com.au) you are in control at all times. If your email provider goes bust it doesn’t matter, as you own your name and can move it wherever you want.
The best part? Setting up professional email is very easy and seriously cheap.
It’s so true. I get plenty of business cards handed to me with Gmail and Yahoo email addresses. It’s so unprofessional, but makes the best of us look better.
My business is mobile so I need to check my email from anywhere. Gmail works best for that so that’s what I use.
It still looks business-like as it has my business name and everyone know gmail is a proper email provider, i.e. not annonymous.
G’day Steve,
Just thought I’d reply here and let you know that’s exactly what I’ve set up a company to help people do – namely help people get a professional email address with the power of Google using their GoogleApps offering. We’re called “Your Cloud Specialist” and you can visit our site here: http://yourcloudspecialist.com.
Only ongoing cost is your domain name (which is next to nothing). Just in case you decide you want a hand setting it up… 🙂
Regards,
John
Hi Steve, thanks for your comment.
Being able to use your email while on the run is definitely an important consideration, and the good news is that you can setup your email with your own business domain whilst still being able to check it from anywhere in the world.
If you like the way Gmail looks and feels, you can even setup your business domain email through their system which gives you the professional look but still with all the gmail features.
Who is going to spend time or money on having their own email server in the office? Gmail is easy to setup and use, and I disagree that it does not look professional.
We’re not all giant insurance companies with our own internal IT departments. Some of us actually have businesses to run and clients to service.