On a previous blog platform, I have written an article about this topic. Today, I want to ask you the same question again – do you think your Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo mail, and whatever other platforms there are that has free email accounts available make your business look professional? If your answer is yes, well, maybe read further. You might just get some useful information throughout this article.
For me (personally) it is scary to see how many businesses still make use of Gmail addresses in a professional world. Don’t get me wrong. I also have a Gmail/Google account which I use for personal use, but also to manage my business’s Google analytics and G-Suite accounts. BUT, for my business, I make use of multiple accounts with my domain name. For example: info@techstudio.co.za, marketing@techstudio.co.za, etc. If your email is something like mybusiness619_1@gmail.com, then maybe you might lose the professionalism your business has to offer (especially if you have a small business).
Just to be clear (again), I am not against mail services (like Gmail), but for a business, it kind of loses the professionalism involved. You might ask “so what must I do then?”. The answer is simple – get your own personalized domain name. Nowadays, it is so easy to get a domain and hosting included. We at TechStudio provide these services as well. Now you can send an email from sales@yourbusiness.co.za and people will take you more seriously. Especially when you work with larger enterprises.
But you might say you are happy with your Gmail or Hotmail account. True. No doubt. But there is another “but”, and a big “but” (we cannot lie). Some companies make use of Exchange services to handle their emails etc. Most of the times, some emails sent from Gmail accounts gets rejected or thrown into Junk/Spam folders, which might be costly for you (especially when you sent important stuff). This is just one case of how costly free email services can actually be. Also, from my perspective, there are so many free accounts which can be used for spam, malicious intentions, as well as the fact that you can be basically any age to get a free mail account, therefore larger enterprises might reject your free email services’ emails.
If you want to know how to go about getting your own domain name, there are also some things you need to take into consideration. Get your domain from a reputable provider (yes, TechStudio is a great option). Some domain providers are extremely cheap, but remember, cheap isn’t always good. Some providers give you unlimited email accounts, some only a few, but then they won’t tell you how secure their servers are, or guaranteed uptime, etc. You might also have very limited access to your own hosting control panels, and some resellers might even charge you more than what you bargained for.
There are a lot of “red tape” when it comes to domain registrations, as resellers don’t always know that your domain should be registered in your name (POPI requirements) and also lack the knowledge and experience regarding hosting services and email client configurations.
I can go on and on about this (and you might even find articles claiming the exact opposite). We all know that we are living in the “digital age” and therefore your online presence should be as good as your offline presence (your office, dress code, printed marketing, etc.). With your domain hosting, you can have a nice website as well (oh yes, we provide those services as well) and that website can be linked to your own personalized email accounts. You see. Everything comes together at the end of the day.
Being a small and local business, the money spent (and it is really not a lot) to have a domain and website, can increase your sales drastically. If people can’t find you on the internet, you might as well be non-existing in the digital age (unless your word-of-mouth advertising is of such that you do extremely good). Small businesses are always crushed by larger corporations, so therefore you need to push extra hard and have an online presence for everyone to see. I speak out of experience. Without naming other businesses, by only having a proper website, personalized email accounts and aliases as well as 3rd-party integrations, our listings are at times way above the bigger enterprises and competitors.
I hope you find this (hopefully not confusing) article of some value and leave you with something to consider for the good of your own business.
You can contact us, or even have a chat with us on our website at any time for more information.
Thank you for reading this to the end. 🙂
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